Governments

[Lorizael]

Originally posted by cyclotron7
Computers in general scare me, especially when I have to edit them... but perhaps somebody will make a nice mod for me. You are right, though... there is still some hope for the government-crazed.

Have you seen the editor screen, it's beautiful and wonderful and great. It's gonna be very easy to make your own governments I think.

If computers scare you, why are you here?

[Mars]

So you think my suggestions just focused on one thing more than the "real" governments. I think personally i did a good job at evening out everything, they don't just focus on one thing. And you can fathom it, you just have to have a immagination. I mean there were some monarchies who had very happy citzens. The communist russia was obvisibly doing a good job at science since the got ahead of the US several times but thats not portaryed. So, why can't you make a government on what you think it would be like.

[Lorizael]

I think you have some good ideas Mars...

But we need to make sure that there is a real difference between the governments. I don't want an Ecotopia type government to simply be a democracy run by tree-huggers. I want there to be a real difference in the structure and organization and in turn game effects, of these governments.

I think you should play SMAC, Mars, because a lot of what you are discussing is part of the Social Engineering system in that game. SMAC is a fun game (from what I've heard, never actually played)

[The Templar]

Originally posted by Lorizael
I think you should play SMAC, Mars, because a lot of what you are discussing is part of the Social Engineering system in that game. SMAC is a fun game (from what I've heard, never actually played)

Don't run out and buy it just yet. Social Engineering was pretty good, but the rest of the game, well, lets just say it got mixed reactions.

I'd have to disagree about Technocracy having high science, or being for a science civ. You're concentrating too much on the modern meaning of the first 4 letters, but in actuality it means control. Read literature about Technocracies, like Brave New World and 1984, they function as some sort of bizarre amalgam of the most warped aspects of capitalism and communism: everything is very much planned, there's little to no individuality, everyone is instilled the desire to buy and consume and not question authority, and stability is the most important thing to maintain. The people are happy, and just live out meaningless lives of producing and consuming. Not very progessive sounding, almost Theocratic sounding even.

Yes, Brave New World was the perfect example of a Technocracy. All Technocracy means is "rule by experts"- techno=technology, technique, i.e. ways of doing things/cracy=government. I say "progressive" in the political sense - i.e. an activist government staffed by expert bureaucrats. A technocracy would go the final step of removing power from elected officials (the will of the people should be ignored bacause it is not expert) and the bureacracy would hold sway - unchecked by the petty moralities and concerns of the polity. This is Brave New World exactly - techniques (technological in a broad sense - spanning genetic, behavioral, and pharmaceutical) are employed to maintain order. One assumes the more utopian side of technocracy would embrace technological advance as a way of creating ever better expertise and more enlightened leadership. For instance, the idea of planned obscelecense (of computers say) would have fit perfectly into BNW so that people bought and consumed more. Well, you get the idea.

[Mars]

I already own and have played SMAC as well as the addon. Its a good game in my opinion. hence my refrence to it earlier and how i where i got the name of the hive from.

[Lorizael]

What???

And you think I was paying attention to your posts Mars???

I, like others, just think that SE was good for SMAC because it was a sci-fi game.

OTOH Civ is just history so I don't think SE is apropriate.

[Mars]

Apparantly you have never played SMAC so how can you comment on how the SE worked out in it, one might asked.