Maoist video game reviews

By at 1:30 am Sunday, Feb 20

The website of the Maoist International Movement is posting reviews of popular videogames from a Maoist perspective:
"Sim City" has completely bourgeois assumptions, which is why it is not MIM's favorite economic strategy game. The mayor has the power to set tax rates and this influences the level of development. There is no option to nationalize factories. The whole assumption of the game is that private enterprise will create everything in the zones legally established by the mayor.

"Sim City" as such is about the world from the urban administration's point of view in a capitalist city. Cities compete and cooperate with each other. People who believe the mayor set taxes too high may leave the city. "Sim City" tracks population, tax revenue and expenditures. In this particular version of "Sim City," the mayor has a few more political options than in previous games. For example, s/he may opt to spend the city's money on becoming a "nuclear-free zone," which advertises that a city has no nuclear plants or weapons. Advisors to the mayor explain their opinions of the impact of each of the mayor's decisions. Mayors will necessarily have to ignore citizens and advisors from time to time. Earlier versions of the game had especially dim views of the intelligence of city residents. The 3000 edition continues that tradition with stereotypically stupid looking people petitioning the mayor for their idiotic causes.

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Cory Doctorow

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