The Doctor, The Disease, and The Division

April 30, 2020 6:13 AM

Outside the hospital, cut off from friends and family like everyone else in New York, I’ve spent much of my social isolation on my PC. I keep logging into Ubisoft’s accidentally, unfortunately prescient 2019 online action game The Division 2. Here I am, a physician in a time of pestilence, spending my few free hours playing a game set in a fictional America torn apart by plague.

posted by postcommunism (17 comments total)

I doubt I'm the first person to get to this idea, but the most seductive thing about video games might be that being able to re-fight lost battles until you win them is the purest form of escapism there is. That came to me when I learned that the core audience of Farm Simulator is actual farmers, and I was dwelling on that idea of victory-methadone as I read this.
posted by mhoye at 6:42 AM on April 30, 2020 [16 favorites]

It's like that thing that some people do, when they're sad, and so they watch sad things. Or when you're feeling angry, so you listen to some angry songs. You want to feel like you're not alone. You also want to feel empowered and a game like The Division 2 does that in spades.

The story of The Division and The Division 2 is kind of a convoluted mess, but it can be reduced to: a pandemic, failure of the federal government, good guys, bad guys, gangs, all battling it out on an overgrown dystopic Washington D.C.

The most recent expansion to The Division 2 goes back to New York City, which is where the first game took place. Also, for anyone wondering, you can solo play. It's only slightly more difficult than playing with a team of randoms or your friends online, but it can be done. You just have to be smart about how you play and the types of upgrades you invest in. Health drone is your friend.

I'm re-installing The Division 2 because of this post. Thanks for sharing with all of us.
posted by Fizz at 6:43 AM on April 30, 2020 [2 favorites]

That came to me when I learned that the core audience of Farm Simulator is actual farmers, and I was dwelling on that idea of victory-methadone as I read this.

I mean, video games offer something to people that often real life does not: Autonomy, mastery, and purpose.

You have the autonomous choice to do things your own way, on your own time, with your own skillset. As you play the game, you gain mastery over its mechanics. A good game generally has a well defined purpose (Minecraft notwithstanding) leaving the player to feel driven by said purpose (save the princess, etc.).

Those three things: autonomy, mastery, and purpose, have a big impact on how humans view themselves and their place in the world, in other words, their general mental health. The idea that people wouldn't be drawn to games that allow them to do what the real world disallows them, which is often all three, is a little absurd.

In the real world I might be a depressed mess because I have no autonomy in my work, I'm constantly watched by my bosses, never left to my own devices to manage my work flow on my own, it's always managed for me. My work is simple and doesn't require a lot of skill to do, so "mastering" the skill isn't something that sparks joy. Finally, there is no upward movement at my job, my purpose is to be the same cog in the wheel of the machinery forever, and I have no connection to this purpose, I do not feel driven by it, because it's simple and boring and doesn't give me any of those things.

Yeah, no shit that people would be drawn to games that give them what real life refuses to for the sake of their mental health. (100% serious. I think people being denied these things in real life is absolutely a source of mental illness and general mental unwellness.)
posted by deadaluspark at 7:19 AM on April 30, 2020 [15 favorites]

I've played both of the Division games and the expansion for way too many hours and it's almost hilarious how much more responsive the federal government is in the game, compared to the one we actually have. Field hospitals all over the place, planned evacuation routes, whole buildings and blocks being quarantined, and that's with an engineered smallpox virus with a +80% fatality rate. I follow one of the developers on twitter and from his posts, it's obvious he's shocked at how weak the U.S. response has been to COVID, compared to how the developers imagined the feds would have responded to a pandemic in their game.
posted by longdaysjourney at 7:51 AM on April 30, 2020 [3 favorites]

compared to how the developers imagined the feds would have responded to a pandemic in their game.

Decades of "American Exceptionalism" propaganda Hollywood movies will do that to you.
posted by deadaluspark at 8:01 AM on April 30, 2020 [2 favorites]

I'm glad he's going to be a practicing nephrologist, but maybe this guy should consider writing as a profession? What a great piece.

