Governments 101: 92% complete

Note: Thanks to my co-conspirator Dane Hill for helping me through this.

So I thought I should start with the ground work for any nation building game: Governments!

I cant show everything yet for two reasons, I'd hate to spoil it and not everything can be finished until I hammer out cards and tech (which is coming up next).

To begin the process, we have to look back to November 2009. I was sitting down in the living room of Mike Barta, genius and IE 4 dev, as he helped me hash out ideas for what directions I should take for the project. He had some really awesome unique ideas which I think have taken on a neat role in how the games narrative plays out.

The general concept is a progression through governments in an organic way. I was then able to break things into five vague government breakthroughs and came up with this guide:

tribal -> feudal -> centralized -> modern -> utopian

Using these five archetypes I then broke each down into HOPE and FEAR. That way depending on how one plays the game and makes decisions, it will begin to steer you down one path or the other. It also allows one to make the transition from hope to fear, although that is easier said than done.

Using DropBox, I quickly sent off an invitation to Dane and he was instantly able to see, access, and make changes in real time to help me work and conceptualize everything. Thank goodness for technology. Together doing some research, scouring wikipedia for references, and generally banging out heads against our respective walls, we came up with our ten primary governments for use in the game.

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Once we had that down we knew the next step was to come up with descriptions of exactly what each government means in terms of the world. With that in mind I set out writing rough paragraphs that explain each government to include into the final game.

Note: These are still early drafts and subject to radical changes. I am not completely happy with any of them.

Hunter Gatherer:
Brought together by their common will to survive, these early nations relied on cooperation to survive harsh conditions. Loose ideas of government and power are masked mainly by their early and primitive concepts of the world.

Chiefdom:
Ruled by fear, chiefdoms are a centralized society overseen by a chief. Characterized mainly by inequality and centralized authority, citizens outside of the ruling class of this government live humbled, hard lives of labor. With a strong lineage, a single family can rule these nations for generations upon generations.

Theocracy:
With a government that recognizes their god (or deity) as the nations supreme ruler, theocracies generally accept a personal incarnation or religious representative as their leader. Theocracies always have a state religion and administrative doings always fall to the will of religion.

Autocracy:
In an autocratic government, the ruling figure is granted complete and unlimited power. This power tends to lend itself to a disconnect between the ruler and the people, which can create internal strife among the government. Most autocrats depend on their close set of nobles, military, and priesthood to operate efficiently.

Republic:
As a nation without a monarch, republics offer the people of the nation at least some say in the proceedings of the government. With a president as the head of state, nations tend to focus on ideals such as civic virtue, rule of law, and mixed government. However, this importance on civic virtues means that individual liberties are often overlooked.

Fascism:
As a single party state, Fascist governments believe that the vast majority of the public are unfit and unsuited to govern itself. Associated with strong nationalism and heroism, these nations pride themselves on striving to recreate a golden era for their nation by any means necessary.

Democracy:
Democracy thrives under the basic concepts of equality and freedom. In these nations all citizens are equal before the law, have equal access to power, and enjoy legitimized freedoms. By using “majority rule”, democratic nations strive to create the best possibly nation for their citizens.

Totalitarianism:
Generally associated with dictatorships, totalitarian nations maintain their absolute power over citizens through all-embracing ideology, propaganda, and total control over all aspects of life. These nations are known for their widespread use of mass surveillance and state terrorism.

Sociocracy:
Sociocratic nations have evolved past rule by “demos” to create a system of decision making by consent. The government has formed autonomous circle organizations that are able to work independently of one another effectively leading their nation.

Noocracy:
As the aristocracy of the wise, Noocratic nations rely of the appointed wise to rule. This hive mind controls all aspects of the nation, providing its citizens with the optimal solution to any conflicts. This has lead to an almost “big brother” situation for the citizens of any these nations.

As I worked out exactly what the governments meant, Dane began work on the relationship matrix. This is the bible for how governments react to one another. Once he had a rough pass down he sent it along to me to go over it, make adjustments, and all around finalize how I felt they should work.

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Of course here you can see that I already have plans for hidden governments, which wouldn't be hidden if I announced them so I pixelated the one viewable to keep the suspense.

So what is left to do for governments? Well, I still need to give people a reason to want to advance governments, and I am working on a series of pros/cons that affect gameplay based on government. I am also working on the threshold matrix which will be the guideline for when/how a nation adopts any given government structure. Unfortunately these have to be back burnered for a bit as I cannot continue them until I have more of the game mechanic struct finalized. After I finish Tech progression and Cards (my next project, expect it done next week) I will return and finish governments.

Until next time!