WayForward Distances Itself From ModRetro's Re-Release Of Sabrina: Zapped! On Game Boy Color

Never heard of this guy until now. Followed some of the links in the article for 5 mins to understand what the fuss was about. Read some of his “provocative” comments. Thought “meh”.

I just don’t care. Keep politics out of gaming.

@jamess No.

@Sketcz I mean, the obvious answer is that they don't just care about "some dude with a goatee".

Reducing an issue to its most absurd possible description isn't the same as making a valid point.

@Razieluigi

I think the point is - singling a single person out for their political views and deciding not to buy their games because of those views is an extreme position. You could apply that approach to everything you buy - somewhere up the chain in the companies you buy from there are going to be people with different political views to your own, some of which you will disagree with. Are we now at the stage where we must report on the political views of everyone in the hierarchy of games companies in each games review to ensure it’s ok to buy? To make sure our money is only going to people who share our own political views?

@Sketcz There's quite a difference between a game developer expressing an opinion, vs an arms dealer wanting to break into gaming. It's not like that Palmer himself is quiet about his views, and if he's free to express himself on controversial issues, other people are free to respond. It's a two way street.

@jamess Most of the developers of the games I play aren't funding wars overseas and engaging in mass deportations in the USA.

@PKDuckman

So you disagree with his politics and don’t want to give him your money. I get that. I don’t agree with your stance politically but I get where you’re coming from. The problem is that if factors like those are only called out selectively, and in line with a certain political viewpoint, it leads to a politically neutral subject - retro gaming - getting dragged into the political / cultural battles that are prevalent at the moment. I personally think the best approach is to keep the gaming space neutral and focused on gaming + keep the politics out. Gaming has been like that for most of its history, until fairly recently, and was a whole lot less divided as a result.

Does WayForward not have any ownership stake in the game in order to object?
The IP isn't theirs of course but what about the programming and other elements not directly the property of the IP holder?

@KingMike I assume it was done on a work-for-hire basis, and Way Forward retained zero rights for their work, as would be typical for licensed products like this. I assume the same is true for their excellent Wendy the Witch Game Boy game, which has never been re-released.

@jamess You're acting as if Palmer isn't already a controversial political figure and people aren't allowed to respond to a damn arms dealer. He isn't just some random game developer with an opinion people disagree with. If anything, he's the one who should keep his toxic brand of politics out of gaming.

And no, game developers had always dabbled in political commentary even during the early days. The Cannon Fodder series for instance is explicitly anti-war, and so is Spec Ops: The Line, and Hideo Kojima also used real historical and political events in his storytelling.

@jamess Sure. And everybody can decide where that line is. The more controversial the political stance, the more likely people are going to find themselves on the "nope" side of the line. It's not like he's being criticized for putting pineapple on pizza here. He's an ultra wealthy weapons manufacturer that has chosen to publicly taken sides in a war that has killed thousands of innocent people.

"Keep politics out of xxxx" is facile and tired (and tends to come only from those who disagree with the politics at hand, suggesting bias rather than principle). Politics isn't this nebulous thing where people are disagreeing about nonsense. Politics literally is people and their lives. It intrudes on everything. Our jobs. Our health. And, yes, our hobbies.

@Sketcz But literally nothing is stopping you from just enjoying games! You choose to be reading and responding to all this when you could just be playing them. You don't have to engage with this part of the culture at all if you don't want to.

The internet, if anything, has made it supremely easy for people to wall themselves off from news and opinions they do not want to hear. I'd argue that's been one of its most destructive features, but that's neither here nor there. You 100% have that opiton if that's what you want.

From @Sketcz

“I'd like to assure you, in good faith, that my words do not stem from bias or political disagreement. In the year 2025, I am honestly just exhausted from more than a decade of everything being politicised.”

This.

@jamess Yes, let handwave off this guy because you never heard of him? The same guy that made huge waves a decade ago, put VR on the map with Oculus Rift headset and had been all over the videogame and social media news since he sold his company to Facebook and his fallout with said company right after.

Palmer is a danger to society with his military arms company that uses AI and robotics along with his neo-conservative views throughout the years that stir many people the wrong way. But lets put our head in the sand so we can still enjoy our "safe space", to play retro games on a less superior Game Boy emulator system compared to the Analog Pocket.

@AMAGON

You misunderstand me. I’m not burying my head in the sand. I have very clearly held beliefs about politics and the world in general. But I’m not here to talk about them. I’m here to read and talk about games.

@jamess Who makes the games though? You just can't separate people that make the product and just talk about games lol. You're telling me to ignore the people that make it and talk about what, stage 5 or graphics?

@AMAGON

My first post concludes with “Keep politics out of gaming”. That’s a reasonable response to an article that veers into a political viewpoint.

And yes - I’m asking that games be judged on the actual games, not who made them. You may have an issue with who made them. That’s fine, don’t buy the game.