solidarityGame/CONCEPT.md

The Concept

This is an open source MMORPG. The players live in a cyberpunk dystopia, but slowly discover and build alternatives to wageslave life.

Story

Late stage capitalism, everything is privatized. Cultural expression stagnates.

Classes:

• Wage Slaves: Most people are Wageslaves and do unnecessary bullshit for little money. Don't have much free time.
• Unemployed Punks: don't get enough subsidies to pay the rent, have to do small daily jobs or become a squatter to survive
• Corp Execs: plan the production of Wageslaves (keep as many as possible busy to get gov subsidies), develop corporate science (not sharable with other Execs)
• Police: Beat up demonstrations, catch ppl without tickets, enforce rules, use surveillance.
• Politicians: Make policy as you wish - you can help Commoners, but you can also take their rights away. Give public jobs to Execs, or Commoners.
• Commoners: Not a starting class, everyone starts as one of the other 4.

The people already exist, have attributes, property, identity, running costs, and a daily life - Players randomly take over their lives when they spawn. Every person has a few friends, it varies and changes dynamically for NPCs. players only start as characters with at least one player friend.

Only players can start alternative projects, but NPCs can join them and passively take part. Some are "enemies", and if players spawn in them, they can choose to play villain or help the Commoners.

• You begin playing one day in corporate life
• One day later you hear of collectives, somebody signs you up for the fediverse
• You can start to partake in such a collective (will u lose your job one day?)
• You probably need to become criminal to get money to start first collectives - squatting, shoplifting, fare-dodging, bank robbery, hacking

One day in the game

One day lasts half an hour or so ingame.

• 0600 stores open
• 0800 get up, lazy!
• 1000 wageslaves' work starts
• 1800 wageslaves' work ends
• 2200 stores close
• 0100 Public transport closes
• 0200 begin of curfew
• 0600 end of curfew

Every charakter should sleep around 4-10 hours a day, else they suffer. The longer you sleep, the faster you can move by day. Players can read/chat in that time. There should be alarms to wake them up again.

If you aren't actively playing, your character just does their routine and sustains themself. They work just enough to pay their rent, not a bit more.

How you play

Interface

The Interface would be a browser:

• one window displays the view of the player (ego-perspective, mini-games, information HUD)
• one window displays a mastodon instance which displays the ingame fediverse, but also connects to RL fediverses,
• one window displays the fakebook, ingame public social network + messenger.
• other windows are used for links created in the game itself, maybe being displayed on wordpress/hugo instances.

Gameplay

Players are not limited to one of these areas of gameplay.

Hacking

• Science tree - developing FLOSS software for production, malware, defense, social/blogs, encryption, automation, cryptocoins, freifunk firmware
• Build infrastructure for Commoners (Fediverse, Blogs, Organization Software, Mining cryptocoins, Freifunk Gateways)
• Attack institutions - Metaspoiled, DDos, Sousveillance, Leaks, Ransomware

Producing

• Something not entirely boring maybe? Minigames where you can get better with experience, but which are also diverse
• Build, purchase or give away machines for automation, so you can quit doing that bullshit and start with other stuff
• you can build networks which can sustain other new Commons projects. Just connect with people over mastodon.
• You have to work the full time, or you can violate strike law. But how much you earn depends on how good you are.
• Commoners Production minigames could include cooperation elements.
• Surplus has negative consequences? Your avatar gets uglier? lol. taxes?
• How do you get a market? Shopping infrastructure

Politics

• Demonstrations build Pressure you can use as political currency
• Network of Decision Makers you need to influence and where you can get to
• Modules of Policy which help Commoners

Mobility

• Fare dodging
• Finally establishing own Infrastructures
• Policy helps a lot
• Automation introduces self-driving trains & cars at some point

Housing

• Rent a standardized container
• Sleep on Coffin Hotels (expensive, but flexible)
• Execs own Penthouses
• Alternative living projects
• Squats
• Wohnbaugenossenschaften

Activism

• Writing theory
• Do Demonstrations
• Talk with people
• Information booths
• Strike

Combat

• Nazis
• Police
• Other forms of crime, which sink with further game progress?
• Helping refugees flee?
• Corporate Security Forces
• Bank robbery

Attributes

Do we need attributes or is gameplay solvable by skill and experience only? Which is more fun. Maybe attributes promote specialization and inhibit trying out different work experiences.

Everyone can take 2-3 hits until they go down. Depending on the weapon, they die or go only unconscious for 1 hour.

The less you slept last night, the slower you move. The more drugs you take, the faster you move.

Ingame economy

What is happening in the game and how can the players partake?

Sectors of Corporate production

Each product has a different minigame. Wageslaves get employed permanently, and for 8h a day. Punks are employed only per daily basis, at different times and for 4h each.

