[Chris Crawford]

I just today was referred to this review of BoP2K:

http://popularsymbol...-in-videogames/

It's rather long-winded, and I was particularly struck by the intellectual gymnastics that permit the author to condemn BoP2K as an example of Western imperialist propaganda, while simultaneously denouncing climate change. Thus, the author manages to place himself firmly on the fringes of both the left wing and the right wing. Perhaps this demonstrates some kind of intellectual flexibility.

Now, I'm a big boy and I'm used to the occasional negative review, but this one really stands out, not for its criticisms, but for the idiosyncrasies of the author. I'm curious to learn other people's reactions to it.

[Chris Conley]

I read that article before I read the rest of your post, and I ended up with the same thought, that the person is more interesting than what e wrote. I can't imagine what sort of ideology e subscribes to, or what sequence of events brought em to reach these conclusions. Besides what you pointed out, there's the lengthy sidebar bemoaning Obama's "cult of personality", treating user-made content as if it were officially sanctioned merchandise like the garbled reporting of a Grand Theft Auto mod.

Or, maybe it's just one long troll.

[Louis]

The article's tone is overly harsh, but I do not see it as a negative review per se; it does not even criticize storyplay. It presents a storyworld as an effective tool for persuasion, so the fact that he chose BoP2K as an example of a "propaganda tool" is probably good. I, for one, welcome our new interactive storytelling overlords .

[billmaya]

Chris Crawford, on Aug 7 2009, 09:02 PM, said:

I was particularly struck by the intellectual gymnastics that permit the author to condemn BoP2K as an example of Western imperialist propaganda, while simultaneously denouncing climate change.

Perhaps he confused it with your other storyworld - Balance of the Planet 21st Century.

[Chris Crawford]

You know, Bill, Balance of the Planet has held up pretty well over the last twenty years. Balance of Power is completely obsolete now, but Balance of the Planet still works. In fact, the few more recent attempts to handle environmental issues are much more impressive cosmetically, but still don't approach the sophistication of the model used in the BotP. Will people never learn?

[Laura]

I had the same reaction Chris Conley did -- I didn't see it as a review of BoP2k but rather as a jumping-off point for an argument he wanted to make about interactive art and propaganda. There's a big discussion to be had there about propaganda and art. I disagree with his premise; propaganda and political opinion is not the same thing. Some of the best art is political. A classic example is 1984. Deeply political but not propaganda.

I do need to ponder this some more about where I find the dividing line between political art and propaganda. I'll be back if I can think of anything useful to add.

[billmaya]

Chris Crawford, on Aug 8 2009, 10:56 AM, said:

You know, Bill, Balance of the Planet has held up pretty well over the last twenty years. Balance of Power is completely obsolete now, but Balance of the Planet still works. In fact, the few more recent attempts to handle environmental issues are much more impressive cosmetically, but still don't approach the sophistication of the model used in the BotP.

I agree. In fact, I think I have a Balance of the Planet port on my list of Storytron ideas. Though it's technically not a story I think the Storytron engine could handle such a simulation. Any takers?

[Laura]

I don't see it as playing to Storytron's greatest strengths. (That said, I fully expect authors to take SWAT places we never dreamed of...)

[Facundo]

Quoting the article:
> Thus, Balance Of Power: 21st Century really exists for the sole purpose of reinforcing existing convictions/opinions [...]
> [...] Was Balance Of Power meant to re-embolster America’s moral superiority?
> If not, why make entertainment out of a non-trivial subject matter?

These are strong claims to do without evidence. That's why I'm not impressed. However, the ideas presented on the relation of truth with politics and media constitute an interesting topic.

[RickSmith]

Chris Crawford, on Aug 7 2009, 06:02 PM, said:

I just today was referred to this review of BoP2K: ... It's rather long-winded, and I was particularly struck by the intellectual gymnastics that permit the author to condemn BoP2K as an example of Western imperialist propaganda, while simultaneously denouncing climate change. Thus, the author manages to place himself firmly on the fringes of both the left wing and the right wing. ...

Perhaps this suggests that the "left - right" political model is so simple minded as to be useless. I think so anyway. Jerry Pournelle wrote an essay which mapped political groups into a 2 dimensional space which works better than the linear left - right model. I've seen other, more useful, political models by other people as well.

As for his review, it is clearly claptrap. ANY game that purports to say something about the real world will have simplifying assumptions based on the designer's biases. I'm supposed to put things I DON'T think are important in to my design??? Are we to stop building games, writing or thinking because there is a bias???

On one hand he bemoans that games have American propaganda in them. Later he talks glowingly of how any such games should support his view point (in order to be fair and to get the Middle East to sympathize with America). Clearly he is pissed that someone is making a statement which is not HIS statement.

As for his comments on Propaganda in games his argument is muddy. A much more interesting take on the idea can be found in the essays in "The Science of Diskworld" (1 & 2) which discuss how people use stories to map reality.


I read another review of BotP2K which I felt was much more telling. The reviewer basically said, "I use nukes to blow up the world and win. Trivial effort. Nice lesson there." I think if someone uses the nuke everything strategy, the message at the end of the game should have something along the lines of, "Your evil & horrible deeds force the world to do your bidding but at the cost of the hatred of most people on the planet. A majority of people think Americans are indeed the Great Satan. American grandchildren are shot in the back for more than 200 years. Americans fear to travel abroad. Bombs and plagues are shipped into the nation. Congratulations on your 'win'."

This would help put such a win in context. However, that is just my sour grapes because BotP2K does not support MY political statement.

Warm regards, Rick.

[Chris Crawford]

The "omni-nuke" strategy used to work on an old version, but I took steps to prevent that. Try it now. Heh heh heh.

[Alex Vostrov]

He didn't seem to be writing about the storyworld at all. Instead of grappling with the procedural meat of the work, he attacked the country descriptions. Sounds to me like someone with an axe to grind and unwilling to really engage with the ideas. In general, the only thing I was impressed by is the man's strawman-slaying skills.

He bemoans the invasion of political influence into the interactive sphere, but doesn't answer what would be a better way to address these issues. While some argument can be made that BoP2k is USA-centric, it's an honest representation of the creator's opinions. Instead of discussing the specifics that he disagrees with, he seems to disdain such discussion altogether, labeling it as propaganda.

To summarize, while I'm happy that people take BoP2k seriously enough to write such screeds, I wish that the author took his opinions seriously enough to communicate them more clearly. Perhaps if he made an anti-government conspiracy storyworld, his worldview would be more apparent.