Thinking like this would drive you off many many games.

Very true, and it does. But there are fortunately still plenty to enjoy (as well as plenty of pleasures outside of games!). I mean, just chess and Geometry Wars are enough for a lifetime.

Also, it's easier for me to stomach/look past the ideological biases in stuff like FPS and action adventure games, because they tend to largely be right out in the open on the surface narrative / world-building layers. For example, if you don't like the Guardian feminism of Horizon Zero Dawn or the jingoism of CoD, you can just kinda ignore those aspects and enjoy the mechanics, art, exploration, etc - or at least I can. Vs. the bias black box of simulation games

> just chess

Ah yes a game that reinforces that lowly peons should be sacrificed in battle so that the 1% can come out on top. No possible conflicts in morality there /s

I'm no GM but I'm decent (USCF 2100+ peak) and that is a chess novice take. The game's ideological subtext is much more complex and nuanced than that

Sometimes sacrificing queen and bishops for a promoted pawn is the way to go ;)

And if I realize those opinions don't align with my own, I am now faced with the choice between failing at the game or succeeding by doing things that I think should fail.

No thanks. I'll take my strategy abstract, please

As an anarchist hippie, I still enjoy the Civ series, including decimating neighboring countries and claiming their territory as my own… after they declare war on me first, anyway. And the FPS genre has been brought up in another subthread - though to be sure I greatly prefer sci-fi or fantasy-themed ones like Halo or Quake to the more "realistic" Collar Doody games.

That would be true for so many other games. Sports games, first person shooters, etc.

No doubt...it's a big part of what makes games so fascinating and perennially relevant and fun to talk/think about

But that's why modding and breaking them is so fun.