Curate of Curiosities

As I've said before, every last one of Molleindustria's games share the same basic message, with two variants, despite how different they are: either "society is broken, go fix it" or "society is broken, wanna break it even more?"

While most of the games were enjoyable, I can't help but feel that, with Molleindustria's most recent offerings, that they have sold out, and not just because they charged money for Democratic Socialism Simulator.

One of the things that most stood out about Oiligarchy, in my view, was how it portrays both Democrats and Republicans as being equally influenced by Big Oil, so it doesn't actually matter which party wins the elections as long as you can feed both of them enough money. In Democratic Socialism Simulator, released more than a decade afterwards, you are explicitly in the role of a Democrat administration.

Just a couple years prior, they released Dogness, which can best be described as a dog eugenics simulator. On it's own, it's nothing too concerning, and fits the brand of satire that they're known for, but then you get to the game's description:

These dogs have fallen for a breedist dogmagogue. Will they manage become the purest and most homogeneous dog park by selectively breed themselves and control immigration? Help them achieve their glorious destiny!

What's more, one of the screenshots on the game's page shows a dog on a podium saying "We must mak dis park graet again" (sic). Doesn't it remind you of a certain contentious presidential administration? While something like this is far from out of character for the ardently leftist devs, but it still sort of rubs me the wrong way.

Maybe this speaks to a greater problem within our society, something that I personally am far from equipped to discuss. Or maybe it's due to how drastically the political landscape has changed in the past decade.

That aside, it's not like Molleindustria has lost its touch. Democratic Socialism Simulator, for all its ham-fisted symbolism, had an interesting idea behind it, and Green New Deal Simulator had absorbing gameplay. Normally, in situations like this, I would be looking forward for what the future has in store for the developers, but since their output is joined at the hip to the political environment, this also means seeing what the future has in store for politics, something I'm not keen on looking forward to.

One last thing: although the devs are based in Italy, I can only think of one game that specifically deals with Italian politics: Operation Pedopriest, released in 2007 in response to the Italian media refusing to broadcast a documentary about sex abuse among the clergy. Naturally, it sparked a controversy, in which Molleindustria was (unsuccessfully) sued. You don't think that's the reason that they now seem laser focused on American politics in recent years?