That's a false argument your are making here.

First : it's a TTRPG group. You can't have TTRPG without world building, story goals, etc.
Second : Pong is not a TTRPG. AFAIK.
Third : In case you don't know, people who tend to say "no politics in my gaming" (like gamergaters) actually do a very political statement as for them "being black" or "being gay" or "being a woman" etc. is often seen as "politics in [their] gaming".

Sure, you can try to argue with the words, but it's not just words, they exists in a context and the context is that it's a fascist dog whistle.

"Politics" or "the way one sees the world"? Because I'm pretty sure there's a language disconnect regarding worldview. A dev has their game reflect their worldview, and a social curmudgeon experiences political rhetoric cognitive dissonance, illustrating the incongruency and the fact that they are, indeed, a tool. ARRGHHH MUH FREEDOMS

Ghost of Tsushima: A Samurai and several of his battle-ready female companions try to reclaim their island after Mongol invasion. I remember thinking "did they really have female warriors and lords back then who called the shots and fought alongside the men? I like the message, but a bit of realism would be nice...." And then our brave stoic rugged Samurai literally prostrates himself in front of his lord/uncle at every opportunity constantly grovelling and professing how unworthy he is and how he seeks only to serve, and then I'm thinking "oh yeah... the stoic Samurai is a trope, they were either small militias or snivelling arms of the state." So I'm okay with realism being bent if it means I'm not constantly questioning the values of my main character.

The statement was "every form of entertainment". Tbh tho yea i didnt really notice it being rpgmemes so it wasnt super relevant, that statement was surely not just meant for ttrpgs tho. I fully agree you can't have a ttrpg without political assumptions

Closest I've got, which I'm surprised nobody has mentioned, is the very concept that entertainment is a worthwhile pursuit, and that we aren't made solely to work. Pong serves no functional utility, which is a statement unto itself. That said, it feels a bit like a cop out to me, from what that quote is supposed to mean. I'd be content to rephrase it to "any sufficiently complex entertainment has politics in it". For example, I feel like this could almost certainly be said about stories in general, but I'd struggle to find the politics in many simple children's books, besides "children should be read to". Although the more I think about it, teaching all children to read _was_ once quite political.

I'm not super familiar with either the game or Japanese history, but I found this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onna-musha It seems that women were regarded more equally prior to confucianism. The page for the game says: >Jin's samurai armor and katana are not historically accurate, with his armor based on that of the Sengoku period during the 16th and 17th centuries. According to Chris Zimmerman, one of Sucker Punch's cofounders, samurai armor from the 13th century was "jarring looking" and did not align with players' expectations of what samurai armor would look like. Totally-not-samurai-looking armor: 

Pong is competitive rather than cooperative, and I find that very meaningful.

Yeah I've made peace with what I want from the game, because period-perfect accuracy would be way too jarring to stomach

I mean sometimes I just want to take a break from thinking about it and larp as "The good guys" for a while

I disagree, because typically it means someone is racist or sexist and just doesn't want to see people of color or queer characters. Such people may still be willing to engage with the political aspects of their gaming insofar as they may join initiatives like Stop Killing Games or argue that game devs should be treated better, but they're just bigoted assholes who can't handle people of color or queer characters. Also don't mistake this as a defense of them. They're deplorable. I'm just saying I don't agree with the statement as written.

What's-her-face being gay is like the least political thing about Pluribus.

You can have a story without AI slop or politics.

For some people an escape from the world is cute squirrel who can't remember where they buried all their treasures. Others will cry that the squirrel is unnecessarily political because they don't use he or she pronouns.

Yes agree, scheming and politicking can make the game mechanics really work.

Some people do make politics their personality and can find it in anything.

Honestly, with how things are right now politically - FAIR! Let me roll some silly dice as a silly little guy while I ignore the prelude to another world war.

I wasn't talking about AI slop. I was talking about mindless games that don't take any position on anything. IMHO, the best games are ones that make you feel something or question something critically. You can have games that make a political statement and are fun to play. Helldivers, GTA, BioShock, Disco Elysium, etc. If you're uncomfortable with the point that a game is making, then that's on you (and is the point of OPs comic). There are certainly plenty of games that take no political stance on anything that I'm sure you can numb your mind with. Just play something else if you are feeling too judged.

You slightly moved the goalposts there. The assertion is not "Everything is making a political *statement*" it's "Everything is political." Your ikea glass reflects your social class, the international relations between where you are and where it was made. It may have been made by an oppressed person in some third world shithole (or even sweden!) It may even *be* a political statement, like a designer somewhere made it curvy because he thinks people are more likely to buy something with a "feminine" silhouette.

RPGs, much like SF, have always been a mechanism to explore social issues in philosophy, governance, and thought. In Human society I don’t personally believe that “politics” can be avoided in any group anywhere. —of course that’s just one man’s opinion.

While I haven't read those reviews, I think the implications of Steam removing reviews would be worse, since they would effectively be manipulating the user score of a game. User reviews are just that, user reviews. The score should indicate what users think, whatever their reasons may be for thinking it, no? I don't disagree with the rest of what you said though.