Now, more in relation to things like POPs and ideology which I think will/should be a really important part of this game. I was listening to the Giant Bomb podcast(Here) and Henrik said some interesting things and put out some interesting ideas which I think should be expanded on.
The statement that there would be no "Space Communists" or "Space Fascists" and so on I think is kind of important to note in that these ideologies were a crucial part of the POP experience in Victoria II. When Henrik said this, the impression I got is not so much that he didn't want to simulate the practice of these ideologies, more like he didn't want to put explicitly human names and ideas onto alien races. Would a bunch of insectoids have a conception of Communism, for example? So in place, the team seems to be going with ideas like "Xenophobic Individualism". Presumably, the reverse exists, a "Collectivist Xenophilia". And of course, all the things in between. There are supposed to be eight different ethics according to the Space Gamers Junkie Q&A(Here).
In concrete terms though, do these ideologies - or ethics - have familiar, real-world parallels that we'd see in game and say, "Yeah, it's not called Fascism, but we know that it's Fascism"? I think it's important that there is, because while this game is about space and consequently the very varied species and races that live within it, fundamentally it's designed from a human perspective and trying to isolate the human take on politics from the game mechanics is going to leave it pretty hollow and difficult to relate to.
That is, I think there should be "Space Communism" or "Space Fascism" or "Space Monarchy" - or rather, ethics and governmental systems which are easily identifiable as these things. This is how we understand politics and I think to try and move away from that would be an error. That's not to say you call them explicitly by their name in game(Though I don't see why not other than for more fluff reasons), but the parallel and what an ethic of a POP relates to should be obvious to people. There's a lot more to politics than the xenophobia or the individualism and I know you know that, and I don't think it should be ignored in a game like Stellaris which, similar to Victoria II in a lot of ways, is going to be focused on POP management.
I get that this isn't Victoria II per se, so ideology might not have that same level of importance and influence(Laissez Faire vs State Capitalism for example) but there's a lot of room for ideology outside of whether or not it lets you build your own factories and I think this is a perfect opportunity to explore that. A huge part of these games is shaping society in your image(Or whatever image), it would be a pity for this to be cut down for the sake of simplicity.
The statement that there would be no "Space Communists" or "Space Fascists" and so on I think is kind of important to note in that these ideologies were a crucial part of the POP experience in Victoria II. When Henrik said this, the impression I got is not so much that he didn't want to simulate the practice of these ideologies, more like he didn't want to put explicitly human names and ideas onto alien races. Would a bunch of insectoids have a conception of Communism, for example? So in place, the team seems to be going with ideas like "Xenophobic Individualism". Presumably, the reverse exists, a "Collectivist Xenophilia". And of course, all the things in between. There are supposed to be eight different ethics according to the Space Gamers Junkie Q&A(Here).
In concrete terms though, do these ideologies - or ethics - have familiar, real-world parallels that we'd see in game and say, "Yeah, it's not called Fascism, but we know that it's Fascism"? I think it's important that there is, because while this game is about space and consequently the very varied species and races that live within it, fundamentally it's designed from a human perspective and trying to isolate the human take on politics from the game mechanics is going to leave it pretty hollow and difficult to relate to.
That is, I think there should be "Space Communism" or "Space Fascism" or "Space Monarchy" - or rather, ethics and governmental systems which are easily identifiable as these things. This is how we understand politics and I think to try and move away from that would be an error. That's not to say you call them explicitly by their name in game(Though I don't see why not other than for more fluff reasons), but the parallel and what an ethic of a POP relates to should be obvious to people. There's a lot more to politics than the xenophobia or the individualism and I know you know that, and I don't think it should be ignored in a game like Stellaris which, similar to Victoria II in a lot of ways, is going to be focused on POP management.
I get that this isn't Victoria II per se, so ideology might not have that same level of importance and influence(Laissez Faire vs State Capitalism for example) but there's a lot of room for ideology outside of whether or not it lets you build your own factories and I think this is a perfect opportunity to explore that. A huge part of these games is shaping society in your image(Or whatever image), it would be a pity for this to be cut down for the sake of simplicity.
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