I'm taking a look at politics in games. Things like the Laffer Curve in Sim City (an economic theory that cutting taxes stimulates growth, which many conservatives embrace).
Has anyone come across aspects in games that strike you as being rooted in some ideology such as liberal, conservative, libertarian, Marxist, etc.?
Michael
Take a look at the Tropico series. You can steer your Banana Republic towards capitalism or communism by warming up to either the US or the USSR. Become a tin pot dictator or an industrialist by your choices in how you build your economy and treat your people.
Quote from: DicedT on January 09, 2015, 02:47:06 PM
I'm taking a look at politics in games. Things like the Laffer Curve in Sim City (an economic theory that cutting taxes stimulates growth, which many conservatives embrace).
Has anyone come across aspects in games that strike you as being rooted in some ideology such as liberal, conservative, libertarian, Marxist, etc.?
Michael
I haven't played any AssCreed games, but the sheer volume of conspiracy theory required by the games seems to represent some kind of
revitalized absurdist conspiracy (or fake?) ideology (for example the "plot" of unity seems to require finding out "what is really behind the revolution" -- which would be a version of one of the more ancient conspiracy theories -- the Masons as the cause of the revolution).
So some games seem to invent (absurd? fake?) ideologies as needed. It's not as if there were not plenty of historical ideologies that needed some assassins one way or another -- so why invent fake ideologies?
Civ IV and Civ V civics / social policies
Before Civ IV, there were forms of gov't that offered particular kinds of benefits / restrictions, but they weren't nearly as flexible as Civ IV/V
In fact, most 4x games have some sort of political dimension to them
Master of Orion III has an oppressometer. You can restrict civil liberties in order to curtail espionage at the cost of raising the chance of strikes and rebellion and reducing productivity.
Also, take a look at the Supreme Ruler series. A very heavy set of political options there if I recall.
Lots of good answers! I was actually thinking of Civ and Tropico.
There's a perception out there that the entertainment industry has a liberal bias. I'm curious whether our resident Groghead conservatives and libertarians have spotted what they consider to be liberal ideas in games.
Michael
welllll... seems like in every Civ V game I've played since the BNW expansion, every civ but mine picks either Order or Autocracy as their ideology, regardless of either the historical facts, or the current state of the game. Seems if they were a bunch of commie pinko liberals there'd be less autocracy floating around out there
I suppose Democracy 3 would be a prime example, although I've barely tried it.
Democracy 3 (and Democracy but not so much Democracy 2 which didn't use real countries) is an obvious one. A fair few debates that it is left wing biased and an fairly equal number that it is right wing biased.
I've played more Democracy then Democracy 3 and recall it really over emphasising the religious (generally fundamental Christian I think) faction in society, maybe more representative of the US but when playing as the UK government you would still get assassination attempts from the religious faction when in reality the most that would really happen would be some slightly disapproving remarks to the Daily Mail (possibly the Telegraph) couched in the politest of terms on the letters page.
P.S. Nefaro beat me to it.
Quote from: Wolfe1759 on January 09, 2015, 05:15:26 PM
Democracy 3 (and Democracy but not so much Democracy 2 which didn't use real countries) is an obvious one. A fair few debates that it is left wing biased and an fairly equal number that it is right wing biased.
I've played more Democracy then Democracy 3 and recall it really over emphasising the religious (generally fundamental Christian I think) faction in society, maybe more representative of the US but when playing as the UK government you would still get assassination attempts from the religious faction when in reality the most that would really happen would be some slightly disapproving remarks to the Daily Mail (possibly the Telegraph) couched in the politest of terms on the letters page.
P.S. Nefaro beat me to it.
From what I've heard, the fundie terrorism is extremely overblown in Democracy. Regular presidential assassinations by Christian fundies isn't a thing here in the States, despite overblown misconceptions Europeans have about this place being chock full of Burn-In-Hell Puritans. ;D
I got the impression that Democracy 3's model is based on European Socialist ideals in it's cause & effect system. They obviously attempted to take a neutral Pro/Con with the highly debated political decisions but the underlying flavor is still there, with extra emphasis on some facets.
Quote from: Nefaro on January 09, 2015, 05:28:59 PM
From what I've heard, the fundie terrorism is extremely overblown in Democracy. Regular presidential assassinations by Christian fundies isn't a thing here in the States, despite overblown misconceptions Europeans have about this place being chock full of Burn-In-Hell Puritans. ;D
Mea culpa, though we do tend to think you have some strange notions that side of the pond :)
Yes assassinations are way too common, the last time we had a Head of State "assassinated" here in the UK was 1649.
OK this has tempted me to have another go at Dem 3 and I've got a Danish mod so I might try to do a Borgen.
You forgot spencer Percival
:-[
Bioware these days is pushing gay rights/inclusion. In the most recent DA:I, they allow romantic pairings of the same gender. The developers don't shy away from calling it a political statement.
I think the game press (or large elements of it) tend to push gay and transgender rights. I cancelled my Computer Gaming World subscription back in the day because they made a point of writing long articles about transgender issues in video games. Not that I don't agree with gay rights, but at the time I just didn't want to see the game industry blur the lines of between gaming and political advocacy. Most recently RPS began making political statements.
