The sun has stopped moving, and the various races of the world - varl, centaurs dubbed “horseborn,” humans, and stone-armored creatures named dredge - all scramble to escape an oncoming darkness, reigniting old wars and testing long-standing alliances.
#The banner saga platforms series
When the first game in the series begins, the world itself seems to be in its death throes. Their deaths instill the games with a deep and pervasive melancholy. In this world, however, the gods are dead - and not in a metaphoric sense: some characters remember the gods physically dying. The game series is set in a bleak world inspired by Norse mythology, replete with horned giants called varl and a host of archetypal gods. Video games might seem an odd place to turn for such representations, but The Banner Saga accomplishes what other mediums have yet to. More than just a comment on climate change, however, The Banner Saga series might be one of the best representations of a world that feels closer than ever to annihilation. Lead developer Alex Thomas told a reporter that the parallels with climate change were “quite a coincidence,” but one that “I don’t think we shied away from.” In that same interview, lead designer Matt Rhodes said “we’ve definitely been aware ” when developing The Banner Saga 3, which was released across most platforms in July. With the third installment, the team at Stoic wraps up a game in which the world faces a catastrophic, environmental collapse. The long answer? Developers and designers have relied on subtlety and allegory, as is the case in Stoic Studio’s The Banner Saga. How have game developers reacted? The short answer, according to a Mic article, is secrecy. Gamergaters have strong ties to the alt-right. Masking their trolling (and death threats) as an attempt to maintain “ethics in gaming journalism,” Gamergaters are more akin to “soldiers in a culture war that extends far offline.” If this sounds familiar, it should. Proponents of #Gamergate oppose what they see as the injection of politics into gaming, particularly demands for equitable representation for women, POC, and the LGBTQ community. THIS AUGUST WAS the fourth anniversary of Gamergate, a movement borne of a poisonous mixture of zealous fandom, toxic masculinity, and reactionary politics that roiled the gaming world.
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