https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2025/12/after-40-years-of-adventure-games-ron-gilbert-pivots-to-outrunning-death/

Those who do pay attention to the story in Death by Scrolling will come across what Gilbert said he hoped was a less-than-subtle critique of the capitalist system. That critique is embedded in the gameplay systems, which require you to collect more and more gold—and not just two pennies on your eyes—to pay a newly profit-focused River Styx ferryman that has been acquired by Purgatory Inc.

“It’s purgatory taken over by investment bankers,” Gilbert said of the conceit. “I think a lot of it is looking at the world today and realizing capitalism has just taken over, and it really is the thing that’s causing the most pain for people. I just wanted to really kind of drive that point in the game, in a kind of humorous, sarcastic way, that this capitalism is not good.”

While Gilbert said he’s always harbored these kinds of anti-capitalist feelings “at some level,” he said that “certainly recent events and recent things have gotten me more and more jumping on the ‘Eat the Rich’ bandwagon.” Though he didn’t detail which “recent events” drove that realization, he did say that “billionaires and all this stuff… I think are just causing more harm than good.”