If you're expecting deep, critical analysis, look elsewhere. This is strictly a hot-take.
Is it just a cynical, corporate advertisement for a massive fast-food chain. Of course. Is it going to be an ENNIE award winning system / campaign that we should all check out. I dunno, I just skimmed it, but probably not. Is it cool. Fuck ya it is!
Are you god damn kidding me!? Am I the only one who used to build worlds out of my happy meal toys!? I dunno, there's something just kinda nostalgic and pleasant about the idea of a fast-food chain themed fantasy setting. I want to see a barbarian in a Wendy's wig fighting a horde of monstrous Grimaces. Do you remember that creepy fucker!? I want a magic french fry sword! I want a wizard to cast Deep Fry you Fucks! Fuck! yes!
The setting of Freshtopia is more original than anything D&D-proper has put out in like 20 years. This is just a dial over from Adventure Time! You even have what is essentially an Ice Kingdom! And come on, we all love evil clowns, and fantasy-Mcdonalds is the perfect evil faction! Ronald McDonald the science-fantasy Cryo-tech Jester Lich King. FUUUUCK YEEES!!!!
I'm not saying I'm likely to play this setting as-is, but then again, I don't play any settings as-is because I build worlds. But this makes me want to run with this. I'd totally be town to game in an Adventure Time-esque post-post-apocalyptic science fantasy setting with anti-corporate cyberpunk themes centered around fast food chains!! Wasn't there a Judge Dredd comic like this!?
Anyway ya, so I'm probably not going to Wendy's any time soon (although Frosty's are delicious), but even if I did, fuck it. They put out a ~100 page RPG book, and it seems like they put some genuine effort into it. It has, if nothing else, made me chuckle, and inspired me a bit. I'm not trying to shill for a major corporation here, they can rot in hell like the rest of them, but someone there is having fun, and good on those people.
I wrote this comment in the SWORDDREAM_UNOFFICIAL subreddit, but posting it here as well:
ReplyDeleteWould anyone like to talk about this? I want to avoid getting into a mean-spirited argument, let's keep it light and friendly, but if I'm being honest, it is actually making me kind of mad that people are getting all indignant about this game, and I don't totally know how to articulate why, but I feel like it's worth talking about.
I get that it's a corporate advertisement, I agree that we should not normalize corporate invasiveness in culture and that engaging with something "ironically" is still engaging with it.
But also, I just feel like the number of posts I've been seeing about how it's a bad game, or how it's a corporate advertisement are just... I dunno, missing the point? Or missing some perspective? I realize that the guy who is defending a corporate advertisement should not be calling out other people for lacking perspective. But I dunno, it's 2019, this is perhaps the most innocuous thing a corporation has done this year, and I think we can both laugh with and at them. Calling out its mechanics or advertisement slogans just feels... trite? Beating a dead horse?
As I said in the post, I think we could run with this general idea, play into happy meal nostalgia, and build an Adventure Time-esque world that explores anti-corporate cyberpunk themes with a Heavy Metal Gonzo science fantasy flavor, and it could be really cool.
And also, as someone who has made a game and has a blog, I can see why people might be annoyed that we're giving this so much attention just because of the sheer corporate might that went into bringing it to our attention, and not to the countless indie writers, designers, and artists who are more deserving of the attention for their efforts. But it is what it is, it has already happened, so we can write a bunch of hit-pieces on it that accomplish nothing except to bring it to more people's attention, or we can turn that momentum in on itself and do something fun and fucking cool with it!
I don't know where they are going with this but it *could* have been a genius idea.
ReplyDeleteIf they'd made the rules simple and light enough for young teens and drunk college kids (say 10 pages max) and toned down the propaganda... Then every month they publish a free-short module. Also each month they could give out plastic miniatures, or collectable card/character sheets, or monsters or something with whatever version of a Happy Meal they have over at Wendy's. I mean they're gonna give away junk toys in those meals anyway, might as well give them some focus.
I actually really like that idea, you're definitely correct on that, but to me, what I enjoy about this isn't really what it is per se, it's what it represents. It's more about it's absurdity and unintentional commentary and how its trappings and very existence can be leveraged by people who actually have things to say and the ability to say those things compellingly. It's more about how things like this, and the recent KFC dating sim, will be re-interpreted in the future by people trying to capture this moment. It's art imitating life imitating art hopefully imitating life again. It's what happens when we're in the cyberpunk future, and I'm excited to see what the people who live in the cyberpunk future imagine for themselves.
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