As the power of broadband has expanded, so too has the accessibility and popularity of online gaming. In congruence to this change, many online games have become more dynamic, boosting in-game economies and creating extensive amounts of lore. One such game is Destiny, a first-person, online shooter game.

Destiny’s premise, roughly, is that your character is special and, alone, you must save the human race from several different factions of aliens that have taken over our solar system.

Snatching back our galaxy from a bunch of aliens may seem like a very capitalist cause (more like manifest Destiny); however, while playing the game, I began to observe many principles of Marxist social theory.

First is the oppression of the proletariat. Your character belongs to the largest social class known as the Guardians. As a guardian, your job is to kill oodles of aliens, no questions asked, and gather resources for members of the higher social classes, namely merchants and nobility. On top of that, your character is paid meager amounts of a worthless currency, known as glimmer, by the upper classes for completing these tasks. I say worthless because it can be used only to upgrade your character so that he can become more effective at his limited job. Furthermore, your character’s individualism is stripped away because all the other millions of players that can be interacted with online in the game are also the “chosen one.”

Unlike many other Marxist criticisms, I could not find any aspect of redemption for your character in the game. He never develops a class consciousness, learning of his oppression. The character shows no act of defiance or sacrifice by the character in order to protest his fate. The story mode for the game ends like it begins, with your character following orders from the upper classes, completely detached from the product of his labor and never understanding why you must keep killing the aliens with little reason other than to potentially “upgrade” yourself.