Abstract Aspects of Society

I like sushi

I am currently trying to piece together an idea for a board game. It is an abstract representation of cultural development and interactions within and between different species. The idea is to develop these cultures over a few thousand years.

The problem I am having is narrowing down 4 key aspects of society to use as “resources” in the game.

My thoughts currently are items like “diplomacy”, “economy”, “infrastructure”, “ritual”, etc.,.

Basically from 4 key aspects it will be possible to combine them pairs to add a diverse set of options. For example “economy” and “infrastructure” would create things like trade networks and/or banking systems, whilst “ritual” and “economy” would create things like a society concerned with ecological relation, or even an economy based on warfare (raiding, crusades, cleansing, etc.)

I am trying to avoid the generic “technology tree” seen in many of these types of games and would rather focus on cultural development as the key theme of the game - the end game being about which faction has the greatest cultural influence which can be aquired several different routes (art, diplomacy, religion, war, economics, etc.,.)

Note: in the game there ae many different races.

I’ve always enjoyed combining serious research into these kinds of topics with play. It helps me to explore beyond the norm (or so I believe!)

Anyway, strange post I know. I am happy to see this take any direction and just hoping people can suggest something I’ve neglected over the past year or two of juggling with this and other game ideas.

Thanks

Galuchat

I am currently trying to piece together an idea for a board game. It is an abstract representation of cultural development and interactions within and between different species. — I like sushi

Do different species interact on a cultural level?

If culture is the collective mindset and consequent products of a social group (including social order and artefacts), then:
1) Only species which form social groups have cultures.
2) Cultural development determines social group development.

As a starting point, human culture is primarily determined by the exigencies of natural environment (physical geography, climate, and availability of natural resources).

Then human social groups progress through more complex levels of organisation (from egalitarian to hierarchical) in order to enhance quality of life.

Finally, at civilisation stage, progress is seen in terms of rise(success) and dominance (expansion).

The goal of the game is to attain the greatest level of dominance, and to delay the inevitable stagnation, decline, and fall (failure) for as long as possible.

Maybe allow for remote multi-player participation across a wide area network, and call it SimCivilisation.

I like sushi

Attributes I have to date are “social stabilty,” basically meaning that some species thrive at low complexity levels whilst others are better at higher complexity (think clan level up to, tribe, city state, nation and then empire.) That isn’t really a “resource” though in the terms of what each species is competing for. The general items of competition would be “knowledge”/“skill” (pedagogy), “economics”( which wouldn’t limit the meaning to either monetary based economies nor material based economies - “trade” of ideas, stories, songs, etc., think alien econoici structures), “diplomacy” (negotiation skills, honey tongued manipulators, amiable folk, too useful to destroy), and “military” (forceful enslavement, killing, thiefing - from which a passive race could take over from the inside, the slaves becoming stealthily influence and directing the course of the opposing faction/s via a symbiotic/parasitic relationship - a dependency tactic.)

My problem is thinking up a intuitive measure of these items that is more abstract than material.

Also trying to figure out how “ritual,” “tradition,” “language,” and “art” will play a part of this and whether to represent them in the game as mere flavours (fluff) or integral ingredients of the game play. Already decided to have influential individuals that come into play to steer the race this way or that (equiv. to history like “Homer” or “Alexander The Great”.)

Anyway, thanks for the feeback. Just need someone/thing to bounce ideas off.

Metaphysician Undercover

My problem is thinking up a intuitive measure of these items that is more abstract than material. — I like sushi

The "abstract" measure of a society might be found in one's laws. Like all abstract things, the real existence of laws and the exact formulations in historical societies is difficult to determine and gauge. However, laws may be seen as overarching and influencing all the aspects you named “diplomacy”, “economy”, “infrastructure”, “ritual”.

Here's a question to consider. Does an advanced culture have a more or less complex legal system than a less advanced one? Consider that the goal of an advanced society might be to provide maximum freedoms for its participants. So an advanced society would try to find ways to reduce the burden of unnecessary laws. For example, The Old Testament has ten commandments while The New Testament has one golden rule. And Plato, in The Republic, defines justice roughly as minding one's own business.

I like sushi

It is something I’ve thought about. For some races the idea of “laws” is mostly superfluous given that they’re hive-like or highly communal. I do have ways that laws will play a part though - this will be part of diplomacy between factions/races (a whole other problem!)

Also, there are different levels of complxeity. Some races will not be able to attain certain levels of complexity but can “jump” them by having enough low complexity societies. Think of that as something like once you reach several “clans” of a certain influence then they combine into an “empire” completely skipping the “citystate” and/or “nation” phase.

I thought about the whole “social contract” thingy and “freedom,” but haven’t seen a means to incorporate the idea.

Metaphysician Undercover

I do have ways that laws will play a part though - this will be part of diplomacy between factions/races (a whole other problem!) — I like sushi

The problem I see here though, is that laws are essentially applied within a society, they do not very well adapt to being inter-societal. In this way they act to close the society. The defining feature of "laws" is how they affect those within the society. But since they vary from one society to another, they may be the source of conflict.

We are born into a particular society and implicitly accept the laws, like the social contract of Hobbes. So the laws of a society play a large part in shaping that society, and to a lesser extend they play a part in shaping conflicts with other cultures.

I thought about the whole “social contract” thingy and “freedom,” but haven’t seen a means to incorporate the idea. — I like sushi

I would say that the form of laws is fundamental to the "shape" of the society, or what you would call "race" (btw, why use that term rather than differentiate by "culture" or something like that?). So the type of laws which are in force within the society are the defining features of that culture. You differentiate one culture from another by its formulation of laws. Then there are different means by which the type of laws can change within a particular culture. Slow and small changes occur through politics, while faster, larger changes occur through civil war, revolution, and invasion by others.

I like sushi

This is a board game with various races that have different cultures. Laws are established by biological and psychological norms.

Back to the real world the same remains true enough. There is a general consensus of what is deemed “lawful” the world over. Murder and theft are not generally encouraged in any established law, and where certain attitudes that vary from place to place abound (sex and status) generally do so due to fear of anything that is deemed “abnormal.” Yet you’ll find in many cultures certain “abnormal” attributes are imposed by the ruling classes and that once populations grow the minorities are represented enough to be deemed a “flavour” rather than a “poison” of society.

Old habits die hard though hence the persecution of what is misunderstood/feared - for quite obvious reasons. Speaking for humans, not so much for the alien kind of societies I’m thinking about fro this game, we aleast tend to be both fascinated and distgusted by anything outwardly different.

I have also kept the psycholgical make up of the races in mind too. Some of them will be incapable of liberalism some will be incapable of the concept of capitalism too.

All said and done each race will have variability (to differing degrees.) I’ll make some more rigid than humanity and some more flexible.

One race I have pretty well established in my head are quite Hobbesian. They are the brutish animalistic type who can, but rarely, rise above their “baser” instincts.

Abstract Aspects of Society

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