Social commentary in games

Games and virtual worlds are praised for their ability to bring people together in new and unique ways. However a situation that is becoming more relevant in the examination of games is their ability to tell narratives and how these narratives reflect modern society. While social commentary is not new to games with some of the earliest games every made being joke filled text adventures that often made fun of the games very own technical limitations. Newer games have been able to create more complex statements about life and the world around as they have been also capable of creating a world we can reckognize as being similar  to our own.

Sometimes this statement on society happens purely by accident and becomes almost a post-modern art piece.  One of the first virtual worlds Ultima was met with high expectations and a large fan-base. It allowed every player to build homes, raise families and even rule entire kingdoms with other players supporting them. This all sounded wonderful, however overtime players began filling the game world with their homes leaving no place left to adventure, turning the entire game world into an endless city sprawl with small patches of parkland that very powerful players controlled and used as a farm for money and reasources. Many people found the situation Ultima became to immensely ironic of real life in that even during play all anyone wants to do is fight over real-estate.


 Ultima-Information about the online game.