As hard as we may try, it's not always easy to avoid politics in video gaming, a medium whose best quality is arguably escapism, especially in America 2017. We've had one developer encourage Trump supporters to both "f*** off" and not buy his game, and now we have Humble Bundle throwing into the fray one of its largest indie game packages in many years.
Getting to the political aspect, all of the proceeds will go to one of three charities – the ACLU (an organization publicly opposed to many of Donald Trump's policies), Doctors Without Borders and the International Rescue Committee (both largely humanitarian efforts). With this bundle, billed as the "Humble Freedom Bundle," you get to choose how much of your $30, $50, $60 or $100 contribution goes to each charity.
But, if you're like me, wanting to use video games as a way to pretend that politics don't exist, you'll be pleased to know that, supporting a charity or not, you'll be given a metric ton of indie games in exchange for your donation, including The Witness and Stardew Valley, two of the most acclaimed indie titles last year. Games such as The Stanley Parable and The Swapper are also included, with loads more. Rest assured, the image at the top of this article is but a small sampling of the total games offered.
Humble also pledged to match the donation raised up to $300,000, a number that was eclipsed in around an hour. Currently (although this number is rising faster donations from the first day of funding for Pillars of Eternity 2), Humble has raised more than $470,000 for these three charities, which, including its $300,000 match, is likely to pass $1 million before the day is out.
Which is all a long-winded way of saying, you may not like the encroachment of politics into video games in whatever form it may come, but money talks, and
