Fate of the World

[Tigranes]

We ignore the glorious flowering of indie games at our peril, gentlemen. Recently released is Fate of the World, a rather prettylooking climate/environmental simulator for Earth in the near future. As I understand it, you take control of a fictional global body that uses funds from all nations to make macro-level interventions in an attempt to avert disaster.

 

10USD, or 10euro/pound inc. VAT. I think I'll pick it up, but has anyone tried it?

 

<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/5Pk3QDC84Go" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

...if only we had HTML

[pmp10]

Looks more like a card game.

A shame too as the subject could make for a good strategy title.

[WDeranged]

"The year is 2020. Climate change has been ignored. Cities are underwater. People are starving. Nations brace for war. Species are dying."

 

Oh dear, it's not meant to be funny is it, I thought they were going for a darkly satirical spin on world issues, climate change is going to have to hurry up a bit if we're to have underwater cities by 2020, at least the game looks quite nice?

 

Not for me though.

[Rosbjerg]

I have it and I quite like it.

 

It really depends on what you want from a game, it is like a card game - but you don't really think of it as cards, more like policies.. It's a very difficult game though - especially the big challenge of keeping the temp. rise under 3 degress.

 

But I recommend it.

 

Here are some screens from my game.

 

 

 

[Tigranes]

Yeah, I'm hearing that it's very difficult but I also want to use it to get myself more familiar with how all these climate/env issues work together as a whole - I think fi you just read the news every once in a while you get a very fragmented knowledge about it.

 

How expansive is the game? What I found with another indie game, Democracy was, for instance, that while it was interesting, the variables were limited and once you figured it out it was just like playing a card trick to yourself.

[Rosbjerg]

Well it's not that expansive.. and I imagine that it's similar to Deomcracy (although I haven't tried that)

 

There is 1 tutorial'ish levels (develop Africa), 1 practice (oil crisis) and 2 big ones[ (keep the temperature change under 3 degrees / destroy the Earth). Each missions has 1 overall goal, but several conditions.. For instance in the big campaign from 2020 to 2200 where you only goal is to keep the temperature down, you also loose the game if you are expelled from more than 8 regions or the average HDI of the world falls below 0,5.

 

Where the variety comes in is that you can attack the problem from a lot of directions - you may decide to stave off economic recession and/or develop the 3rd world and use the increased revenue to win with technology (this will cause massive global changes though). You may try to balance recessions with climate concerns and allow some rather nasty economic catastrophes in order to prevent natural disasters (people will hate you though) - or you may try to take a sinister approach and develop a gene-virus that kills off the 3rd world, or any region you don't like (if people find out however). Or you might try to combine them all - money is always a concern though and many of your plans are disrupted because of lack of funding.

 

I haven't found out which is best, but I'm sure that once you find out, then the game becomes repetitive.

 

But as I've said I haven't found an approach yet. I've played about 5 games and have put 17 hours of good fun into it so far. So I think I've gotten my money's worth.

 

The learning curve can be a little frustrating at times though.. I for one have tried several things I was sure of, only to see the entire world break apart because of massive wars and hunger.

 

I also want to use it to get myself more familiar with how all these climate/env issues work together as a whole

 

It's very good far that - I've learned a lot.

[greylord]

Looks interesting but Europe get's the shaft once again...it's d/l?

 

Why is it so much more cheaper in US currency then anyplace else?

 

Didn't check through, but is there an option to pay in USD instead of British Pounds or other aspect if one so chooses?

[Tigranes]

UK/EU prices include VAT, so it's fair, I"d think.

[sorophx]

I also want to use it to get myself more familiar with how all these climate/env issues work together as a whole

have you seen that documentary with Al Gore about the global warming?

[Walsingham]

It's pinging a big fat 'meh' off me. I'm afraid. Global warming? Seriously?

[sorophx]

according to him we're on the brink of collapse

[Rosbjerg]

Global warming? Seriously?

 

What do you mean? that there is no global warming?

[Walsingham]

Global warming? Seriously?

 

What do you mean? that there is no global warming?

 

I see no reason to be dishonest. I used to believe it, but I feel that any possibility of effective action being taken to tackle it is practically impossible without some sort of World Government. And since that's not going to happen without WW3 I am resolved to ignore the issue until I cannot do so any longer. Perils of democracy and all that.

 

Plus everyone I've ever met from the Green party in the UK gives me the creeping willies.

 

Consequently a game about something I'm trying to ignore doesn't really flash my turkey. If that's an expression. Which it isn't.

[Rosbjerg]

Global warming? Seriously?

 

What do you mean? that there is no global warming?

 

I see no reason to be dishonest. I used to believe it, but I feel that any possibility of effective action being taken to tackle it is practically impossible without some sort of World Government. And since that's not going to happen without WW3 I am resolved to ignore the issue until I cannot do so any longer. Perils of democracy and all that.

 

Plus everyone I've ever met from the Green party in the UK gives me the creeping willies.

 

Consequently a game about something I'm trying to ignore doesn't really flash my turkey. If that's an expression. Which it isn't.

 

Well that's also kind of what the game is about.. but fair enough, I understand your disillusion by the inaction and incompetence of world leaders..

 

Flash my turkey.. heh, I have to say that in a random conversation some time..

[Flouride]

Apparently I suck at this game. Beat the 1st mission easily. But on 2nd one no matter what I do huge global financial troubles start erupting with famine as well and the whole world hates me. I've been trying research stuff in few of the countries, getting those flood & drought systems up and running and just slowly developing the areas I'm in (I'm not going to Russia, Africa and the Middle East)

[The.Donut]

Great little game but I found it incredibly difficult. I lost the tutorial so many times it was starting to grate a bit but I'm glad I persevered.

