Deus Ex The philosophy of Deus Ex

[NecroLord]

One remarkable thing about Deus Ex (the original game, also Invisible War) was that it was not partisan. It was not Left, Right or Center and did not devolve into political preaching.
All these conspiracies (many of which have come to fruition today) put together into a game and made to work seamlessly and cohesively.
The ethics and morality of using augmentations to enhance the human ability. In the first game, mechanical augmentation is on the verge of becoming obsolete. It leaves physical scars and permanently damages the individual (just look at Anna Navarre and Gunther, complete nutcases) but provides enhanced physical capabilities. Nano augmentation is set to replace it, but it is extremely difficult to insert into the human body and make the body accept the nanites. Only Paul Denton and JC possess nano augmentation.
Invisible War has Biomods, a more streamlined, easier to accept version of nano augmentation.
Every time I play Deus Ex it's like seeing that humanity is innately fucked up and no amount of different systems of governments, checks and balances will make the world better.
Was Helios AI really the best choice to pick?
Distributing nanites worldwide (transforming the whole of humanity in the process) and connecting it with the Helios AI to achieve what I can only assume is a "hive mind" and achieve what JC tells you in Invisible War, a truly "instantaneous democracy" that listens to and responds to each human's demands and needs every second of the day?

You really don't see these kinds of ideas in videogames anymore. It's all so shallow and dumbed down...

Discuss.

 

[Skinwalker]

Why are you taking Invisible Whore into account?

 

[Sweeper]

I love Deus Ex as much as the next schizo, but calling it an RPG is a bit of a stretch.

 

[NecroLord]

Why are you taking Invisible Whore into account?

Because it's pretty good despite its numerous issues?
Game was set for fail due to being designed with the Xbox in mind, but I'll gladly play Invisible War over any of the shit that comes out nowadays.

 

[Skinwalker]

Because it's pretty good

Oh, I see.

OPINION = DISCARDED!

 

[HappyDaddyWow!]

This is a perfect example of looking too deep into something - the game is non-partisan because it's not looking to actually make any meaningful political statements, as confirmed by the devs. The conspiracies covered in the game just happened to be popular conspiracies that existed when the game was made and unsurprisingly a lot of those conspiracies ended up being pretty true because the US government is fucked.

 

[Falksi]

I just love how accurately it predicted some stuff, right to the point of stuff like mass manipulation via viral scares.

When people tell me shit like Ocarina of Time is the best game ever, and yet Deus Ex was 20 years ahead of it's time in some respects, I fucking laugh my bollocks off.

 

[NecroLord]

This is a perfect example of looking too deep into something

You can call it for what it is:
It's Autism.

However, I think Deus Ex warrants this kind of investigation and discussions. It is a thinking man's game.

 

[ghostdog]

It was mind-blowing that some of the most amazing stuff was hidden.

 

[Butter]

I love Deus Ex as much as the next schizo, but calling it an RPG is a bit of a stretch.

It's in my top 5 favorite RPG games.

 

[Sweeper]

I love Deus Ex as much as the next schizo, but calling it an RPG is a bit of a stretch.

It's in my top 5 favorite RPG games.

But first we must ask ourselves, what is an RPG?

 

[NecroLord]

It was mind-blowing that some of the most amazing stuff was hidden.

 

[Butter]

I love Deus Ex as much as the next schizo, but calling it an RPG is a bit of a stretch.

It's in my top 5 favorite RPG games.

But first we must ask ourselves, what is an RPG?

 

[ghostdog]

goddammit now you've made want to play DX again.

