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[email protected] There’s no such thing as an apolitical game he Division 2 takes place in Washington unabashedly celebrate empire in all its forms, like ‘Tar of D.C. in the aftermath of a smallpox All Weathers, or the Game of British Colonies’ (c.1857). pandemic, and has you liberating the city They’re statements, whether the designer perceived T from a corrupt government. The game’s them as such or not. If I came across a source stating tone-deaf marketing used real-world political tensions, that one of the publishers of these games denied its such as sending out a joke email referencing the US game was a comment on empire, then my reaction HOLLY NIELSEN government shutdown and a spoof letter declaring wouldn’t be ‘Well, I guess I can’t analyse it because it’s Mexico ‘approved funding for building a wall along the Holly Nielsen is a not a statement after all’. If anything, it would pique videogame journalist United States border’. and historian who my interest, because the idea that structured games Despite all this, creative director Terry Spier recently researches the are purely escapist fun is a fairly modern concept.