Reality and fiction meet in a bad way

[Saxon]

One of the things I love about Dominions is that each nation is so different. Many play counter intuitively and sometimes you need to do things that seem like a really bad idea. For example, a sloth scale or a death scale just don’t make much sense in real life. This was always the fictional element of the game, the fantasy part of the war game.

But today I was thinking about reality and discovered that there is a scary situation where someone is really trying to run a Dominions nation in real life. Joseph Kony and the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda.

The guy outright states he hears from spirits and has his followers convinced he has magic powers. He is a pretender. The methods the movement use are warped, like Ermor or some of the Blood nations. They steal children and force them to fight for them. Initiation often includes forcing the kids to kill or mutilate family members. The movement thrives on turmoil and make no pretence of governing the population, they just loot. And they have been doing this “successfully” for over 15 years.

I never thought I would see the really counter intuitive parts of the game function outside the fictional world, but regret to discover I was wrong. It is tough to see such negative and outright evil practices succeed. Of course, playing Ermor right now doesn’t help much, but I did pick the nation back in January, when Kenya was falling apart, so perhaps I should not be so surprised to see unreasonable things turning out to be functional, at least for some.

In any case, this is not a cheery post, but I doubt many other people would get my attempts to understand regional politics through a prism of computer gaming... My thanks for your indulgence.

[Sombre]

Same deal with various warlord groups - the actually thrive by causing turmoil and chaos - civil war means more recruits and opportunities for them and not just in the short term - this kind of thing can be sustained for decades in the modern world where aid is shipped out and populations are able to move across borders more easily.

[Wrana]

Well, closed borders, of course, mean that 'order dominion' pays off better...
Considering the game itself - you should note that one of its authors has a degree in folklore & the latter contains an experience of many generations who lived through many different situations. Of course, using actual myths, etc. for framework could be better, but Dominions, while being free with mixing and changing, is very good in being true to spirit of them - one of the things I love it for...

[Cor2]

Religions have very frequently been used as justification for governments, mostly bad governments... but that does take the cake.

[Omnirizon]

khmer rouge has used child soldiers forever. one picture burned into my brain is that of a child soldier, looking cooly into the camera, smoking a cigar.

but hey. who won on american idol last night? did you see tiger woods make that shot? lets go see a movie. i'm fat and still hungry, lets go outback tonight.

[Saxon]

Yeah, the Khmer Rouge is another good example of really bad policies that worked for a small segment of the population, the rulers. Really bad for the rest though...

My bias of a modern, neo classical liberal take on democracy and what is good for the nation does seem a bit odd in retrospect. Even a progressive monarchy in the 18th century still did a lot of things that seem really dumb today. Taking the longer view, most of human history has been under scales high on sloth, a belief that luck and magic exists, a willingness to tolerate death and a tolerance of disorder. No wonder our folklore reflects it.

But as you say, not a problem, we all have internet connections and check out the latest Jessica Alba photos...

[johan osterman]

Omnirizon said:
but hey. who won on american idol last night? did you see tiger woods make that shot? lets go see a movie. i'm fat and still hungry, lets go outback tonight.

Lets go post on a message board about a game, and speculate how real life atrocities are best represented in the game.

[Saxon]

You are right, American Idol is an atrocity, but I just don’t see how we can build it into the game…

More seriously, this topic is too morbid and I vote we drop it. A fantasy game will bear some similarities to real life but, comments in the manual about fantasy history class aside, comparisons can only be taken so far.

[Sombre]

The real life atrocity of american idol is best represented by the arena deathmatch. No-one's interested in it but it continues on regardless.

[Foodstamp]

Omnirizon said:
khmer rouge has used child soldiers forever. one picture burned into my brain is that of a child soldier, looking cooly into the camera, smoking a cigar.

but hey. who won on american idol last night? did you see tiger woods make that shot? lets go see a movie. i'm fat and still hungry, lets go outback tonight.

The United States as a country donates more money and time to Africa than any other non African country in the world. It's still not enough, but it should be enough that we are not the whipping boy for Africa's problems. That being said, as my generation gets older and begins to take public offices in the United States, I think that Africa will become the number one foreign issue as things come to a close in the middle east.