• Producing Food: mix the right ingredients, so tasty Soylent/Beer/other food types emerge.
• Coder: arrange Code Snippets so they make sense, find bugs in code.
• Server setup: execute the right commands to setup a server in different environments. (Reality ftw!)
• Server admin: scale services, click on wrong database entries.
• Advertising: choose image snippets, place them nicely and think of a small slogan.
• Doctor: treat illnesses.
• Care: treat people who need your help.
• Hardware: Completing puzzles of blueprints or small pieces to build functioning circuits -> new PCs, machines and weapons.
• Journalist: arrange nonsense texts so the right conjunctions meet up.
• Busdriver: Drive from station to station, control tickets
• Truckdriver: Drive from station to station, load and unload cargo
• Delivery: bringing packages to houses
• Tailor: refine trash to cloth, puzzle it to more and more complicated clothing
• Vendor: putting goods in the shelves, selling the goods (ppl will be glad when this gets automated), Vendors suffer from monopolization
• Control Ads: rate Ads whether they are compliant, sort out malicious ones.
• Censorship: review posts on fakebook, posts are double-checked
• Security: Control the documents of people coming in (papers please?), beat them up if they aren't allowed to be here
• Police: use surveillance, beat and lock up perpetrators of crimes, undercover cops
• Exec: move money from one investment to another to manage employees (production & infrastructure), research, and PR. Command Security.

Sectors of Commons production

• Producing Food: mix the right ingredients, so tasty Soylent/Beer/other food types emerge.
• Gardening: take care of plants, viable ecosystem
• Coding: arrange Code Snippets so they make sense, find bugs in code.
• Server setup: execute the right commands to setup a server for different purposes. (Reality ftw!)
• Server admin: scale services, click on wrong database entries.
• Hacking: find vulnerable targets and use metaspoiled to exploit them. Ransomware, Botnets, Leaks, Sousveillance...
• Doctor: treat illnesses.
• Care: treat people who need your help.
• Hardware: Completing puzzles of blueprints or small pieces to build functioning circuits -> new PCs, machines and weapons.
• Journalism: arrange nonsense texts so the right conjunctions meet up.
• Busdriver: Drive from station to station, control tickets
• Truckdriver: Drive from station to station, load and unload cargo
• Delivery: bringing packages to houses
• Tailor: refine mushrooms to cloth, puzzle it to more and more complicated clothing
• Build: constructing buildings for private space or public usage
• Bank robber: attack banks to steal money for projects to use
• Distribute Flyers: walk through the city and give flyers to people

Crime

Police control whether crime happens and pursue the perpetrators. People can also point out crime and get a small reward.

• Shoplifting
• Squatting
• Being on the streets between 0200 and 0600
• Strike
• Stealing water & electricity
• Wrongly review Ads or Posts
• Hacking
• fare-dodging
• Bank robbery
• Steal at work
• Distributing flyers
• peacefully protest
• violently protest
• Drug consumption
• using cryptocoins

Policy can outlaw more actions, but can also legalize some.

Other Activities of Commoners

Organize Parties, Black Markets or Demonstrations

• get a location
• buy or steal necessary items
• promote via flyers, emails, public posts

Infrastructure

You can usually use existing infrastructure, until you build up own infrastructure - but it's expensive and helps the enemy.

• Transport: busses and trains, later self-driving
• Internet: rented flats have internet, you can build Freifunk
• water/electricity: public service, private service, tapping them, building wells and renewable energy
• Logistics: pushcarts, trucks and trains, later self-driving
• Shops: stores, black markets, parties
• Delivery: delivery guys, drones

Research

In which directions can the ingame society develop?

When a society/company researches a certain module, a video explaining the progress is sent to each fakebook user.

Corporate Research Modules

Automation

• Flying Drones
• Self-Driving Cars
• Self-Driving Trains
• Food Machines
• Vending Machines
• Medical Bots
• Physical Augmentations?

Surveillance

• Security Bots
• Cameras
• Tracking
• Intercepting Communication

Internet

• Augmented Reality
• Tailored Ads (improving buying efficiency)
• Fakebook functions

Ecology

• Nuclear Energy
• Fusion Reactor
• Coal Energy
• Solar Energy
• Wind Energy
• Hydroelectric Energy
• Bioengineering

Commons Research Modules

Software

• Metaspoiled
• Freifunk Firmware
• Fediverse functions
• cryptoMSG
• Blogs
• Cryptocoin
• Reverse Engineering (allows to use Corporate Research)
• A Game to promote solidary economies (very meta, but why not?)

Hardware

• open source PCs, Servers & Phones
• Flying Drones
• Self-Driving Cars
• Self-Driving Trains
• Food Machines
• Vending Machines
• Medical Bots
• Physical augmentations?

