keywords: thriller, politics, international
Reviews & Commentary:
Players' Ratings:
Andrew Glassner, writer-director, computer consultant, author of Interactive Storytelling: Techniques for 21st Century Fiction:
"This is one hell of an achievement. Technically, the program ran flawlessly (that alone is a feat!). Artistically, the game takes on an ambitious topic that is both relevant and interesting. Clearly there is a lot of love and labor in this project, and it shows. It was fun to play through the game, making a lot of stupid choices and watching how they played out (it turns out that doing nasty things to other people causes them to dislike you—who knew?). My hat's off to everyone involved for producing this impressive work. Congratulations!" ________________________________________
Patrick Dugan, game designer, on PlayThisThing.com:
"Was Chris Crawford right? ... I'll put it this way: the engine has powerful and systematic means of combining enjoyment of play with the haunting effects of a game teaching you something about yourself. ... The sense of getting unexpected responses from the characters makes you look past the lo-fi visuals and amplifies even the basic facial expressions, you laugh, you get angry, you get crafty. There's a whole new form of play in trying to infer the social machinations of others, and there are many, many permutations. Finally, the publishing barriers with Storytron are just the time it takes you to get up the learning curve and make something. Games that move us and set new highs have been exceptional instances of talented people working hard with little funding, we've reviewed a lot of these games, but I have hope that Storytron, in its own zany, Crawford-esque way, will contribute to an ecology of many people making games that matter. We could be near an inflection point where meaningful play is the rule rather than the exception, and the old wizard has weighed in on this great transmutation."
________________________________________
Alex Vostrov, financial software developer by day, game designer by night:
"You owe it to yourself to try Balance of Power. For all of its flaws, it's a window into another world. A hundred years from now, when when we chat with our computers about the day's events, we will look at this time and see the beginning of something amazing. How many novels have you read that were about shooting monsters in corridors or managing resources? Eventually the games of today will become a niche and storyworlds about people will dwarf them in content. Until then, you can play Crawford's first storyworld and imagine what may be. There is a long way from here to there, but this is the first step across the bridge.
I know that after I'm done with this post, I'll be trying to bring peace to the Middle East. How hard can it be?"
"This is one hell of an achievement. Technically, the program ran flawlessly (that alone is a feat!). Artistically, the game takes on an ambitious topic that is both relevant and interesting. Clearly there is a lot of love and labor in this project, and it shows. It was fun to play through the game, making a lot of stupid choices and watching how they played out (it turns out that doing nasty things to other people causes them to dislike you—who knew?). My hat's off to everyone involved for producing this impressive work. Congratulations!" ________________________________________
Patrick Dugan, game designer, on PlayThisThing.com:
"Was Chris Crawford right? ... I'll put it this way: the engine has powerful and systematic means of combining enjoyment of play with the haunting effects of a game teaching you something about yourself. ... The sense of getting unexpected responses from the characters makes you look past the lo-fi visuals and amplifies even the basic facial expressions, you laugh, you get angry, you get crafty. There's a whole new form of play in trying to infer the social machinations of others, and there are many, many permutations. Finally, the publishing barriers with Storytron are just the time it takes you to get up the learning curve and make something. Games that move us and set new highs have been exceptional instances of talented people working hard with little funding, we've reviewed a lot of these games, but I have hope that Storytron, in its own zany, Crawford-esque way, will contribute to an ecology of many people making games that matter. We could be near an inflection point where meaningful play is the rule rather than the exception, and the old wizard has weighed in on this great transmutation."
________________________________________
Alex Vostrov, financial software developer by day, game designer by night:
"You owe it to yourself to try Balance of Power. For all of its flaws, it's a window into another world. A hundred years from now, when when we chat with our computers about the day's events, we will look at this time and see the beginning of something amazing. How many novels have you read that were about shooting monsters in corridors or managing resources? Eventually the games of today will become a niche and storyworlds about people will dwarf them in content. Until then, you can play Crawford's first storyworld and imagine what may be. There is a long way from here to there, but this is the first step across the bridge.
I know that after I'm done with this post, I'll be trying to bring peace to the Middle East. How hard can it be?"
Balance of Power:
21st Century
21st Century
Can you save
the world?
the world?
How to Play Balance of Power: 21st Century
If you have never played a storyworld before, read How to Play first!
Then read these notes for how to play Balance of Power: 21st Century. It will greatly enhance your experience.
Balance of Power: 21st Century is a geopolitical strategy storyworld.
