My idea for a game possibly noone but me would pla

[Chromeo]

y.

Okay so I was in the shower and I wanted to write this down before I forgot because I personally thought it was a pretty cool idea, it's the game of First Contact.

Let's say you play as an alien species and you come across the verdant planet Earth and it's inhabitants. It's your job to manage the first contact and relations between the two species in an attempt to accomplish your own objectives, whatever they may be. I was thinking this game would be best if it was a wide range of options/playstyles, so your objective might be to facilitate an exchange of ideas to enrich both your species and solve a crisis of cultural stagnation on your homeworld, or perhaps Earth is the site of a resource your species is in desperate need of, or perhaps one that it is not desperately in need of, but would like (this way you'd have less support from home but you'd be more free to approch the situation how you like, plus the profit is all yours), or maybe your goal is military dominion over this pathetic species.

Whichever objective you'll have to deal with the Earthlings, who will have their own expectations, feelings, et cetera. Of course we can't simulate every human so I thought it would be better to seperate them into cultural strata like in Democracy, for those of you who haven't played it, which I guess it all of you, people in Democracy can belong to up to three social groups which each have their own likes and dislikes and can be influenced accordingly, I also thought the game would be more interesting if there were a variety of options around the Earth itself, will you arrive to find a progressivist scientific utoipia or a warring group of superstates, a theocratic society, or a variety of states with different characteristcs with a somewhat uneasy peace like today?

cont.

[Chromeo]

I figured every geographical region would have its own characteristics, unless you arrived to find a one world government obviously, so let's take the present world as an example, let's say two of the superstate regions would the European Union, and NAFTA also incorporating Australia + New Zealand (perhaps, I dont know how much they really have in common though), so the EU region would have an established political order of Social Democracy, a religious affiliation of Secularism leaning Christianity (the NAFTA on the other hand would probably have Christianity leaning Secularism and say the Middle East might have Islam with no Secular leaning).

Religion would be important because the hardline supporters of established religion would probably be hostile of your species unless you did certain things (perhaps in response to a news story where a prominent cleric accuses you of masquerading as gods by making a statement that 'we are not gods, we respect your relgion', or alternatively really making them mad by saying 'we are in fact gods, bow to us' which wouldnt win you any goodwill with traditional believers and would probably make the secularists nervous too, but might increase the number of new age alien worshippers who have cropped up after your arrival and have the potential to displace traditional religion.

Politics like I previously mentioned would be important too, obviously Socialist and Capitalist countries have different characteristics and there would be Dictatorships too, and in the more exotic scenarios maybe large Facist or Theocratic nations. Your outside influence, technology et cetera could even create resentment (or alternatyively goodwill), and spur nations to war which may be either a tragic accident or exactly what you were intending depending on your wishes.

Your species will have some ideology too, perhaps your ship is a democracy itself and you must manage the support of your people for your actions, or you may be a totalitarian society and you must crush dissent among your crew to be seen as a strong leader. Either way this would affect how the humans see you depending on their own ideology.

to be cont. later when I get back, I have to go out

[Pyro ᵛᵉʳᶦᶠᶦᵉᵈ ✔]

It sounds good up to the part where you said "It's your job to manage the first contact and relations..."

Now lets hear more about that shower?

SPOILER: Click to show

jk sounds good you should make the game

[Mastery]

Didn't read the whole thing yet but this does seem like a cool game idea. Did you check if anything similar has been done?

[Pyro ᵛᵉʳᶦᶠᶦᵉᵈ ✔]

Mar 31, 2012 18:49:13 GMT -5 Mastery said:

Didn't read the whole thing yet but this does seem like a cool game idea. Did you check if anything similar has been done?

Yeah it has been. Redneck Rampage.

[Chromeo]

That's nothing like my idea. >_>

And I've never heard of anything like it and I probably would have since I look for that sort of thing, I took inspiration so far from Democracy, Fate of the World, and Galactic Civilisations II, but none of them are actually about this. I think it's a cool idea but I can't do game making so I guess it'll just have to stay an idea.

[Pyro ᵛᵉʳᶦᶠᶦᵉᵈ ✔]

Is that what Kode said I forget.