Lol this got no comments.

But oh does the game's page have some.

Not interested in that game, because I find its subject and angle a bit nauseating, BUT always always very very interested in this, precisely, at a meta level : What different players consider okay or uncomfortable to play.

I've played mafia goons and mafia empires, dictators, historical nazis (submariners and generals), pirates, slavers, fantasy genocidary species, serial killers, man-eating monsters, smersh operatives, cynical entrepreneurs, lethal viruses, as well as soldiers for dubious armies in dubious wars. Heck, I did play drug dealers and manufacturers. All of these were romanticized and glamorized to some extent. And yet... romanticizing and glamorizing an escobar-like empire is beyond my red line of enjoyability ? Well, it is. Haven't pinpointed how and why. But I notice I'm far from the only one to draw the arbitrary line there. It's... reassuring and troubling ?

Maybe because it's... too real, too related to present times, and without the excuse of self-aware parody ? Too sad ? Maybe it's the feeling that too many people find it "cool" for real in real life ? Maybe it's the game's scale that doesn't allow us to compartment causes and consequences like street thugs or lab workers would ?

Will it become "cool" in the future, like 18th century high sea piracy has become nowadays ? Will it become as abstract and distant as the Conquista ? It will always be subjective, and depend on what it represents to different people for different reasons...

But still, again, the complex cartography of games subjects and visceral, moral reactions is absolutely fascinating in itself.

What does this have going for it, that DopeWars doesn't?

- I'm certainly not interested in pushing drugs. In any game, in any way.
- I'll never play Prison Tycoon because the American prison system is bad enough in real life. Having a game modeled around it (thematically or otherwise) always struck me as utterly tasteless
- I'll never play any of the Postals because being a muderous fuckwit asshole is not my definition of fun.

Postal is beyond my red line because it disrespects kitties.

This game seems to be very much outside of my comfort zone. I don't like playing a criminal unless it's portrayed as an over-the-top parody like the Saints Row games starting with The Third (the second part is still too serious for me).