Colonialism takes place when power and control are established over people in certain territories. Unfortunately, it is deeply rooted in racism because the people and resources in an area are essentially exploited. A Massachusetts man explains colonialism isn’t just relevant in real life, but also in the games we play and love. When you know this, you kind of start to look at games, books, and other types of nerd culture with an entirely different lens.
On TikTok, Daniel starts by drawing attention to board games, video games, and books we love are just “colonialism simulators.” He said now he has “a lot of trouble unseeing how much of nerd culture in America” is just “larping colonialism.” Daniel even noticed ‘romantasy’ books tend to revolve around “women fetishizing colonialism in a lot of weird ways.” He said a lot of these novels feature some type of male warlord who comes into a village and conquers it. The warlord then typically keeps one of the women in the town. The fantasy part ends up being “he’s toxic to everybody except for me” and the character falls in love.
Daniel said he loves The Elder Scrolls but it’s even present in one of his favorite game series. He said it does revolve around military exploits of a large empire, though. And when you have that, he says that “99% of the time it’s gonna be colonialism.” The Stormcloaks, for example, were pushing for the province of Skyrim to be independent.
“Morrowind specifically comments on/critiques colonialism and that’s one reason it’s so good,” one person added. Not to mention the depth of politics going on between the Great Houses. “Even Minecraft implicitly encourages simulating colonialism due to how the villagers work.”
Another commenter added, “They die incredibly easy, their own golems kill them if zombified, their trades are capped, so you need them by the dozen, and their prices are dynamic, but only go up, and never give you long lasting price reductions, unless you zombify and cure them.”
The wrong lesson to take away from Daniel’s words is that you shouldn’t stop loving your favorite games and books. Just look at it as another lens to examine media. You might find nuggets of negative messaging woven into a character’s actions and words!
