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.

Beginning 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 hours a day, else they suffer. Players can read/chat in that time. There should be alarms to wake them up again.

Modules of starting character days, randomly chosen:

• riding public transport
• working
• going to the store
• surfing fakebook
• sleeping

If you aren't actively playing, your character just does his routine and sustains himself.

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 IRL 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 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
• How can you build networks which can sustain others?
• 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
• Withstand privatisations

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
• Alternative living projects
• Squats
• Wohnbaugenossenschaften

Activism

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

Combat

• Nazis
• Police
• Machos?
• 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 if they are nice, 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: stand in 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
• 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

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.

Everyone can candidate for an office, usually you found and join political parties though. Everyone except refugees have voting rights.

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

Security Policy:

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

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 as 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.

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.

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.

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 to be domesticated.

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

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.

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.

yet to conceptualize

universal snitch system