Tools

• Weapons
• Pushcart
• Armor
• Buidlings out of mushrooms

Ecology

• Solar Energy
• Wind Energy
• Hydroelectric Energy
• Synthetic Drugs (are sellable, improve individual performance and fun)
• Bioengineering (use fast evolution to create more species diversity)

Politics

The representative democracy can be more or less authoritarian.

When a policy is introduced, a video explaining the progress is sent to each fakebook user.

Political System

Multiple political parties are competing for positions of power. At best, momentary, spontaneous coalitions have to be forged to pass a law. There is no ingame tool for permanent coalitions.

senators can introduce laws and have additional rights. the parliament has to approve each law. 24h pass until the vote takes place.

Everyone can candidate for an office, usually you found and join political parties though. To rise inside a political party, you have to win street credibility through activism. Everyone except refugees have voting rights.

3 senators

• have initiative right, can propose policy modules
• hawk can command police
• parrot can speak to all citizens on fakebook
• raven can absolve crimes, immunize people, and issue an arrest warrant
• Only parlamentarians can become senators
• Senators need 2/3 by the parliament to get elected and tend to be moderate and compromising.
• If parliament can't consent on new Senators, the old ones persist.

parliament

• 50 members
• no obligatory compliance (Koalitionszwang)
• politicians get diets, a little higher than wage slaves' wage

Policy Modules

Economic Policy:

• Shorter working hours
• Universal Basic Income
• Outlaw or legalize forms of production
• Privatize or nationalize companies or infrastructures
• Give subsidies for certain jobs
• receive taxes
• unemployement benefits
• legalize cryptocoin

Security Policy:

• Outlaw or legalize crimes
• Outlaw or legalize technology
• Outlaw or legalize research

Standard Political Parties

The idea is that successful and well organized players form a forth party. This party can then ally alternately with the libdems and labour to pass policy.

Usually, on one topic, one traditional party is against it, another in favour of it, and one doesn't have a strong stance. Execs can start bribing or influencing the party with the weak stance to pass policy. (This is especially useful if Commoners are politically weak)

Another interesting strategy would be to infiltrate the ChristM and use their votes to pass policy. Funny way to get a Senator position.

Labour Party

• Want full employment - we need to finance work places
• Subsidize Companies (Weak)
• Progress is not bad
• More taxes!
• Protests and Strikes are important

Christian Movement

• Technology is evil
• Strong State, Security
• Subsidize Companies
• Strikes and Protests are bad

Liberal Democrats

• Progress is good
• Capitalists need protection
• Privatize everything
• Leeegalize (Security)
• Small State
• Workers are not needed when we have progress
• Don't Subsidize Companies

The Game World

Cyberpunk dystopias can take many forms.

Deus Ex - Human Revolution is so interesting, because they combined 3 ingredients in the world building: Cyberpunk, Renaissance, and the Icarus myth. (Source: https://www.develop-online.net/interview/the-cyberpunk-renaissance-designing-deus-ex-with-jonathan-jacques-bellet-te/0221492 )

Combining very different things to fit together seems like a good idea to build an interesting world.

The myth could be transformation. How do we evolve. How can new structures of power and production take their space. What does this do to us, and how do people in different contexts behave differently?

Cyberpunk is a nice given, too, I think, because its popularity rises, proportionally to its realness. It fits very well to the criminal outcast topic, the technology factor, the mega corps, the Commoner's DIY culture. It provides very nice aesthetics, too, especially for the urban part and the contingency of corporeality.

Mushrooms are one of the most used organic ingredients since the big Climate Crisis. Mushrooms & Algae are the only ingredients left for food, often used for fabric, mattresses, and other organic products. Some mushrooms have exceeded their earlier limits of growth a lot, when so much dead organic material lay around for them to exploit. Since then some very big exemplars are standing around in nature. Mushrooms and Algae could be one day the foundation of a new, directed evolution, which could ensure a new biodiversity.

Feudalism would be a nice driver for clothing and style. Also the hierarchies, the boundaries, the communities have some feudal implications (especially the rurals). Habermas talks about refeudalization in context of education chances

• which are inherited more and more. Intellectual Wageslaves (Downtown Jobs) earn more than Factory Wageslaves, and they earn more than Punks. Parcellation of Souvereignty - different Polices in different quarters?

The world is separated in several areas.

• Downtown: big skyscrapers, high tech, shopping centers, banks, offices, hospitals, penthouses, coffin hotels.
• Industry: factories, stores, many workplaces, coffin hotels.
• Slums: containers-4-rent, night clubs, stores, some old factory halls.
• Rural: each village has a bus station, and someone usually sells food.

It would be nice if people were required to travel a lot between them.

Downtown

Skyscrapers have bridges between them. They look a bit like strongholds maybe? Arrow slit windows. At the top are the penthouses, where the Execs reside. Each Exec owns a Skyscraper. Offices for non-industrial jobs are in the Skyscrapers: IT, journalism, marketing, censors, everything which is just sitting in front of a screen. Also Doctors and Nurses.

