Dictator Wars: social game where you get to be a despot
Dictator Wars is the latest game from GameLayers, the creators of the Nethernet (AKA Passively Multiplayer Online Game). Justin Hall sez,
In Dictator Wars you can arrest dissident bloggers, move the national treasury into your home, and subsidize the price of oil to create religious policemen. Players can ban threatening religions, develop domestic drug production, and ride around on aircraft carriers threatening larger nations.Dictator Wars: Your Game of Supreme National Power (Thanks, Justin!)Dictator Wars is a Facebook game merging social games with geopolitical extreme leadership. To be successful, you must collaborate with your co-tyrants in Foreign Affairs. And fighting other players means putting your winter and summer palace on the line. What kind of Dear Leader will you be?
(Disclosure: I'm proud to serve on the GameLayers advisory board)
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So only male dictators can be fat?
http://lisawallerrogers.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/reagan-with-marcoses.jpg
Let's hope they actually care about their players this time, instead of screwing them over like they did with TNN.
With the disappointing end to the Nethernet ... I'm not sure I want to try this game or not.
@1
Um. I only see one fat person, happens to be male while the other males are pretty trim and buff—and I'm outraged at that. Now I fantasies of conquering the world are hammered by an insecure body image.
Perhaps you should ask, what only white religious guys can be fat. And yes, only white religious male dictators can be fat.
I agree with #3, TheNetherNet (AKA PMOG) was an exercise in user alienation with a large proportion of the player base extremely upset with GameLayers. Not only did the players make up the core of this "social game" but many of them volunteered as "stewards" to help moderate the forums and more importantly manage the growing player base, welcoming new players and moderating the chat channels.
No one got thanked and the game was closed with barely a week's notice. One can only hope all the personal information still in GL servers has been eliminated, since players can no longer access the system to protect their anonymity.
GL has fallen far from wanting to create a revolutionary game to an FB app.
I created an FB account simply to try it. Well, it was about as bad as stepping into a bathtub filled with ice, but not quite as bad as falling through the ice on a frozen lake.
Sorry.
I'm going to call this obnoxious. Who ever composed this rubbish clearly doesn't understand 'democracy,' and hasn't spent much time in any country ruled by an actual dictator.
Humor be damned. Some things simply aren't funny.
Also, in case anyone wants to reconnect with the people that were left hanging, there is a Nethernet Refugee camp with a forum, blogs and other assorted community tools to stay in touch:
http://tnnrefugees.ning.com/
It's been a wild ride to go from extreme innovation with PMOG / The Nethernet, to making something that more folks can actually grasp and play Dictator Wars. I wrote up some of our experiences and lessons here: http://interactive.usc.edu/members/jhall/archives/2009/09/gamelayers_from.html
Wow, they've gone from making an interesting new experience many people loved to joining in with the illustrious ranks of Mafia, Space, Dog, Global, Epic Pet, Kingdom, Greek, and even Lesbian Vampire Wars! I'd say that's a step up for sure!
If you want to see just what kind of path they've followed, check this out, it's 52 pages of awesome.
I was supportive of GL for a while, supporting them more than I should, and I have to say I think Cap, Duncan, and Joe (including all the others who left for one reason or another before TNN closed) got the better end of the deal.
But then again, who am I to talk?
- Zous
@10
Justin,
Your post was informative and I am glad you are aware of several of the mis-steps that brought down TNN.
However, I'd say your missing a glaring one. You already had an active community of really dedicated players. A community your previous team help built up. This is a tremendous asset and you wasted it by mis-managing the end of TNN.
Sorry, but i´m not trusting the same guys that took down the pmog(nethernet) in the worst way possible.
Sounds cool, but i´m sadly disappointed. Give us the pmog back and I will be in peace.
Let me point out that the first ever videogame about being a dictator was the very enjoyable 'Dictator', written for the ZX81 and later the ZX Spectrum in 1981 by Don Priestley
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Priestley
It was extremely simple but really amusing in an politically incorrect way...
Jaime
Honestly, I found the DW content to be pretty weak. I've given it a fair shake but it just seems to be a knock-off of Mafia Wars, Vendetta 2, etc. As far as the content goes, #8 is right, most of this stuff is way off the mark. I'd say make it either more accurate or more outlandish.
