I don’t believe it, or rather, I think Warren Spector and Ricardo Bare really didn’t intend for it to be political, as both of them were far more focused on the game parts of Deus Ex; the mechanics, the balancing, the level design, etc, and are seemingly oblivious to how the writers took those puzzle pieces and made it political. Though the extent that Warren and Ricardo are completely unaware of that fact seems unlikely, and instead they almost appear to be whitewashing what the writers intended?
It’s very odd that this article didn’t interview the lead writer of Deus Ex, Sheldon Pacotti, for an article about the politics of the game. Sheldon absolutely intended for it to be political, and in this interview here even goes into how capital is used to exploit and suppress the working class, which is what leads to radical terrorist groups working against the rich capital class. He mentions in the first part of that interview series how the designers would create the levels without any concept for a story (citing the blown up statue of liberty as an example, which the level designer just thought would be an arresting sight to the player, but didn’t consider how it would tie into a wider narrative).
I still just can’t get over how much those two downplay the incredible achievement that is Deus Ex’s leftist political stances and narrative, which to this day set it apart from any other title.
Coelacanth@aggregatet.org 3 weeks ago
Yeah, I believe Warren Spector has said before that the premise of Deus Ex was literally “what it every conspiracy theory was true”, and not really anything deeper than that.