As kids, we’re told only people who go to college/university for politics/economics/law are qualifiable to make/run a country. As adults, we see no nation these “qualified” adults form actually work as a nation, with all manifesto-driven governments failing. Which to me validates the ambitions of all political theorist amateurs, especially as there are higher hopes now that anything an amateur might throw at the wall can stick. Here’s my favorite from a friend.
The problem with experimenting with government in video games is there’s no death in video games, and handling death is one of the most important roles of government.
That is an interesting thought. If humans were immortal, would we have any government?..hm, yeah, I believe we still would. I think it’s less about the threat of death for an individual and more about the management of resources for a population.
But the intent would not be to see what works in a video game and try to use it IRL, the intention is to see where these systems breakdown in unforeseen ways when implemented at scale.
But mostly, I just want to see new fun ideas in the genre. There are no new MMOs willing to take the risk of letting one player’s experience be dependent on the behaviour of another player, let alone allow a fully player-managed government. For now we live in a world where Destiny 2 is what qualifies as an MMO. But I digress.
Possibly.
I think that one of the basic laws that “governs” people is that if you hurt someone, they’ll get mad and be motivated to hurt you back.
But if you kill someone, they can’t retaliate.
Then it’s up to their kin, their friends and family, to avenge them.
I think government somewhat becomes necessary when societies get large enough that one’s kin network can’t find their cousin’s killer. Then we get police, whose job it is to find that killer and punish them.
I know that’s an oversimplified, single-dimensional model of government. But I feel like when people are facing, en masse, the horrific void of death, not just in terms of murder but also in terms of war, that government really becomes a compelling idea.
Death is like a black hole that nothing echoes back from. Government helps us deal with that void by creating a virtual person who can still play their “next move” even after they’ve passed through that doorway.
Of course video games have their own forms of “death”. Spawn camping for instance takes a player out of the game. Surrounding a person’s bed with lava can “permakill” them in Minecraft.
It’s just that video games sort of have “government” built into the game mechanics. Respawning is a solution to the “no retaliation after death” problem. Anti cheat stuff. Inventory that literally cannot be accessed by anyone other than the player solves theft.
Games are designed to be fun, which is kind of what government does to reality. It redesigns reality to be a playable, balanced game.
I would love to see more games with less balancing, where the balancing comes from player experimentation with governing agreements.
But government’s largely a solution to aspects of reality that are truly, horribly, “not fun”.
I’d say that’s definitely one aspect of a justice system, which is definitely one aspect of a government. But I don’t think you even need “lives” to create a simulation of a government. Just agents and resources.
I would love to see more games…where the balancing comes from player experimentation with governing agreements.
100% agree. I’ve wondered how an MMO with permadeath + “reproduction” could work. Basically, every new avatar in the game has to be “made” by two existing avatars, and would be granted semi-random stats based on genetic contributions of the parents. This would mean spots in the game are limited, and you’d have to wait for existing players to “create” you, which would rate limit the number of people who can start playing your game, which limits the profits from running the game, which limits the number of studios willing to ever try it…