 

[rubinstein]

one of the best moments in gaming is when you are almost done with liberty island and the last thing to do is to arrest leo gold. you expect a fight with yet another thug, but he surrenders immediately, as nsf already succeeded in their goals that night. but if you dare to keep talking to him, you get in return lines such as:
In 1945 corporations paid 50 percent of federal taxes. Now they pay about 5 percent.
Nineteen of the last twenty-three U.S. presidents have been members of the Trilateral Commission. The Trilateral Commission is financed by the Rockefellers and the Rotschilds.
Ever wonder why big car companies pay two percent tax while the guys on the assembly line pay forty?

the game has just planted the first seed of doubt in the players heart. and this is the moment the game truly begins, because deus ex is much more than just using gep gun to score silent takedowns. later on you will have a chance to listen to dialogues that are even better. just like the one with the french lady talking about "scheming to make europe into one big country", while irl we hear more and more about federalization of EU or """"""necessary reworks"""""" of EU members veto right. morpheus, chad, and many others, they all have something meanigful to say about modern world.

ross dungeon on deus ex is legendary, what an amazing watch. by far my favorite gaming video.

 

[Lyric Suite]

This is a perfect example of looking too deep into something - the game is non-partisan because it's not looking to actually make any meaningful political statements, as confirmed by the devs. The conspiracies covered in the game just happened to be popular conspiracies that existed when the game was made and unsurprisingly a lot of those conspiracies ended up being pretty true because the US government is fucked.

This is how it should be. Games should be escapism. Any politics or philosophy in them should be nothing more than world building.

 

[HappyDaddyWow!]

This is a perfect example of looking too deep into something

You can call it for what it is:
It's Autism.

However, I think Deus Ex warrants this kind of investigation and discussions. It is a thinking man's game.

Its definitely funny when you think that the games story and world were designed to be a fictitious setting where all of those "whacky conspiracies" ended up being true, but in real life a lot of those "silly" government conspiracies of the 90s ended up being more or less accurate.

Obviously there's outliers, I don't give much credence to unmarked black helicopters or the government gene engineering cryptids, but you get what I mean.

 

[JarlFrank]

the game is non-partisan because it's not looking to actually make any meaningful political statements, as confirmed by the devs.

Yes, which is why it's so great: it manages to raise meaningful questions without trying to force an answer.
You get a whole lot of puzzle pieces and can put them together until you get your own conclusions, which is a vastly superior way of meaningful storytelling than trying to provide the player with all the answers.

All good science fiction is like that.

 

[Hagashager]

I quite like Deus Ex, but I never really got on board with the idea that it was this powerhouse of thought.

It is very clear, and outright stated by Spector, that Deus Ex, first and foremost, is a Spy-Thriller in the vein of James Bond. Whatever narrative pathos was made for the game was done in service of the super spy power fantasy. Conspiracy theories go hand-in-hand with super spies. Some of their predictions are very on point, but having any basic grasp of history can make *you* pretty good at predicting societal trends too.

I remember in a High School (2007) assignment I predicting that in the future everyone would be self-obsessed, victimizing, attention whores and we'd be treating serious issues like mental illness as pet identifiers. I made these predictions because I read and was obsessed with Cold War era American culture and saw the same trends in 2007 that existed in McCarthy 1950s that lead to the 1960s. None of it was that deep.

Also, "bipartisan", lol, lmao even. Warren Spector's an archetypal Neoliberal, his Twitter is nuts, he's long since denounced Deus Ex (HIS game) as an alt-right trap and would not have made it if he'd known goons like the Codex would be making threads like these.

 

[Ash]

This is a perfect example of looking too deep into something - the game is non-partisan because it's not looking to actually make any meaningful political statements, as confirmed by the devs. The conspiracies covered in the game just happened to be popular conspiracies that existed when the game was made and unsurprisingly a lot of those conspiracies ended up being pretty true because the US government is fucked.

