I’m not necessarily talking about moment-to-moment gameplay or mechanics (though I could see some interesting points being made about, for example, RTS gameplay or RPG character building influence how you approached “strategy” in your own life).
What I’m trying to get at are the games you felt really had something to say.
For example, while I’m by no means the biggest fan (only ever played 2 and V), playing MGS V recently (and catching up on the background a bit) has created this sense in me, and I wondered where else one might have experienced that from vidya
It's a nuance for a character who was depicted as simple. There was never a moment in the game or in the story that explained why Arthur was fond of blacks in a time where everyone else was not. Nor did they ever explain why Arthur was fond of the Indians when everyone else was not. He just was. "Muh freedom" excuse doesn't hold water, because there are plenty of people in the real world who may share similar values to people they don't like, but don't magically side with those people over those similar values. I'm sure there are plenty of people who could find things in common with the sand pests invading the U.K., at the moment, but it won't mean that they're going to defend them or befriend them.
Just like in real life, there are plenty of criminals in prison who do not automatically see eye-to-eye with other races in the prison system just because they're in prison together and don't want to be there. The opposite is true, and that was the jarring part about Arthur in the game. There was nothing grounded about his depiction, especially during that era.
No it still comes out of left field. I played through and watched many/most(?) of the gang's little interactions, but nothing really made sense as to why she went from catatonic to "just as good a shot as the boys". She's stand-offish and curt with Arthur any time you tried talking or interacting with her before her side-story pops up, but the transition from slowly doing things around the camp to then arguing with the butcher that she wasn't going to do food prep because she did "equal" work to her husband at their homestead was outright eye-roll worthy. There was no equality back then because men had to build and hunt, and ranch cattle, and women had to tend to things they could physically do.
Her entire archetype and portrayal was all wrong. Even as she came out of her shell, taking charge of the gang still made no sense, and you can basically count on a hand how many notable female outlaws were around back then. Her being the one to mastermind and lead the breakout of Marston also made no sense; I could understand Dutch's part of the story, but having Sadie come up with that made no sense. They could have told her story about coming into her own and separating from the gang without the feminist angling, even though -- to your point -- she wasn't doing kung-fu on the bad guys like most female characters these days.
Oh yeah definitely, it goes in hard once you get to the two rival families. Every other reference out of the main character's mouths is "rednecks", "inbreds", "hillbillies", and all other kind of invectives. It's also apparent when you get to Saint Denis, and the guy in the mansion and others are constantly putting down whites (to be fair they also disparage Indians, but when done so Arthur kicks the one guy out of the party for being a bigot, which makes no sense during that time period).
Also the entire side/main story of Arthur helping the Indians is about how terrible the "White man" is. They try to balance it by saying the chief's son is consumed with rage and that rage is bad, but never once do they disparage the other races as much as they talk down on the whites. The only "racist" in the gang is Micah, and he's obviously treated as the main villain.
The problem, however, is that today's generation has been so coached to overlook certain tropes and sympathise with other tropes, that people are now programmed to defend Left-wing subversion because it's all this generation knows. When pointed out, people will continue to defend it because they've been taught to by every single major media outlet and social media platform.