There were so many ways that it could go wrong.
First of all, would it even find its audience? On the surface, The American Dream looks like just another first-person shooter. Would that be enough to kill it right there? Would the people with their fingers on the pulse of the VR gun scene also be the ones to laugh at the idea of a game where every action requires you to fire a bullet? Or would the target audience for the game’s message be too busy playing pacifistic titles like Stardew Valley or Undertale to even take notice?
Then there’s the issue of Poe’s Law: the idea that the more you commit to an accurate parody of something, the higher the chance that people will miss that you’re poking fun at something, instead taking your satire literally. Would people realize The American Dream was a joke, or would they think it was just another game where all you do is shoot?
More than all that though is the fact that in the United States, we rarely go more than a couple weeks without a mass shooting. Regardless if you think we need stronger or softer gun laws in order to fight the problem, the underlying feeling is the game. Everyone is afraid. The discourse is poisoned. Nobody trusts anybody now, and we’re all very tired.
How are you supposed to release a comedy game about American gun culture in the face of all that? Nicholas McDonnell and Winston Tang of Samurai Punk may be two of the only people in the world who can speak to that question, so we asked them.
Source: Destructoid Is there ever a good time to release a game about gun violence in the United States?