I've been a little wary of playing Division 2 since March. Too close to the lives we are leading right now...
posted by kuanes at 8:30 AM on April 30, 2020 [1 favorite]

It's funny to think of The Division as an empowering franchise, when really all that ever seems to happen in the games is some new set of bad guys pops up, you kill them, then some more bad guys pop up, you kill those too, and somehow even MORE bad guys show up. So I guess it is empowering in that any problem you're asked to deal with, you can shoot; but the problems facing society are so vast that you're never asked to help tackle any of them. Despite having extraordinary and extralegal powers, the best the Division organization can apparently hope for is "stem the endless tide of baddies taking over America, maybe."

The core structure of the game never allows for any sort of conclusion to the ongoing emergency, and thus SHD and the Division can never effect lasting change. People will always be living in makeshift settlements and safe houses, the concepts of coordinated relief efforts completely forgotten. Long-term economic revitalization? A seeming impossibility. The ruined, bombed-out, perpetually-stuck-in-pre-Christmas world of the Division is permanent. This feels like the opposite of empowering, even though I agree that the ability to gun down bad guys en masse, free of ethical or moral trappings, is totally 100% a power fantasy.
posted by chrominance at 8:44 AM on April 30, 2020 [1 favorite]

Shooting your way out of situations is empowering (also problematic), but for me personally, I just enjoy exploring that space. It's a weird kind of enjoyment because obviously a broken society where people are suffering is not something I want to ever see grow and become the norm (*looks nervously around the world*). But, the space of Washington D.C. is so fully realized that it's just fun to walk around and look at buildings and to just exist.

I've been enjoying a lot of open-world games lately for this very reason, it gives me pleasure to walk around and be out in the open in a way that I'm not currently able to experience.
posted by Fizz at 9:05 AM on April 30, 2020 [5 favorites]

Decades of "American Exceptionalism" propaganda Hollywood movies will do that to you.

They actually based the story on a pandemic response exercise the U.S. held a few years back. The government didn't respond adequately in that exercise either, although they were dealing with a much more dangerous and fatal virus than COVID. But at least there was some attempt at organizing response efforts with the states.

The improvements you make to the settlements in the storyline/leveling parts of D1 and D2 are why those segments are the most engaging and fun part of these games for me. You actually feel like your efforts in game are improving people's lives (particularly in DC). The end game is where the stagnation happens, unfortunately, as you stop being able to improve the settlements at a certain point and the focus shifts to grinding the most powerful gear so you can speed run missions. If Massive, the developers, could find a way of combining a perpetual improvement system for the settlements (maybe something resembling Fallout 4's settlement system where you can always keep building new items) with the current gameplay, that would be something that could really keep people who get bored by the loot chase interested in sticking around after the storyline ends.

the ability to gun down bad guys en masse, free of ethical or moral trappings, is totally 100% a power fantasy.

There's actually a strong critique of this power fantasy made by a central in-game character in the latest expansion to D2, so the developers are definitely aware of how problematic it is.
posted by longdaysjourney at 9:15 AM on April 30, 2020

There's actually a strong critique of this power fantasy made by a central in-game character in the latest expansion to D2, so the developers are definitely aware of how problematic it is.

Hmm. It's hard to take the notion "they understand how problematic it is" when they went ahead and made and released the game anyway. Making a story-character that takes the issue seriously in an expansion you have to pay for.

Yup, sure nice that they take a minute in the non-main campaign, in an expansion most people won't buy or play, to actually write a story to take this issue seriously. /s

Give me a break. When you don't stop and say "Maybe we shouldn't be profiting off of this" when you know the power fantasy you're selling is problematic, you know exactly what the fuck you're doing. (To be fair of course, its Ubisoft, and the developers probably have very little say in what happens, compared to what Ubi corporate wants.)

Don't we have a whole Previously on Metafilter on how awful this games non-politics are?

EDIT: Found it
posted by deadaluspark at 9:28 AM on April 30, 2020

EDIT: We do. Here it is. Oops. And double linked.

It is a super problematic game. I love the worlds of these games and hate the politics. Often how it goes in all these big budget games.

Sighs.
posted by Fizz at 9:33 AM on April 30, 2020 [1 favorite]

There's actually a strong critique of this power fantasy made by a central in-game character in the latest expansion to D2, so the developers are definitely aware of how problematic it is.

