AvidGamer Posted November 10, 2015 Share Posted November 10, 2015 I have a very new blog but I have been a long time listener of the show just getting around to finally getting to chat with all of the intriguing minds that have been right here all along!!! I was hoping for some feedback on my blog post and what you guys think. Absurd? Exciting? Boring? Let me know, and I also hope to have some good conversations here about it with those that are interested. http://avidgamerrants.com/monopoly-the-hidden-game/ ~AvidGamer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shirgall Posted November 10, 2015 Share Posted November 10, 2015 Does anyone else remember Balance of Power? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balance_of_Power_(video_game) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AvidGamer Posted November 10, 2015 Author Share Posted November 10, 2015 I did not know about that game but after looking at that link I wish I could get my hands on a copy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mister Mister Posted November 10, 2015 Share Posted November 10, 2015 I remember playing Sid Meier's Civilization games, and how a good strategy was to lower taxes, allow wealth to accumulate during peace time, then raise taxes and build an army to conquer other countries, lower taxes again, and repeat. Similar to an interactive online text based strategy game I play called Utopia, where the amount of taxes you can collect is inversely related to the size of your army, so you want to alternate between having a small army, raising money to build a large army, conquering more land, going back to a small army, and so on. When I first watched Stef's "Story of your Enslavement", this clicked with me, that those with political power think of it as a game, and that modern political systems are a kind of cutting edge strategy that has evolved substantially from the old days of God-Kings...though the game is the same. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luxfelix Posted November 10, 2015 Share Posted November 10, 2015 Welcome to the forum AvidGamer! The post became a bit repetitive toward the middle, but overall the comparison between the hidden game and its parallels in life kept me interested. I'm curious if you've ever played some of the Paradox Interactive games like Crusader Kings II (CK2), Europa Universalis IV (EU4), or Victoria II (Vicky2). Vicky2, in particular, has an in-depth economic aspect and indirect influence setup which follows population statistics and the way subsidies and taxes are used to encourage/discourage behavior. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dsayers Posted November 10, 2015 Share Posted November 10, 2015 I did not know about that game but after looking at that link I wish I could get my hands on a copy! You should check out Civ 5 if you haven't already. The game strikes an amazing balance between complexity and approach-ability. I read about half of your post. I used to play Monopoly the same way when I was a kid. In fact, I won most of my games by not wiping people out, but gutting their resources instead, leaving them around to collect more resources for me. My family used to call me the slum lord because of this It just occurred to me that my father owns some rental properties that I work as agent/maintenance for. I'll likely some day inherit some of them. Self-fulfilling prophecy! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shirgall Posted November 10, 2015 Share Posted November 10, 2015 You should check out Civ 5 if you haven't already. The game strikes an amazing balance between complexity and approach-ability. I read about half of your post. I used to play Monopoly the same way when I was a kid. In fact, I won most of my games by not wiping people out, but gutting their resources instead, leaving them around to collect more resources for me. My family used to call me the slum lord because of this It just occurred to me that my father owns some rental properties that I work as agent/maintenance for. I'll likely some day inherit some of them. Self-fulfilling prophecy! Indeed, I would have more fun playing people off each other so no one could win than I would by wiping them out. I had a goal of making a game of Risk take more than 4 hours, for example. Diplomacy was also great for this. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diplomacy_(game) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rosencrantz Posted November 10, 2015 Share Posted November 10, 2015 The Bank "never goes broke." If the Bank runs out of money, the Banker may issue as much as needed by writing on any ordinary paper. That's a good description of real life banking too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AvidGamer Posted November 11, 2015 Author Share Posted November 11, 2015 I'm curious if you've ever played some of the Paradox Interactive games like Crusader Kings II (CK2), Europa Universalis IV (EU4), or Victoria II (Vicky2). Vicky2, in particular, has an in-depth economic aspect and indirect influence setup which follows population statistics and the way subsidies and taxes are used to encourage/discourage behavior. Oh wow, I haven't actually played any of these games but I have heard of Crusader Kings before. Man I have a lot of gaming homework to do haha. Also thank you for the feedback on my post, I was a little worried about what you brought up actually, hopefully in future