Environmentalism
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Side Quest: Factorio Eco-run
Factorio is a game all about pollution, making it and its consequences. By attempting an eco-friendly run, I found in it a distorted reflection of humanity's relationship with the environment.
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Strategy Games and Violence
Strategy games go hand in hand with war and conflict. Why is this and what are the alternatives? The majority of strategy games revolve around conflict and war. It’s hard to even name a non-violent strategy game outside of abstract games like Go or Draughts. Even these games are arguably an abstraction of conflict, pitting two players in direct opposition. War and conflict are historic realities and sadly will continue to be in the future. So it’s right for games to explore this space. Without wanting to diminish the terrible impact of other wars, the invasion of Ukraine by Russia has particular echoes of the kind of “big fish eats…
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Side Quest: Eco
Even in the virtual world, saving the rainforest is not straight forward For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been playing a game called Eco. The premise is simple – A meteor will crash into your planet in 30 days. Starting from the stone-age, build up a civilization capable of blasting the meteor to pieces and thus saving the planet. However, you need to do it without destroying the natural environment in the process. The catch is it’s an online multiplayer game. You need to cooperate with other players and manage shared resources to make progress both towards your own personal goals and the overall save-the-planet mission. So the game…