[RPG]: Dystopia - The Corp. Series: America 2155AD, reviewed by Bones (4/4)

http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/9/9545.phtml

Bones's Summary:

Bring down the establishment in a desolate corporate future!

Go to the full review for more information.

Post originally by Richard B. at 2003-08-13 09:30:23
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Sympathizing with the anti-globalization movement is VERY politically correct, and in total accord with the ecological, anti-evil corporation, left-leaning, anti-religious, pro-native indian, pro-new age, anti-technology, pro-labour unions, pro-racial minority, pro-feminist, pro-sexual whatever, etc. tone found in the mainstream gaming industry (e.g. White Wolf's World of Darkness, Cybergeneration rpg, Underground rpg, The End, Cyberpunk rpg, Shadowrun rpg, etc.)

Since this game does not contest the usual left-leaning media culture on which most people have grown, I don't believe it's much of a change from the casual perspective of most roleplayers... If you'd have PCs opposing ecological groups, defending economic freedom and conservative or libertarian ideals, pro-christianity, opposing vegetarianism/riots, anti-abortion, or racially offensive, etc, now you'd have something politically incorrect - and a game that wouldn't sell because the mainstream RPG subculture, at least the part interested by politics, is already left-leaning.

Just consider how players react negatively when they see very politically incorrect "Christian rpgs"... Being mainstream is being left-leaning these days, so to be politically incorrect, you'd have
to uphold ideas shocking to people (e.g. "Startrek is for loosers", "Vampires are pansies"), which this game doesn't.

Post originally by Zer0theher0 at 2003-08-17 01:42:10
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What I was thinking.Perhaps he just picked it up from the gamebook,but the review itself even uses lefty buzzwords(phrases?)like "oppressors" and "unequal distribution of wealth" etc.
I'd rather play a game where you oppose sixties "lethals" like the Weathermen,or modern groups like ELF who like to blow up car lots and campus research labs for Gaia.
New bumper sticker: "Kill a kkkapitalist for Mother Earth".

Post originally by Richard B. at 2003-08-19 12:42:43
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Agreed... It's strange that the RPG milieu shows such a bias for socialist politics, considering that all economic analysis conclude that state interventionnism in private choices brings poverty. As if wishful thinking about "nice" ideas
to hard facts. But Roleplayers are dreamers, so there might come a part of this problem grasping reality...

Perhaps early hostilities by some Christian groups hostile to RPGs fuelled this sentiment, but it's not sufficient to warrent such a great number of politically correct RPGs on the market. White Wolf is especially biased in this regard.

It might not be a coincidence that education in "social sciences" brings out often left-leaning tendencies, considering that teachers
spread the ideology of state-expension at the expense of freedom of choice, since it benefits their own interest to see government monopolies expand.

Post originally by Jeremy at 2003-08-20 16:38:08
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My god, it sounds like a program that could appear on the BBC or CBS...

In case you hadn't noticed, these days it's politically incorrect to be pro-capitalism/corporations, not vice-versa.

Post originally by Not PC at 2003-09-15 23:45:15
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Have you noticed that even the mention of anti-capitalist sentiment in modern-day amerikkka places you in the same catagory as Osama Bin Ladin or John Walker Lindh? The FBI list of people who should be considered terrorists encompases everything from people who carry around the constitution of the United States to anyone who belongs to a milita or thinks that owning guns is OK. Maybe you have been imersed in leftist culture to the extent that things like blowing up corporations is par-for-the-course but the rest of us live in Ashcroft's AmeriKKKa where any mention of terrorism or standing up for your rights is met with ridicule or worse.
I hope that pigames puts out more books for this so that we know just what the @!#$ this "Gavin" guy is thinking. He seems to be on the right track but I want to see more... much more.
I have been playing Dystopia almost since it was released and it works prety well... there are a few things that don't make sense or I am uncertain about but If they would just put out more info I am sure that it would work.
My players like the game the way that I run it but I always have to make up so much @!#$ that I am not sure that I am doing it right.
I don't really care but I would like to see more.
I don't feel that this game is PC and I don't play it like it is. We kill a lot of player characters in our adventures and blow up a lot of stuff. It is fun to play but too sparse to create really good epics of destruction.
If you think that this game is PC then you must be an anarchist or a media leftist who is imersed in the "movement" If so, cudos, but the rest of AmeriKKKa is not with us. They fear things like this. They are not open-minded enough to see the realities of the corparations.
I have to assume that the previous two posters do not live in the midwest. If they did, they would have a much different view of this game which I think is outstanding if small.
Resist the Mother!
DK