You begin on September 12th, 2001. You are the President of the United States and your job is to advance American interests, as expressed in a list of policy goals. These policy goals can be found by clicking on the Things button. Each of these is a policy of some sort, with its "owner" (the country that would actually do it) listed first. The USA's own policy actions are at the top of the list. If you select any of these policy goals, you will see a lot of text explaining exactly what it entails. The desirability of that policy goal to the USA is also displayed next to the bold text Undesirable_Desirable. You want to make certain that the policy goals that are desirable are eventually executed, and the ones that are undesirable are never executed. For now you can just skim through this list, but in order to do well in BoP2K, you'll need to familiarize yourself with each of these, even those that don't appear to affect you. Why? Because you will need to make deals with other countries involving some of those policy-treaties.
Your first task is to select which policy goal you want to pursue first. You'll see the incomplete sentence: "I" followed by a menu entitled "Do What?" listing two choices: "set goal" and "set goal to prevent." The first means "I want to set a goal for something I want to achieve." The second means "I want to set a goal to prevent something from happening." Select the first menu item ("set goal") and a list of twelve policies desirable to the USA is presented. This being September 12th, 2001, you want to get your hands on Osama bin Laden. Select that option and click on the little period button that appears. (It means: "period—end of sentence—that's what I want to say.")
Now the Storyteller (in the guise of Fate) gives you some information that will help you. It says: "Fate presents background briefing about Afghanistan: its government is medium-small popular and its insurgency is small powerful. The government's resistance to your attempt will be super-huge." On the right (purple) side of the window, your "Do What?" button lists twelve possible actions you could take. That's a lot of choices!
If you're not sure what any of the options means, just 'hover' your mouse over it (put the mouse directly over it and wait for one second without moving the mouse). A little blue box will pop up giving you a quick explanation of what that verb entails. For now, I ask you to select the option "ask for help." A new menu shows up, asking "Who?" That is, whom do you want to ask for help? Let's play it safe and ask the European Union (EU) for help; they're pretty sympathetic to our desires.
Now there's another menu asking "How much?" It wants to know how fervently you are asking. This is an important decision. You could use, say, "extra tiny," which means that you are asking without any sense of urgency or importance. Or you could use extra huge, which means that you're down on your knees begging. The good news is, the more fervently you make your request, the more likely the EU will be to agree to do it. The bad news is that, the more fervently you make your request, the more prestige you lose in the eyes of the country you're asking. In effect, you're making yourself look weak when you ask for help. You're also saying, in effect "I'll owe you if you do this for me."
Fortunately, the EU is such a good friend that you don't need to ask very fervently. So just use extra tiny. Notice how Storyteller automatically fills in the rest of the sentence so that it's clear exactly what you're doing. Now click on the period button.
Quick as a bunny, Storyteller comes back and tells you that the EU agrees to your request. Good! You can't do anything about this report, so Storyteller has filled in "OK" for you. Click on the period button.
So now on the left side you read that the EU asks Afghanistan to hand over bin Laden. Again, this is just a report confirming that the EU did as promised; all you need to do is acknowledge that fact with "OK." Click on the period button.
Aw, rats! Afghanistan refused its request. Acknowledge the report by clicking on the period.
OK, so now you're back at Square One. You have to try another approach. At this point, I'll leave it to you. Here's a quick rundown of your options:
Good luck saving the world!
Then read these notes for how to play Balance of Power: 21st Century. It will greatly enhance your experience.
Balance of Power: 21st Century is a geopolitical strategy storyworld.
You begin on September 12th, 2001. You are the President of the United States and your job is to advance American interests, as expressed in a list of policy goals. These policy goals can be found by clicking on the Things button. Each of these is a policy of some sort, with its "owner" (the country that would actually do it) listed first. The USA's own policy actions are at the top of the list. If you select any of these policy goals, you will see a lot of text explaining exactly what it entails. The desirability of that policy goal to the USA is also displayed next to the bold text Undesirable_Desirable. You want to make certain that the policy goals that are desirable are eventually executed, and the ones that are undesirable are never executed. For now you can just skim through this list, but in order to do well in BoP2K, you'll need to familiarize yourself with each of these, even those that don't appear to affect you. Why? Because you will need to make deals with other countries involving some of those policy-treaties.