posts I am able to refine the idea more so that it is not as repetitive. You should check out Civ 5 if you haven't already. The game strikes an amazing balance between complexity and approach-ability. I read about half of your post. I used to play Monopoly the same way when I was a kid. In fact, I won most of my games by not wiping people out, but gutting their resources instead, leaving them around to collect more resources for me. My family used to call me the slum lord because of this It just occurred to me that my father owns some rental properties that I work as agent/maintenance for. I'll likely some day inherit some of them. Self-fulfilling prophecy! Haha this is hilarious I guess you are about to complete that self-fulfilling prophecy! I have played Civ 5 along with many of the other Civilization games and I absolutely love them, along with the Sim City titles created by Sid as well. Despite his political leanings I actually have felt like the Civ games actually favored more of a totalitarian militaristic edge for the most part. Although perhaps that was just my proclivities D: !!! I have a few other games that I am going to connect their inner workings in relation to the real world, my one on Minecraft that is coming up is not going to make most here very happy though because it shows essentially how a anarcho-capitalistic state works, or at least as I perceived it and it does not end as nicely as the ideals. That being said I almost always play games as a tycoon player and Minecraft was no different, I just am very good at winning the tycoon game and I enjoy how you can play a game in such a way that is completely different from the normal, expected rules of play. Kind of like real life what is on the surface is never the actual game being played by those that rule over it if you know what I mean. Cough ( go to college, get married, work and hope you have acquired enough monopoly money to live peacefully and happily) The real game is always purposely made obscure for the obvious reasons. Thank you guys for the comments I would love to see more games that really drew parallels to real life in your eyes. I would certainly put the Civ games on there, Sim city, almost all of the tycoon games {roller coaster, zoo, ect.), Most MMO games actually are creepily accurate and applicable to real life ( WoW, Guild Wars, Eve). MMOs are very funny how a class system is always in place and I'm not talking about choosing to be a soldier over a mage but an elite class and a lower class and how the two interact. ~AvidGamer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AvidGamer Posted November 11, 2015 Author Share Posted November 11, 2015 Shirgall I must also say that signature you have is absolutely perfect, love seeing it every time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shirgall Posted November 11, 2015 Share Posted November 11, 2015 Shirgall I must also say that signature you have is absolutely perfect, love seeing it every time Thanks! Don't worry. I'm not going to change it to Kasich's quote from last night: "Philosophy doesn't work when you run something." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luxfelix Posted November 12, 2015 Share Posted November 12, 2015 Oh wow, I haven't actually played any of these games but I have heard of Crusader Kings before. Man I have a lot of gaming homework to do haha. Also thank you for the feedback on my post, I was a little worried about what you brought up actually, hopefully in future posts I am able to refine the idea more so that it is not as repetitive. My pleasure. Since you have space for images, you could probably use a series of images of the setup with a brief caption underneath describing the steps/changes; this would leave the rest of the text/image space to explore the deeper meanings. (The post reminds me of how Connect Four was mathematically solved so that the first player can win every time.) Yeah, CK2 is also great for role play (there are some D&D-esque elements), and it is usually pretty good at preventing runaway world empires (unless you're the Mongols... ); it's a great game for exploring the management of people/AI to accomplish your goal(s), paying attention to their strengths/weaknesses, friends/rivals, goal(s)/etc., that result in the overall rise and fall of realms. EU4, on the other hand, focuses more on the macro-level developments of nations and the changes faced by the chapters of exploration, reformation, and revolution during the time period. Vicky2 is pretty unique, as far as grand strategy games go, in that you are rewarded more often for avoiding war and arranging negotiations/ultimatums (if playing as one of the "great powers") than gambling with the loss of your population and resulting risk of revolt. All three games have a fair bit of historical research behind them, or at least it is very easy to be introduced to something that can then be read about further; In particular, CK2 even has built in links to Wikipedia for historical characters. It's not perfect, but it is a start for introducing people to parts of history usually taught in shallow terms at school. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
labmath2 Posted November 12, 2015 Share Posted November 12, 2015 No man's sky will soon come out. It will be interesting to see how people approach that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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