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someone please write this article/blog post @mtrc/1517096748979740672
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thinking about this FT game, and about this genre of policy-em-ups @alexhern/1517111385888600065?s=20&t=xmSYHau0As-qpoQflDvG-Q
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i reckon the biggest choice you have to make designing these is: who are you playing as? King of the World, Minister for Whatever, Random Q. Citizen, the collective will of world governments, The Mayor (along with: what are your politics/what's the model of the world you have)
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this is one reason Democratic Socialism Simulator is good - it's premise is straightforward about your role, and aims to illuminate the limits of your actions. you are the new President of the USA, now let's see what you can do with it. molleindustria.org/demsocsim/
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another way to look at it, is that most of these games start from a technocratic, centrist premise - if we can just find The Fix (which is complicated will have compromises, sure), then we just need to persuade those with power to implement it. and then job done.
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and from that technocratic premise they soon start running into tricky questions about vested interests, popular opinion, media campaigns... the exercise of power, basically. where it gets real, and where it gets interesting, and where these games often have to bodge it.