 

Also Walsingham, as Rosbjerg pointed out, it is about a global entity being set up which has the authority to do whatever it deems necessary in any part of the world.

 

It's also pretty cynical. You can fund black ops around the world, develop gene plagues, sterilise entire continents, or just flat out ignore areas of the world and watch as they degenerate into nuclear wars and famine (which is great for reducing the worlds population and, thus, the amount of mouths to feed and carbon produced).

 

Oh and Flouride, here's how I dealt with the economic crisis (as I recall anyway). You'll want to set up Tobin Tax in every taxable country you can at the start (NA, Europe, Russia, Japan, Australia I think are the only ones at the start?) as this limits growth and gives you lots of nice money. Keep the taxes up for a couple of turns before you lose all support and keep swapping them in and out any chance you get. The global economic collapse comes about when commerce overtakes agriculture and industry as the main job sector so you'll want to play a few Grow Industry and Grow Agriculture cards to try and stave it off. Eco awareness campaigns also pay off in the long term as you can implement some otherwise controversial cards (vegetarian revolution for one).

 

With regards to research, Japan is great for robotics, Europe is great for the materials one and North America is great for infotech. Just get them going early to reap the rewards.

 

Oh and always ban clathrate mining because otherwise you get huge methane spikes which negatively affect the global temperature.

[Flouride]

Aye, I'm using tobin tax and eco awareness. Even tried using grow xxxx cards this time around. Went a bit better, then the temperature rised above 3.0 level and game ended :/

 

Damn fuel crisis.

 

Edit: At least I didn't get killed like on my last game. Rioters murdered me in GEO HQ

Edited April 10, 2011 by Flouride

[Rosbjerg]

also, see if you can stave off the worlds dependence on oil - you do that by getting cars to run on electricity, switching to biofuels and also reducing the industries dependency on coal. There's a tech that makes synthetic oil, but that's difficult to reach in time..

 

Generally you need to check the stats and info on each continent often, to see how your policies are affecting them - the oil crisis comes soon and hard if you develop China, India and the 3rd world too fast.

[Flouride]

Aye, I do have 2nd gen. Biofuels up everytime. Need to switch up to Electric cars as well. Promoting renewable energy as well in most of the places from like the 3rd or 4th turn.

 

I leave Africa alone, every single time.

 

Edit: Sweet, managed to beat it. Horrible score though 1517. Temp was 3.0 and the hdi wasn't far away from the 0.5 level either.

Edited April 10, 2011 by Flouride

[Monte Carlo]

So, this game is a piece of pernicious watermelon propaganda that endorses bogus Malthusian ideas and generally encourages the humans-as-parasites-on-Gaia myth?

[Rosbjerg]

So, this game is a piece of pernicious watermelon propaganda that endorses bogus Malthusian ideas and generally encourages the humans-as-parasites-on-Gaia myth?

 

yes, yes and no..

 

I can see that if you disagree with the premise behind the game it may be difficult to enjoy it.. I for one am quite convinced of global warming, but not so concerned about whether it's man made or not, more on how it's going to affect us and if we can do anything about it.

[Tigranes]

So I've been playing this game the last couple of days and really enjoying it, but it really does need to be more transparent about how the mechanics work. I've now played Fuel Crisis twice, crashing and burning the world once in the 70's and now in the 90's.

 

In the last game I used Tobin Tax initially and used the $ to set Middle East, Africas, etc on the right track, while going in really strong on China's energy use with Coal-Free industry & commit to nuclear. I generally used forest protection and commit/expand renewable energy, expecting that if I was consistent in pushing renewable energy and the related techs all over the world, coal emissions & oil dependency would lessen.

 

Unfortunately, the way the game calculates dependency and use seems odd to me, and certainly not easy to decipher from the game itself. Global emission increase rate steady declined and I forced it to start going down by the 70's, but simultaneously I was getting hit with massive oil shortages (eventually 100%), and soon a huge global financial crisis wiping out over 50% of the world GDP - almost as if the world was not reducing emissions by replacing coal/oil/gas use with renewables, but sort of saying "well we'll use renewables but we'll also rely heaps on oil/etc, and when that runs out we'll just cut all production by half". In the first game I also tried a global carbon trading scheme.

 

It would really help if the game had a (1) tech chart, so it's easier to see which techs can contribute to which renewable energy, and (2) charts on dependency & use, showing you clearlyl how your investment in, say, hydro, is helping phase out oil. I suspect that I need to make use of some other policies such as electric cars and actually ban Oil, even? How do I make sure the world phases out oil/etc before it runs out?

[Rosbjerg]

It would really help if the game had a (1) tech chart, so it's easier to see which techs can contribute to which renewable energy, and (2) charts on dependency & use, showing you clearlyl how your investment in, say, hydro, is helping phase out oil. I suspect that I need to make use of some other policies such as electric cars and actually ban Oil, even? How do I make sure the world phases out oil/etc before it runs out?

 

It's tricky - but it just sounded like you ran out too soon and the new tech was too expensive for the new firms perhaps? (guessing)

 

I avoided an oil crisis all together only once and that was when I pushed for new tech at turn 2. So I think it might be something to do with the availability when the oil starts running dry.. You have to implement technology to advance renewable energy (like sharing photovoltaic and deep drilling) - otherwise you can expand the oil drilling if it starts getting serious, which might cause severe ecological problems, but later tech can alleviate that.