Your first task is to select which policy goal you want to pursue first. You'll see the incomplete sentence: "I" followed by a menu entitled "Do What?" listing two choices: "set goal" and "set goal to prevent." The first means "I want to set a goal for something I want to achieve." The second means "I want to set a goal to prevent something from happening." Select the first menu item ("set goal") and a list of twelve policies desirable to the USA is presented. This being September 12th, 2001, you want to get your hands on Osama bin Laden. Select that option and click on the little period button that appears. (It means: "period—end of sentence—that's what I want to say.")
Now the Storyteller (in the guise of Fate) gives you some information that will help you. It says: "Fate presents background briefing about Afghanistan: its government is medium-small popular and its insurgency is small powerful. The government's resistance to your attempt will be super-huge." On the right (purple) side of the window, your "Do What?" button lists twelve possible actions you could take. That's a lot of choices!
If you're not sure what any of the options means, just 'hover' your mouse over it (put the mouse directly over it and wait for one second without moving the mouse). A little blue box will pop up giving you a quick explanation of what that verb entails. For now, I ask you to select the option "ask for help." A new menu shows up, asking "Who?" That is, whom do you want to ask for help? Let's play it safe and ask the European Union (EU) for help; they're pretty sympathetic to our desires.
Now there's another menu asking "How much?" It wants to know how fervently you are asking. This is an important decision. You could use, say, "extra tiny," which means that you are asking without any sense of urgency or importance. Or you could use extra huge, which means that you're down on your knees begging. The good news is, the more fervently you make your request, the more likely the EU will be to agree to do it. The bad news is that, the more fervently you make your request, the more prestige you lose in the eyes of the country you're asking. In effect, you're making yourself look weak when you ask for help. You're also saying, in effect "I'll owe you if you do this for me."
Fortunately, the EU is such a good friend that you don't need to ask very fervently. So just use extra tiny. Notice how Storyteller automatically fills in the rest of the sentence so that it's clear exactly what you're doing. Now click on the period button.
Quick as a bunny, Storyteller comes back and tells you that the EU agrees to your request. Good! You can't do anything about this report, so Storyteller has filled in "OK" for you. Click on the period button.
So now on the left side you read that the EU asks Afghanistan to hand over bin Laden. Again, this is just a report confirming that the EU did as promised; all you need to do is acknowledge that fact with "OK." Click on the period button.
Aw, rats! Afghanistan refused its request. Acknowledge the report by clicking on the period.
OK, so now you're back at Square One. You have to try another approach. At this point, I'll leave it to you. Here's a quick rundown of your options:
- ask: ask Afghanistan directly to hand over bin Laden. Not likely to work until after you've softened them up.
- ask for help:
ask somebody else to ask. This will soften them up a little.- offer deal:
if somebody won't ask when you request it, you can offer them a deal in which you promise to ask another party to do something that your deal-mate wants to happen, if in return your deal-mate asks Afghanistan. This can be important when you want to get an influential country to do something.- move for sanctions:
you make a motion in the UN Security Council for sanctions against Afghanistan. If this motion passes, it will weaken Afghanistan's economy, which will create political unrest that might result in a regime change. The new government might be more amenable to your request.- weapons to insurgents:
now you're getting mean. Send weapons to the insurgents in Afghanistan so that they will give the government more trouble. If you're lucky, the insurgency will topple the government and trigger a revolution. The new government will probably be friendlier to you than the old government.- intervene for insurgents:
invade. This is much more effective than merely sending weapons, but it also angers other countries even more.- airstrike:
this might generate a regime change. It will certainly upset some countries.- nuke:
this will DEFINITELY upset a lot of countries, but it will certainly clobber Afghanistan.- wait for one moment:
this is useful when you want to let the dust settle and see how the situation changes in response to your actions. After all, not everything has instantaneous results. It also helps you get on top of complicated situations in which lots of things are happening at once. If there's too much stuff happening, try this a few times to let things settle down.- inquire about preference:
this will tell you how much a country desires a certain policy to take place (or not to take place).- set goal:
give up on your current goal and set a new goal to pursue- set goal to prevent:
give up on your current goal and set a new goal to prevent something bad from happening.- ask for advice:
ask Fate for a few suggestions. They might not be workable suggestions, but they're at least a place to start.
Good luck saving the world!
Copyright © 2008 by Chris Crawford. All rights reserved.
The Emoticubes are copyright © Birdo Studio, 2006.
Thanks to StoryBoard member Nick for his suggested improvements to Storyteller's "skin."
The Emoticubes are copyright © Birdo Studio, 2006.
Thanks to StoryBoard member Nick for his suggested improvements to Storyteller's "skin."
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