Left-Wing Games vs. Right-Wing Games

About

Left-Wing Games vs. Right-Wing Games refers to a chart posted by Twitter user @OnionSquirrel which attempts to sort video games based on the political ideology they appeal to. The chart was widely mocked online for its selections and perceived needless politicization of video games, and parodied as an exploitable in /r/gamingcirclejerk.

Origin

On June 15th, 2020, Twitter user @OnionSquirrel^[1] posted a chart that categorizes video games into "left-wing games" and "right-wing games." Her methodology for categorizing the games was based on metrics such as "the political views games may have or the creators of said games," "sexualization of characters," "whether the games have LGBT traits to them" and "the 2016 and 2020 voting preferences of their fans." She categorized games like Super Smash Brothers Ultimate, Pokémon, Animal Crossing as "left-wing" and games like Dark Souls, Doki Doki Literature Club, and Call of Duty as "right-wing games (shown below).

Spread

The tweet went largely unnoticed until it was discovered by Twitter user @smugry^[2] on October 7th, 2020 while looking at the account to see if it was bait (shown below, left). Their tweet gained 11 retweets, 45 quote tweets, and 140 likes. From there, it was retweeted by user @Drexl_Raz,^[3] who gained over 4,900 retweets, 6,000 quote tweets, and 45,000 likes, bringing the chart to a wider audience.

From there, the chart became subject of parody. For example, on October 8th, Redditor ThinkingEmojiTime posted an image macro of the chart reading "Oh my god, go outside" to /r/gamingcirclejerk,^[4] gaining over 28,000 points. Twitter user @l_unaSy ^[5] posted a parody showing Cloud and Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII representing left and right-wing games (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References