For buying rare items, you have to go to Downtown's shopping centers. Security is tight, many people are here. Aesthetics resemble churches.

Living Costs:

• A coffin hotel costs 100€ a night.
• Food costs 13€ a day.

Industry

Factories are located here. Some of them are abandoned.

Most of the jobs are here.

Living Costs:

• A coffin hotel costs 100€ a night.
• Food costs 7€ a day.

Slums

The factories in the Slums are all abandoned.

The slums are mostly for dwelling, containers-4-rent make up most of the buildings. Stores supply the inhabitants, night clubs provide fun.

There is not as much police here, so it's easier to squat here than in other areas. (Except the players want to camp in the Slums ofc)

Living Costs:

• A container-4-rent costs 2000€ a month.
• Food costs 7€ a day.

Rural

Prevalence of using Mushrooms as food, building, and clothing material.

The people are living in small huts, a mixture of them being quite old, some built off trash, some off mushrooms.

Each village has a bus station, but not much more. Someone sells food.

Living Costs:

• You can buy a hut for 2500€?/space for 1 person, they are not rentable
• You can buy space for building a hut 250€/space for 1 person
• Food costs 13€ a day.

Feudalism

Feudalist aesthetics could be used to enrich cyberpunk, It doesn't make that much sense to render feudal society to the game, though.

Clothing

• Hierarchy shows itself in Clothing
• Rich or powerful people dare to wear more colorful clothing, modern aristocrats
• Educated people are required to wear appropriate clothing (which poor can't afford) for work
• generally: wide clothes with lots of drapes, belts, bags. look at aristocrat clothes!
• Cloaks!
• Police armor looks like knight's armor
• Christian mindset experiences renaissance with Climate Catastrophe. Some wear clerical tonsures.

Mushrooms and the Climate Catastrophe

The bees died out, something with pesticides killed most of the surviving plants. Soy deliveries died out, animals couldn't be fed anymore. Hunting lived up for a short time, until wildlife was pretty much extinct. The sea collapsed from trash, but several Algae species could be saved. Algae are cultivated in artificial tanks. Mushrooms are dwelling on the dead organic matter everywhere, and on dead algae.

Mushrooms and Algae are next to steel and plastic the mostly used ingredients for everything. Animals are largely extinct, the last species live off mankind's trash and can not be domesticated.

Some people believe that our sins are responsible for the Climate Catastrophe and turn to god.

There are several kinds of mushrooms, some are very stable, some formable (for fabric), some tasty. Buildings are built by putting spores to a foundation, adding nutrition - and waiting. More kinds of mushrooms can be cultivated.

All in all there is no lack of "industrial" resources, but rather of organic resources.

Characters

Media Speaker

Announces changes to the public. Generally is defending the status quo.

Punk Band

Sings Songs against the Police which sell quite well. Expensive to employ, but enhances every demonstration/party.

Preacher

Makes humanity responsible for Climate Crisis - punishment by god. Promotes that we need to turn to god - hard work can resolve our sins. Many uneducated are following him.

Robin Wood

Famous organized crime boss. Has a website with crime highscore - you only get as many highscore points as you donate to the poor.

NPCs

Dialogue

According to the NPCs ingame functions, you have several dialogue options.

Politicians can be bribed, threatened, and convinced.

Workers can be convinced, you can also work with them and be friends and stuff.

You can bond with people if you share a Hobby or smth.

You can rant with neighbours about the others.

You can discuss with believers.

Relationships

Relationships are designated by Fakebook Friends.

These depend on where your life modules lie and with which people they coincide.

Life Modules / Hobbies

• lives in ...
• Occupation at ...
• Night Club
• Politician
• Believer
• Member in a Party
• Posts at Fakebook
• Loves Punk Concerts
• Drug usage

Opinions

• Believe in god
• Vote for a party
• Like a certain corporation's product
• Have diverse political opinions about single topics
• Like a character

Criticism

Why do I play?

There is not a real goal in the game, not a real motivation yet. Is the fate of the character and their society interesting enough. depends on the inscenation maybe.

If Transformation of Capitalism is the goal - how can

1. the single player have influence on this goal?
2. have not enough influence to frustrate other players?

Motivation arises from

1. the interesting world
2. the goal
3. or the way of reaching it.

Everything else is related to this: subsystems of the game, roles, classes, minigames.

Ideas

universal snitch system

Teamwork in minigames

can players participate in religion?

Refugees

Does society transform in a mushroom way? We had tree-like societies & hierarchies - Commoners could organize more like metastases (and identify with it).

Climate art

• At least insects don't bother us anymore
• bug-lover74
• nature left us, science save us
• we are mushrooms, we eat us through capitalism, and drop our spores. If we are eaten, we surrender - others will do our will