Zack “Asmongold” offered his thoughts on the contentious, upcoming Dune Awakening MMO. The title promises to be an open-world survival MMO but is planning on sidestepping religion and not making the player character the Messiah, as portrayed in the Dune novels. This has upset many fans, but Zack had a few thoughts on it where the lack of religion as a focus could make sense.
The streamer also considered that the developers were just afraid and didn’t want players to feel like the game was glorifying concepts like jihad or other types of holy wars. Questioning the purpose of the game, he said:
“What’s the point of any of this?”
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Asmongold discusses the lack of religion in upcoming Dune Awakening MMO
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Asmongold discussed the Dune Awakening controversy in his March 7, 2024 Twitch stream. On his alternate Zackrawrr account, he discussed the intentional sidestepping of religion in the upcoming survival MMO. The game received pushback from fans for this decision on social media as well.
The OTK Co-Founder also read the Dune Awakening’s X.com post, where they stated that while religion is an important facet of the game, the character is not the Messiah and will not be leading the people of Arrakis on any kind of holy war. That led to Asmongold’s response:
“So if you can’t have a jihad or a crusade, what the f**k is the point? What’s the point of any of this?"
The Twitch streamer then offered his thoughts on why the developers pulled back on religion. In addition, it appeared that he mocked current media for putting modern social norms in fantasy media:
“I think they’re afraid of connection. I think they’re afraid of covering this type of narrative. They don’t want people to feel like their game is glorifying a jihad. I don’t think they want their game as glorifying ethnic cleansing, or a crusade, or something like that."
"And because, in of course, we all know that every single piece of fantasy media must reflect the current real world social norms. You can’t have a video game where a player that does something that is actually bad.”
Ultimately, Asmongold felt the developers were too scared to make religion the focus of Dune Awakening, as it is in the various Dune novels by Frank Herbert. However, he did come up with some thoughts on how it could make perfect sense:
“If they are sidestepping religion simply because they don’t think it will make a cohesive game world, because the narrative is not centered around the individual player, but the world instead, then I think it makes sense.”
On the other hand, if the developers are avoiding religion because they’re afraid of social media pushback, Asmongold was far less forgiving when it came to Dune Awakening:
“But if they’re sidestepping it because they are afraid of pushback, or people making connections between ‘Oh, you’re going on a holy war that’s like a jihad in muslims’. If that’s the reason they’re doing it, get the f**k out of here, stop being a f**king p**y, tell the story, as it was meant to be, and if people cry about it, then let ‘em f**king cry.”
Social media reacts to Dune Awakening’s lack of religious focus
There wasn’t much sympathy for the Dune Awakening developers in Asmongold’s YouTube channel comments. Some highlighted actual book titles from the series, while others mocked people who can’t differentiate between fantasy and reality.
One reply to Asmongold's video, however, made an excellent point. Dune Awakening is a survival MMO, much like Conan Exiles. It’s not a game focused on a narrative, but building in and surviving on the world of Arrakis. Other netizens suggested that it just sounds like you aren’t playing the main character of the novels, which is fine.
Some would talk about the game simply being a Conan Exiles clone, so the point is just to be a survival MMO in a harsh desert world. In that case, the narrative isn’t the focus, it’s a survival game.
While fans will simply have to see what unfolds for Dune Awakening, it didn’t sound like the OTK co-founder had much hope.
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