So, after getting all geeked after reading the post, I go sign up, and it's just another "* Wars" clone (Space Wars, Mafia Wars, etc.). Time to block another app from accessing my data and sending me updates :p
ALso, I didn't know about the PMOG shutdown and any of the kerfuffle surrounding it. I didn't play PMOG enough to get emotionally invested, but it sounds like that wasn't a good way for them to go.
No blond dictators?
Maybe to make this a little more real they could make a version you can play one of the wealthy oligarch who funds the despot's rise and then controls from the shadowy sidelines... fun times.
Looks like everyone's got there mind on "war" propaganda. The new German AIDS PSA has Hitler playing hide the sausage with some hottie!
What, no Obama? Liberal bias!!! ;)
COG@8:
You can bend democracy enough, so as to turn it into a dictatorship.
they forgot the capitalist dictators aka goldman sachs
@Gato:
You can't, as a matter of fact. Once it's a dictatorship it is no longer a democracy.
"Democracy is a system of government in which either the actual governing is carried out by the people governed (direct democracy), or the power to do so is granted by them (as in representative democracy)."
"A dictatorship is defined as an autocratic form of government in which the government is ruled by an individual, the dictator, without hereditary ascension."
So, either everyone has political power or a single individual does.
Playing it felt like every other facebook game out there. Assume it was the same company reskinning it yet again....
not to threadjack, but to clarify:
Chava@23:
Labels, Chava, labels... nothing is as black and white as you suggest. You can have a democratic façade, while being a de facto dictatorship. That's the essence of modern tyrannies: you do the people's will, as long as it doesn't go against your own; and when it does, you bend the rules until everything goes the way you like it.
Wow, so many Nethernet users coming out of the woodwork... gotta say I agree with the consensus, they're a great company but seriously, i still feel pretty alienated after TNN went down, and i was still in the passive mentality right to the end.
I think i'm going to skip this game, with best wishes to GL. I'll still keep an eye out for great stuff from them in the future, though
-GKM314
@Gato:
A façade is just that. An insubstantial face. Countries with a democratic façade, like Venezuela, for example, are not democracies, they are autocracies.
And don't even start with the naming. Just because your country is named the Democratic Republic of XXXX doesn't mean it is.
Specifically, in this game, it is an affront to true democracies world over to be called dictatorships. Like a poster already said, it's just plain not funny.
In the interest of fairness, I decided to actually try this. Gamelayers made a really unique and innovative game when they created PMOG/Nethernet. Dictator Wars, as other commentors have said, is nothing but a clone of Mafia Wars/Vampire Wars/etc. I'm extremely disappointed ... but unfortunately not surprised.
Bah. It's a facebook app.
I tried all the other games like mafia wars, vampire wars superhero wars etc, and none are as good-looking as Dictator Wars. Dictator Wars has great graphics, icons, missions, menu system etc. give it a try. I love it.
I'm not on Facebook and I'll never join that site.
I have a couple problems with this new game. First of all, GL's two main principles are to "use the internet as a playfield and...make games you can play throughout your day". Now, I don't quite see how the first principle can apply. Facebook is one website. When I think playfield, I think of many websites; many places.
Next, I can't figure out what to do within five minutes unlike in pmog. Am I supposed to level up to level ten? What then? At least with pmog I had the goal to create the best portals I could. I'm fine with gl making this game, but I wish they could choose names better. Lopping off the Wars off of the Dictator Wars title would have at least separated itself from all the other XWars.
Finally, it feels like everyone now is trying to use facebook and twitter as an audience. Every news station always has a report on either of the two to say: "Hey look! We're trendy! Look at us reaching a hip new audience." Truth is, they're old news. Facebook is already inundated with trite and banal games (not that dictator wars is either of these two). Because of the slew of other games, it makes this facebook game harder to stand out. I think GL should inform the public why Dictator Wars is superior to mafia wars, or as zous said, Vampire Lesbian wars. Twitter isn't a substantial "platform" for games, either because not everyone accesses twitter via phone ∴ it's not something one can play throughout the day.
I truly hope the best of luck for you gl. Time will tell if you may need it.
-M