I've found it interesting that there's a certain amount of discomfort or tension with the concept of the Division (and to a lesser extent the nature of the game itself) expressed through both the characters themselves and through the audio collectibles you find throughout both games, and though I wouldn't go nearly as far as to say the game is subversive in any way, it is nevertheless more nuance than I expected from a franchise where the opening cutscene to one of its games is basically an NRA ad.

The big theme of the Warlords of New York expansion definitely feels like a critique of the concept, but I guess talking about would involve pretty significant spoilers.

I've been enjoying a lot of open-world games lately for this very reason, it gives me pleasure to walk around and be out in the open in a way that I'm not currently able to experience.

I know people are kind of down on The Division 2's depiction of D.C. versus the first game's snowy rendition of midtown Manhattan, but I personally love bombed-out D.C. I'm a bit sad that the Newseum is gone, partially because now I'll never get to see if the game's Viewpoint Museum is an accurate reproduction of it or not. Aside from that, there are spaces in the moments between taking out trash mobs or attacking control points where the game seems fully aware of the bizarre serenity it creates. One of the songs that's not on the soundtrack feels like a reprise of Angel Olsen's "Those Were the Days" and every time it comes on I go out of my way to avoid enemies to keep the ambience going.
posted by chrominance at 9:41 AM on April 30, 2020 [1 favorite]

Oh, and yes, agreed, this is a super problematic game that I think works best if you turn your brain off and ignore any and all connections to the real world, despite this being a game that is explicitly set in the real world and obviously wants you to think about those trappings (but in a completely apolitical way please and thank you). I wouldn't blame anyone for deciding they didn't want to touch this or any Tom Clancy-branded game with a fifty-foot pole.
posted by chrominance at 9:46 AM on April 30, 2020 [2 favorites]

To be clear, while the power fantasy is problematic, it's totally possible to enjoy it and de-stress from the situations in your life that are overwhelming you through autonomy, mastery, and purpose in a game. And that doesn't mean that you're ingesting and digesting the power dynamic. Plenty of people are aware of how absurd it is, just like how people were aware 80's action flicks were absurd, which lead to a period of parodies of 80's action flicks. Just like how the 80's action flicks were popular and profitable upon release, we look back on them with a fondness for their excessive absurdities, because we never really took them seriously to begin with. So while it can be argued that more thought should be put into these things, it can also be argued that a lot of people don't actually pull their politics from the games they play or the books they read or the shows they watch. (Certainly of course, many, many absolutely do!)

Coming back around to the OP, while I might personally be frustrated with the politics of this game, the game is being played by someone who is literally facing crisis daily, who is literally facing death, disease, tragedy, heartbreak, and will probably leave this situation with PTSD. I am glad, if nothing else, this game helps give this person peace of mind and a way to escape and connect, even if I don't love the themes of the game. This person is doing things I could never do and I think that they're getting things mentally out of gaming that they can't get in real life right now, and that's helping hold their mental health together.

I think that's important right now, no matter the game being played.
posted by deadaluspark at 9:47 AM on April 30, 2020 [4 favorites]

Very well said deadaluspark/chrominance.

We're all trying to cope in different ways. And even though we all recognize the game is problematic, we also recognize that there's a kind of joy to turning off the brain and living in this digital space. It's a game that deserves critique, but it's also a game that you can just be inside of and play around with.

We can have both.
posted by Fizz at 9:54 AM on April 30, 2020 [3 favorites]

I kinda have a hard time playing it these days simply because it represents a semi-competent government that is actually trying to fix things.

None of the (failed) relief efforts shown in the game could exist in the US these days, simply because the GOP exists in our world.
posted by aramaic at 10:39 AM on April 30, 2020 [4 favorites]

I played a fair bit of the first Division game and yeah, the politics of that game are super problematic when mapped onto the real world. This is pure anecdata, but a group of players I found myself playing with turned out to all be very republican, and shortly after about the 3rd convo where they both complained about Trump being a moron (this was pre-2016) and then said they'd vote for him anyway I stopped playing the game altogether. I wonder what those people think these days.
posted by axiom at 2:15 PM on April 30, 2020 [2 favorites]