Here, just read this takeaway: “Both options provide unique opportunities to let the players interact with the Haitians, but I feel that there are several reasons why Haitian people should be represented as an actual player in the game. First, the Haitians are a very resilient group of people and many took actions to “self-recover” from the earthquake requiring little to no help from the relief community. Next, the Haitians did have a voice and they provided feedback in a number of ways. While this could be demonstrated through the use of an input card I think it would be better to have the players interacting with each other, as opposed to just interacting with a card.”
Sounds fascinating, right?
the net effect is that wars of choice are thought of in terms of lasting effect, and because the player remains in power long after the decision has been made, the consequences have to be dealt with along that scale as well. Similarly, occupations in Empire require time, attention, and a long scale for operations, or else the unrest model does its best to undo the conquest.
I wrote a guestpost over at Rethinking Security about how unrest is modeled in games. Reading it now, the main takeaway seems to be that the blowback from occupying or conquering a new province is something that a ruler with a long reign will have to face, and so the strategic calculus of otherwise short wars is weighted with this in mind.
"Scheduled to run for three days, energyMMOWGLI will immerse players in a future energy scenario from the year 2022 (view scenario at http://portal.mmowgli.nps.edu), and will ask them to generate ideas about how to reduce energy consumption, improve energy efficiency, and diversify its energy supply for the sake of future strategic readiness."
— Funny that, looks like the Navy is using games as a way to model the future.
"While not exactly states, the player-created organizations are large and exert some serious control. They’re also grouped as “corporations” for the smaller ones, and “alliances” for the linkages between them. There’s real money at stake in the game: a player once ran an in-game bank and then left with everything, netting him about $170,000 in real money. In this world, then, it’s not surprising that less-than-honest means of striking at enemies have seen a renaissance."
— At my long-form blog, I examine what we can learn about covert action from how it’s modeled in games.
(Source: kelseydatherton.wordpress.com)
