Criticism

[Oddipus]

OWI try to give criticism on social problems. Often in a sarcastic way. Which problems have you seen dealt with in the previous games? And which ones will be in Stranger? And what about the future?

(Maybe give some kind of code by the problem:
AO: seen in Abe's Oddysee
AE: seen in Abe's Exoddus
MO: seen in Munch's Oddysee
SW: expected to be in Stranger's Wrath
F: possible future problems)

For example:
AE: Drug addiction (soulstorm brew)

[Alcar]

Abe's Oddysee obviously incorporated elements of slavery and oppression.
Abe's Exoddus, I guess, delved into torture and the exploitation of the Mudokons.
Munch's Oddysee vaguely touched on animal testing.
Stranger's Wrath has been assumed to incorporate racism, or other forms of discrimination.

There are more, but that's the basics.

Alcar...

[Xavier]

AO:
Wild Capitalism
Slavery
Animal Extinction
Polution
AE:
Drugs Addiction/Alcholism
Non respect of other people beliefs
Torture
MO:
Class Struggle
Animal testing
SW:
Water polution/monopol
Dams related problems
Discrimination/rasism

perhaps population exil

[Oddipus]

MO: smoking causes health problems (Lady Margareth wants new lungs)

SW: some more health problems, but we don't know the real problem yet

[Nate]

I always thought that the brew in AE was closer to what Nestle were doing in Africa. They used to give milk powder for free to new mothers to feed to their babies until the babies were addicted to it and the mothers' milk had dried up. They then had to buy more when they are already short on cash. Also the babies ended up weaker for not having been breast-fed.

Its a good old-fashioned crack-whore situation.

[Wil]

Nestlé still do promote baby milk products over breast feeding. They also own Oil of Olay/Ulay, which performs animal testing. I boycott any product associated with them. You could say that Baby Chow in MO is a less subtle parody of this, but getting less technologically advances races hooked on consumer products is the same general band of horror.

Munch's Oddysee deals with a whole host of pharmaceutical issues, such as nicotine addiction, food additives, sugars - I'm positive that the Vykkers' ‘product linking’ is by no means exclusive to the planet Oddworld. I think the Daily Deception also ventures into exploring propaganda-type media, and Splinterz obviously looks at deforestation; though it doesn't go so in depth as to investigate the effects of it (as the dam in Stranger's Wrath most likely will), which is interesting, as the whole original idea of having control over the environment through actions is a not-at-all-subtle issue that would have been in the game.

Munch's Oddysee also dealt with extinction/endangered species (the Gabbits) and alienation (Munch). The idea of Abe not caring about Munch and wheeling his wheelchair about would have been a good look at disabilities (and an interesting one, as it would be the protagonist doing the dirty - more blurring of the black and white lines by OWI).

The Interns in MO are clearly a parody of the druggy community. Wow, there's actually a whole load of depth to Munch's Oddysee if you just look for it.

A continuing concept of the Quintology is that Abe is by all respects a terrorist. The fact we get to sympathise with him and consider the law-abiding citizens of Mudos the baddies is sheer genius. Plus there's the whole Exxon Vs. Greenpeace.