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Tuesday, November 5, 2013

The Anarchist's Manifesto (NaGaWriMo Day 5)

Day 5 of National Game Writing Month! These game concepts are silly one-offs that will never be considered for production. If you’re inspired by one, feel free to use it, but it would be nice if you told me!

This game is in honor of today being Guy Fawkes Day. A day to celebrate the anarchist in all of us. So I present The Anarchist’s Manifesto. A game that asks a very simple question: What do you do after you have set the world on fire?

Part 1 of the game is the anarchy part. You forge tenuous alliances with all kinds of crazy factions that seek to topple all the same governments and big business that you do. Then you promptly turn on them and send them down as well. For a time you worked nicely with the left wingers, the right wingers, the tea-party-ers, the communists, the socialists, the neo-nazis, the extremists, the terrorists, and the genuinely unhappy. At one point they shared a similar goal as you did. But once it was complete and the corrupt power of the day was brought down, you turned on them as well. Such is the life of an anarchist.

Part 2 tasks you with dealing with the consequences of your actions in part one. What do you do after you have set the world on fire? There is now mass starvation, looting, rioting and death in the millions. No more governments, no more business, and no more crazy factions either. Just you and the innocents left over.  Anyone can tear down, but do you have what it takes to rebuild? Do you remember or agree with any of those crazy factions from before? Do you think you can do better? Or are you going to let that be someone else’s problem?

The Anarchist’s Manifesto tasks you, the player, with not only being an object of destruction, but a tool for rebuilding as well.

“The roots of the word ‘anarchy’ are ‘an archos,’ ‘no leaders,’ which is not really about the kind of chaos that most people imagine when the word ‘anarchy’ is mentioned. I think that anarchy is, to the contrary, about taking personal responsibility for yourself.”

- Alan Moore

Want to do your own NaGaWriMo? Write a good one and include the hash-tag!

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