Battle for Truth Against the Slavering Internet Hordes in Social Justice Warriors
If you have been on the internet for more than ten seconds, you have probably gotten in an argument about something. Maybe you were a stoic symbol of truth, standing up for your cause. Maybe you might have done a little mudslinging in the heat of debate. We are all the heroes of our own causes and the villains against someone else’s, though, and Nonadecimal Creative made a fun, satirical game to highlight this fact called Social Justice Warriors.
The game takes the terms Social Justice Warriors and Trolls to their logical extremes, casting them in fantasy roles in a turn-based RPG where you must lower your enemy’s sanity or reputation until they are defeated. To turn back these hordes, you can choose from multiple character classes with differing powers. The Paladin relies on tweets to battle his foes, the cleric uses his Reddit-given holy power, the mage can fire inflammatory opinion pieces, and the rogue fires insults before retreating to the shadows. With these characters, you must choose your responses to the enemy’s claims, fighting their words with your own.
The results of these classes are an interesting one when facing the trolls. Not every one of them uses personal attacks and vitriol, as there are intelligent ones who battle you using logic. Will you beat them with the mudslinging of the rogue, or stay classy and stick to your own logic? Will you give in to hateful comments just to win the battle? In this, are you not the troll? The game’s simple interface of choosing how you would like to progress with your argument asks these questions, blurring the lines between who’s right and wrong. The game wants you to reflect on what you argue about online, and whether you are defending the correct position, or just arguing for the sake of silencing someone you don’t agree with. We all believe we are right when we argue online, after all.
It’s a fun little game if you have some sense of humor about how ridiculous online arguing can get, and has some very interesting things to say about online fighting, and what happens when we view our debating opponents as enemies to a cause. It’s also really funny considering the ridiculous subject matter, so it’s quite the package for the $1 the developer is asking for. And hey, if you want a demo of the game, just go try to interact with the people in the comments of their Greenlight page while wearing a helmet or wizard hat. You will get all the practice you need to play the game right there.
