What's happening / TLDR: Developer diaries introduce details of Espiocracy - Cold War strategy game in which you play as an intelligence agency. You can catch up with the most important dev diary (The Vision) or find out more on Steam page.
Hi Folks!
The struggle between ideologies was central to World War II, Cold War, and War on Terrorism. It will also be the pivotal part of Espiocracy.
Paraphrasing Richard Feynmann, in order to model an ideology from scratch, the game first invents the universe. Historical events before 1946 and events happening during player's campaign - from military invasions to bestselling books - have not only physical consequences, but are also met with mental reaction of populations and individual actors. This reaction is represented by a view: mix of opinion, worldview, and belief.
Views build ideologies. But it doesn't end there, as some views can become more than tenets of ideologies: they represent collective memory, cultural transmission, long-held grievances, exceptionalism, discrimination, myths, conspiracy theories, and everything in between.
Transcript: Events influence population and non state-actors by changing views held by the people. Acquired views, in turn, affect decisions which lead to further events.
In this system, views essentially tie causes with effects. They provide reasons behind decisions made by actors and reactions to consequences of these decisions. Moreover, views affect other views both in evolution over time and in specific decisions, creating symphony of history played by an orchestra of views. And you modify the ensemble in the middle of performance (by assassinating the violinist and blackmailing the pianist).
Example Views
Technically, a view in the game is mental state towards a subject. States can be as simple as "pro-" or as multilayered as "resentment". Subjects touch everything that exists or can be done in the game world.
There was a single very prominent view which dominated political decisions and lives of populations during the Cold War:
Transcript: Fear of nuclear war. Recent influences: +3.04 New Yorker report, +0.22 collective memory. Main cause: Hiroshima bombings (1945). Influence on other subjects: -0.6 war, +0.1 religion, +0.7 military. Direct effects: preparing for nuclear war, decision paralysis.
Its prevalence has been recently increased by famous John Hersey's report about irradiated victims of atomic bombs. The view has strong connections to other views: holders want to avoid the war but at the same time they support expansion of defensive military capabilities. Directly in decision making, as we would expect from fear, sometimes it motivates preparation and sometimes it delays engagement. Will Soviet leader dive head-first into Korean War, given his fear of nuclear conflict? Are people going to elect a warmongering candidate, when their children are raised on "Duck and Cover"? How decades of life in fear will affect a generation that no longer remembers the hell of Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
Views are usually local - their causes can be similarly intimate. German populations begin with:
Transcript: Guilt after the war. Recent influences: +0.10 collective memory. Main cause: Holocaust (1942-1945). Connections: -0.8 violence, -0.6 military, -0.5 war, -0.2 nation. Direct effects: willing to make reparations, avoiding aggressive decisions.
This view, recognized by Carl Jung as Kollektivschuld, is not without controversies, but there is no hidden bias - the game is clear about assumptions being made. Pacifying effect of guilt after the war is strong. It may loom over local population and politicians for decades, maybe even continue into the 21st century. Is it possible to push population holding this view into a war? Can patriotic views survive the stigma? Are foreign powers going to use and abuse this view against the national interest?
Transcript: "Diese Schandtaten: Eure Schuld!" - "These atrocities: your fault!". Campaign of US War Department.
Example Ideology
Ideologies in Espiocracy will be represented by hierarchical lists of views with common maintainers and sources (causes).
Transcript: Government ideology - stalinist communism. Views: cult of Joseph Stalin, pro-authoritarian, focus on industry, blaming landowners, pro-collectivist, solidarity with workers, solidarity with peasants, anti-capitalist, superiority of state planning, blaming bourgeois, expecting class conflict, anti-colonialist, socialism in one country. Sources: Capital by Marx (1867-1883), Lenin works (1893-1923), Stalin constitution (1936).
(Views can have special names. Here, "socialism in one country" is pro-isolationist view - not ideal but good enough as a model of influence on decisions.)
The list is not fixed: views and their order evolve over time. Changes (up to introduction of new sources) are made by maintainers - leaders, political parties, other actors - who also popularize the whole ideology and its constituent views. Popular support of the ideology depends on alignment between its views and population's views, which is recognized and utilized by political entities. This is two-way street: populations and ideologies influence themselves back and forth. On top of that, given special causes, some ideologies are directly supported or opposed (you can't have McCarthyism without anti-communist view!).
Ideologies here are understood as political ideologies, which usually guide actions of a political party, movement, or even guerilla group:
Transcript: Other political ideologies. Social democracy (45%, SPD). Christian democracy (23%, CDU). Nazi fascism (20%, illegal). Liberal democracy (11%, LDP).
Ideologies are fairly granular. It's not enough to have communism or even Soviet communism - stalinist variant is the level that Espiocracy aims for, allowing modelling of stalinism pushed into eastern and southern Europe, later takeover by revisionists, and Sino-Soviet divide with famous "70% right, 30% wrong". This is heavily utilized by the simulation: ideologies are split like religious heresies, general ideologies are used as a foundation for more detailed systems, some actors can create new political approaches.
International spreading of ideologies is as central to the game as has been to the Cold War. Alignments between ideologies control diplomacy. Friendly relations are natural for countries believing in similar views - and vice versa, hostilities can be fueled solely by ideological antagonisms. The map is painted with ideologies. Their promotion, installation or even imposing is one of the main ways to win the game.
Interacting with Views & Ideologies
An intelligence agency is ideally suited for the interaction with views and ideologies. By targeting actors and launching propaganda campaigns, you will:
- Influence elections
- Ignite and accelerate social conflicts
- Instigate strikes, insurgencies, civil wars
- Mold existing ideologies
- Eliminate ideologies (legally or even entirely, do you remember how stalinism withered away?)
- Change views of individual actors
- Manufacture views and ideologies
- Counter foreign propaganda campaigns
- Deal with views held by your operatives
Final Remarks
Screenshots are obviously very early work in progress. Many topics touched today will be expanded in further dev diaries. At the end of the day, dev diary is meant to be just a short introduction - there's much more to the implementation of views and ideologies in Espiocracy (for instance, subjects are organized by word2vec-inspired system), which I hope you'll test with your own hands!
The next dev diary - "Populations" - will be posted on August 20th.
If you're not already wishlisting Espiocracy, consider doing it:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1670650/Espiocracy/
There is also a small community around Espiocracy:
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"We are governed, our minds molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of" - Edward Bernays