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There are countless games that simulate worlds and societies with hierarchical structures (you are a god, you are a military leader, you are a business owner, you are a football club manager, etc). Are there any games that explore player agency within an anarchic context? I’m not asking for examples with mere absence of visible hierarchy (e.g. OpenSuspect) but rather simulations of explicit anarchist dynamics and horizontal structures.

I’m interested less in games that portray anarchy as an unstable state of social unrest (i.e. rioting), but rather as a stable state of being and living for human beings.

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[-] riwo 1 points 1 month ago

your title says books but the post body says games. which one are u looking for?

either way, i absolutely agree and crave for anarchist fiction and games.

  • the only book i know that portraits an imo authentic anarchist society, is the lovely sci-fi novel "walk away".
  • of cours the sci-fi novel "the disposessed" portaits a society that calls itself anarchist, but it is much more a criticism of a flawed pseudo anarchist society.
  • a society that is called anarchist by the author, is also featured in the sci-fi novel "children of time", and i can see where they are comming from, but also the great discrimination and the omnipresent small scale hierarchies make me think of it as an anarchism in need of improvement.

in terms of games, not much comes to mind.

  • "dying light 2" has a main faction that organizes mostly horizontal and i think is intended to be an anti-authoritarian counter pole to the authoriarian faction. they still have leaders and use money and all that, but it is one of the most anarchist post apocalyptic fictional societies i have seen so far.
  • it has been a while, but iirc the lovely "bloom & rage: lost records" has a friend group of equals at its center. i think there are probably many games that focus on small friend groups/teams like that.

that's it from my side. do you have any recommendations?

this post was submitted on 02 Aug 2021
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