Not that it bothers me much anymore, video games will follow the trends of culture at large (and not just in America). Bioware including gay characters in DA:I makes no difference to me, politically or otherwise. They just included it as more choice, a good way to go. There is politics in gaming, thankfully most of it is in gaming journalism (which is easy to ignore if I tire of it).
Every game with one-way technological advancement has, wittingly or unwittingly, adopted a Whig view of history. (One-way meaning you can't lose the advancement once you have gained it.)
Quote from: DicedT on January 09, 2015, 02:47:06 PM
I'm taking a look at politics in games. Things like the Laffer Curve in Sim City (an economic theory that cutting taxes stimulates growth, which many conservatives embrace).
Has anyone come across aspects in games that strike you as being rooted in some ideology such as liberal, conservative, libertarian, Marxist, etc.?
Michael
Every 4x game that has economic management has explicit theories on how the economy works. There are also political/economic modeling behind any game that has a national economy component, or use of money to sway neutral nations towards your country. The examples of this are literally limitless: Strategic Command series, Europa Universalis series; Crusader Kings (bribes, marriages etc...), Civilization series, Pride of Nations.
The belief that higher taxes has no impact on economic growth, or that lowering taxes can expand economic growth as "political" is out of the mainstream. To be blunt, free market economies produce a lot more goods than primitive dictatorships, autocratic kingdoms, or true economic believer communists. Higher taxes are seen as stunting economic growth in all economic models taught in US economics classes - whatever the political beliefs of the professor. This is just standard macroeconomic theory in the West. The question is how much taxes stunt economic growth, not that they stunt economic growth. It is often seen as a tradeoff between public goods/equity (less economic discrepancy, free universal health care, etc....) and higher economic growth.
Further, almost every 4x game gives higher research levels to more free societies - as seen by what has happened in the world in the last 200 years. You often see a programming tradeoff between the population unrest for foreign wars (lower in less democratic countries) and faster economic growth in more free countries. You also see a tradeoff in population unrest for dictatorships/theocracy (lower unrest) and more socially liberal countries (higher unrest).
ALL of this gets into how beliefs about economic growth, innovation, population unrest, control of society by government, and support of military adventures impact the game model.
There are also some games that are about politics...President Infinity (funding efforts in elections), Democracy (running a country), President Elect (simplified elections, old Dos game).
The Bioshock series, or at least the first entry, is full of some kind of political (or at least ideological) waffling. I can't be any more precise because I paid no attention to it whatsoever. Something something Ayn Rand.
Quote from: Huw the Poo on January 11, 2015, 02:48:23 AM
The Bioshock series, or at least the first entry, is full of some kind of political (or at least ideological) waffling. I can't be any more precise because I paid no attention to it whatsoever. Something something Ayn Rand.
there's a lot of utopian backstory to it, but there are no real political decisions that the player makes in the game. Plus, it's pretty micro (at the individual level), rather than macro, at the societal level.
Distant Worlds: Universe does a more ambitious job than most at modeling a private sector independent of the government. The game is relatively free of explicit ideology, but it at least does an interesting job modeling what happens when you have too little private sector (or too little public sector).
Otherwise, I've found very few games that have a sophisticated take on the trade-offs there. Some interesting ideas emerging, but almost none of them are even-handed or nuanced in their treatment of issues that are very complicated.
Some allow an "anything goes" decision making tree around different issues (e.g., half the romantic angles in Loren: Amazon Princess are homosexual), but I've not seen any that really jam a particular agenda down your throats.
Quote from: bayonetbrant on January 11, 2015, 07:16:13 AM
Quote from: Huw the Poo on January 11, 2015, 02:48:23 AM
The Bioshock series, or at least the first entry, is full of some kind of political (or at least ideological) waffling. I can't be any more precise because I paid no attention to it whatsoever. Something something Ayn Rand.
there's a lot of utopian backstory to it, but there are no real political decisions that the player makes in the game. Plus, it's pretty micro (at the individual level), rather than macro, at the societal level.
This is actually what I'm interested in. Games where politics or ideology is part of the premise. I haven't played Bioshock, but is Ayn Rand just part of the backstory, or do you have to behave according to Randian ideology to win the game?
Though come to think of it, most games are Ayn Rand at heart. It's every man for himself.
Michael
I think more backstory than anything. The premise is the 'quasi-uptopian' world that's now been wrecked that you have to work your way through. There's no overt choice for the player to make on a political spectrum, though there are some interesting ethical dilemmas you're presented with.
Quote from: bayonetbrant on January 12, 2015, 11:40:20 AM
I think more backstory than anything. The premise is the 'quasi-uptopian' world that's now been wrecked that you have to work your way through. There's no overt choice for the player to make on a political spectrum, though there are some interesting ethical dilemmas you're presented with.
This made the game a hoot to play! Loved it
Incidentally, the first Bioshock is an incredibly good game. I can't speak for the other two though.