Someone can correct me if I’m misremembering, but they never accused the developers of “trying to support colonialism.”
A game (or any media) can unintentionally comment or take a stance on a concept. That doesn’t protect it from criticism, and frequently the people at Waypoint give creators the benefit of the doubt when it comes to those instances. Don’t recall them accusing Capcom of propagandizing colonialism, but feel free to quote where they said that.
Aside from that, if your argument’s based on “it’s a take that no one else had,” then consider that so few gaming outlets ever even acknowledge themes/philosophies in games, let alone stuff like treatment of trans characters in game stories (or hold a fundraiser to support trans causes in real life).
“No one else had this take,” is more an indictment on the rest of games media, and even the Cliff Notes version of their critique of MHW’s colonial elements was better founded than your argument here.
The best takes!
For some reason even bringing up an issue IS THE ISSUE for a lot of fans of media. Critical theory itself is the enemy. Same thing with this Monster Hunter World article. Who knows how many have even read it. It's weirdly accepted to be against even looking at media in that way. This doesn't just apply to video games, obv
“I feel bad for killing dragons in a video game, I feel like Trump Jr”.
Their mistake is to believe that any critical take is inherently good and worthwhile. I suppose PETA complaining about animal abuse in Super Mario was actually a really important take and it's a true shame it was ridiculed
I think most critical takes are indeed worthwhile on some level. Though they're not necessarily good (to comment on that PETA example you used as an analogy). I never really read Waypoint though I'm familiar with some of its writers by way of other podcasts (Zacny in particular, Riendeau too. Walker I only heard a handful of times) but honestly I don't mind the idea of a videogame site tackling stuff from the angle of social or political debates and in fact it's probably welcomed that the press strive to be something a bit more than just "product reviews" and ascended hobbyists.
Yeah all the excerpts Benji posted over the years are funny / bad and typical examples of critical overreach, but you know... They're trying (or they tried). And while I agree with the Obliteradoxx that none of it is
revolutionary or that it's political extent might be a tad shallow, I do think it was worthwhile despite its flaws though I'm not invested in it (except for Rob Zacny, dude is a good strategy game reviewer, 3MA is a great podcast which actually had some good insights including "political" ones about wargames -more often than not I'll side with Bruce Geryk and his no nonsense approach to the matter-, I wouldn't want him to be thrown back in the hell of freelancing).
