So I gotta talk about AOC

How curiously unexpected

Let me begin this post by stressing, as though it needs to even be said at all, that this is no way a political blog. Not that I have any issues with such, and in fact I consider a great many number of artistic ventures to be often indistinguishable from political commentary. I believe there are very few avenues in life through which one can travel wherein politics has no bearing. That being said, I am not dedicated to the topic nor do I claim to be particularly learned in such. Whatsmore, and again this really shouldn't need saying, I am not an American Citizen, and thus even with some politics being discussed here nothing directly effects me. Thus when I say I want to write a blog about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez make no mistake that I do in a manner that ties back directly into gaming. If for some reason you didn't already know that, there it is, you have your explanation. No without further ado why don't I just get into why this name belongs with this hobby at all.

So perhaps you might have heard, but there's an election going on in America. (I know right!) And in times like these it's hardly diverging from the norm for political figures and politics-adjacent figures to inspire action out of the invariably inactive public who, sometimes in a majority, usually don't even feel like bothering. This is usually the age of publicity gimmicks the likes of which to make one's skin crawl with pure cringe, usually due to the advanced average age of every politician and their attempts to 'relate' to the younger demographics that they know nothing about. One saving grace of this has been that such politicians have, for a while now, not even know that Video Games existed due to them having existed long before their conception, so our industry had been mercifully spared this cringe-fest, but that grace period was brutally cut short 4 years ago.

Maybe you heard the stories, maybe not. But on that faithful day in late 2016, when Hillary Clinton took the campaign podium and exclaimed "I don't know who made Pokemon Go-" we all knew we were in for a rough time. The proceeding sentence that went something along the lines of "I want to figure how we get them to make 'Pokemon-go-to-the-polls'" was enough to make any warm blooded human weep in despair about how there is no goodness in this world, and how Hell is empty and all the devils are here. It was cringe, plain and simple, deep-cringe. Since then I couldn't have been the only person who adamantly wanted politicians to stay as far away from the things I love as possible and thankfully over this side of the pond it seems like that won't be an issue. (Our politicians can't even figure out social media, let alone how to plug in a games console.) But this year that bridge has been ever so slightly nugged at through the efforts of one AOC. 

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is unique among politicians in that she has secured an incredibly coveted political position, being a U.S. Representative, at a reasonable age to still be somewhat in touch with the people she's representing. (Isn't that illegal?) As such, she's actually someone with a little bit of knowledge in the world of gaming! Well I say a little bit- apparently she's Silver in 'League of Legends' so maybe that's more than a little. (Still can't wrap my head around the appeal of that game) I'd say this made her uniquely positioned as the only politician who wouldn't be immediately laughed into oblivion when she, about a week back, tweeted out that she wanted to play Among Us with some Twitch Streamers in order to encourage people to vote. I mean, I know that it already happened and is real but even now it boggles the mind with how surreal that is. I can only imagine what it must have been like for the tiny team who own the game, they probably thought they were done with surprises after the game magically blew up out of nowhere. Nope.

And that is how AOC ended up playing Among Us with Pokimane and a crew that Poki put together including HasanAbi, Toast and- Jacksepticeye? Isn't he British? (I don't mean to judge, I just didn't realise this was going to be intercontinental) Even a week later I still have to say, the whole thing was surreal and weird to a degree where I'm not sure how I feel about it. I mean, on one hand I still don't want politics anywhere near gaming and am willing to die on that hill, whilst on the other it was quite cool for the sort of positive mainstream attention that the medium was receiving. And more than that, positive mainstream attention that an indie game was getting! How wild is that? And to have a US politician indulge in a game that's all about social engineering and deceit- well, I mean that's just perfect paring right there!

As for the Stream itself, I didn't watch it because I was too weirded out, but I did scope out some of the highlights. Thus I can ascertain that nothing too wild and crazy happened, but some memorable highlights certainly came out of it. (Particularly when Pokimane decided to take it upon herself to shepherd AOC only to be immediately murdered by her, typical 'Among Us' shenanigans.) But what is likely going to be remembered more than the Stream itself is the effect it had with, I'm told, up to 400,000 concurrent viewers watching the match at somepoints. That's almost half a million people who turned out, whether out of curiosity or earnest excitement, to watch a single 'Among Us' match-up. That's the sort of turn-out that's going to raise any and all eyebrows, and I wonder how that is going to echo around the rest of politics.

Already I'm seeing articles be written up declaring this stream 'the future of politics' (Whatever that means) whilst warning that anyone else looking to follow her footsteps would have an uphill struggle. (I shudder to imagine such a scenario) Either way, both perspectives have agreed that this little stunt at least came across as genuine given AOC's background, but that it also may have been a little too popular for it's own good. On the positive note it does strike a cord in relatability that's sure to stay with a lot of people, whilst on the exact opposite note this sort of attention is just screaming to be taken advantage of. Just wait until some ageing politician jumps aboard the Fall Guys train and embarrasses everyone; we'll be ruing the day that AOC opened the floodgates!

In conclusion I want to make a distinction upon what I started this blog with. Whilst I think it's entirely okay and natural for shades of political discourse to worm it's way into artistic fields, there's an entire world of difference between that and literally using games as a way to spread your political message. I feel that AOC's act was just earnest enough to land on the right side of this issue, but it's a supremely narrow margin of error that it's so easy to fall off the other side and come across as extremely pandering. (Don't even get me started on Biden's 'Animal Crossing' T-shirt and Signs campaign. It makes me want to die.) Gaming is, at the end of the day, a form of escapism from this chaotic hellscape we all call home, and given the choice I would prefer that escapism remain firmly untainted by the real world thank you very much. But gg to AOC, I guess, she may just be the very first (and perhaps the last) politician to actually get away with it.