Fake news. The devs made that claim yes but it is pussyfoot nonsense to remain neutral. Many statements were made e.g regarding taxes and population control, consolidation of power in the hands of a few and abuse of said power. Pacotti was simply clued in to the world around him whereas most aren't; are sleepwalking sheep and that is partially by design. A lot of it isn't "predictions", but extrapolation based on the state the world was already in in 2000. In 2000, taxes were already absurd and not at all what they were in 1910 or whatever. In 2000, self-employment in America was already extremely low. In 2000, power was already consolidating into the hands of the few, and well the world has always been that way anyway (Kings, Emperors, Sultans and so forth). There was already a laundry list of messed up shit the US had done, from MkUltra, to Nuremberg trials, to false flag operations, agent orange, on and on and on much of it already confirmed true. And hell, simply knowing even a little bit about human history will confirm most fears. Our entire history is filled with endless heinous shit done by evil people clamoring for power an then abusing it, as well as useful idiots or evil yes men willing to do their bidding which is what even gives their power credibility in the first place. The world has always been a stupid fucking circus clown world, only now they added rainbow paint, upped the insanity level, and continually eliminate what little good we had established in society in the 20th Century.

 

[NecroLord]

This is a perfect example of looking too deep into something - the game is non-partisan because it's not looking to actually make any meaningful political statements, as confirmed by the devs. The conspiracies covered in the game just happened to be popular conspiracies that existed when the game was made and unsurprisingly a lot of those conspiracies ended up being pretty true because the US government is fucked.

Fake news. The devs made that claim yes but it is pussyfoot nonsense to remain neutral. Many statements were made e.g regarding taxes and population control, consolidation of power in the hands of a few and abuse of said power. Pacotti was simply clued in to the world around him whereas most aren't; are sleepwalking sheep. A lot of it isn't "predictions", but extrapolation based on the state the world was already in in 2000. In 2000, taxes were already absurd and not at all what they were in 1910 or whatever. In 2000, self-employment in America was already extremely low. In 2000, power was already consolidating into the hands of the few, and well the world has always been that way anyway (Kings, Emperors, Sultans and so forth). There was already a laundry list of messed up shit the US had done, from MkUltra, to Nuremberg trials, to false flag operations, agent orange, on and on and on much of it already confirmed true. And hell, simply knowing even a little bit about human history will confirm most fears. Our entire history is filled with endless heinous shit done by evil people clamoring for power an then abusing it, as well as useful idiots or evil yes men willing to do their bidding which is what even gives their power credibility in the first place. The world has always been a stupid fucking circus clown world, only now they added rainbow paint, upped the insanity level, and continually eliminate what little good we had established in society in the 20th Century.

As you play through the game, things get more and more fucked up, as you can read through the newspapers.
First it was NYC under martial law, and by the time you reach the Ocean Lab, all the major world capitals are under Majestic-12 enforced martial law.
Anyway, you have the choice of returning the world to its previous status quo of Illuminati elites running the world, a complete shutdown of electronic communications (Tracer's ending, pretty much the ending from Escape from L.A.) or merge with the Helios AI and let the AI make government decisions...

Oh, and everyone knows that Warren Spector is a neo shitlib.

 

[Zarniwoop]

I love Deus Ex as much as the next schizo, but calling it an RPG is a bit of a stretch.

It's 10 times the RPG that some of the Codex's (well, Shitfinitron's) favorite RPG's are - System Shock 2 and Star Control 2

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Star Control 2

Um. Star Control 2 was pretty amazing, especially for it's time. Too bad the fuckers that made it never made an Amiga version, even though they had to beg an Amiga newsgroup for help with the music on the game. It's kind of hard to fault Infinitron for liking it more than Deus Ex. Pity about Star Control III.

 

[Infinitron]

Never said I liked Star Control 2 more than Deus Ex. I don't think I do.

Star Control 2 is just a nostalgic title for me because I played it when I was very young. I'd already finished high school when I played Deus Ex.

 

[Zarniwoop]

Star Control 2

Um. Star Control 2 was pretty amazing, especially for it's time. Too bad the fuckers that made it never made an Amiga version, even though they had to beg an Amiga newsgroup for help with the music on the game. It's kind of hard to fault Infinitron for liking it more than Deus Ex. Pity about Star Control III.

Star Control 2 is amazing. It's one of my favourite games of all time in case that's not obvious from the avatar. But it's not a goddamn RPG.

If I say someone is a retard for including a Porsche 911 on the list of best pickup trucks, it doesn't mean the 911 is bad, it means the person is too retarded to realise it's not a pickup truck.