Balance of Power: 21st Century Review
Today, I have invaded Pakistan and installed a puppet regeme. After applying intense diplomatic pressure, the new government agreed to catch Osama bin Laden, who has been hiding out in the mountains. Success! Shortly thereafter, China invaded the Scarborough Shoal and Congress passed a resolution to reprimand me for my neglect. Things got so bad that I had to resign; I was later replaced by a new charsmatic leader, promising change. I guess the people were still a bit mad about the UN censuring me at the request of North Korea. In my defence, I didn’t think that anyone would mind when I bombed Afganistan. Hrmph.
All of the above happened during one playthrough of “Balance of Power: 21st Century” – Chris Crawford’s new interactive creation. “Who the heck is Chris Crawford?”, I hear you ask. Crawford is the most important game designer who you’ve never heard of. He made several hit games during the Atari years and then went into self-imposed exile, disgusted with what the industry has become. In general, picture him as an Old Testament prophet coming out of the desert to prophesize doom and you won’t be too far off. All this time, he’s been working on the next big thing in interactivity – storyworlds.
Crawford’s big complaint with the games industry is that it’s prematurely short-circuited itself by focusing on action and resource management games. Storyworlds (don’t call them games, or Crawford will knock down your door) are about interacting with virtual characters. People with emotions, maybe even hopes and dreams. In short, Chris intends to give interactive works what they’ve lacked all this time – a soul.
Balance of Power is Crawford’s flagship product for bringing storyworlds to the masses. For a technology that promises interaction with simulated people, it’s a bit of an odd choice, since you deal with countries. The answer from the Storytron people is that this is merely dipping a toe into the pool, with more to come. You are placed in the shoes of President Bush after the September 11th attacks. You have a variety of goals to choose from, such as capturing Bin Laden or achieving peace in the Middle East. Once you pick a goal, you apply diplomatic and military pressure to get what you want. For example, to get Afganistan to hand over Bin Laden, you can ask Pakistan for help. If you’re not the diplomatic type, you can invade or launch airstrikes. That will probably have consequences though, like my episode with North Korea.
Overall, Balance of Power is a brave venture into uncharted territory. The question is, does it succeed in navigating the wilds or does it become alligator chow along the way? In this case, the answer is mixed since the game is interesting but flawed. Very few have attempted anything like this before, so it’s inevitable that the first step forward has some blemishes.
A lot of times I felt like I wanted to do something that wasn’t allowed by the storyworld. During my saber-rattling with Pakistan, I wanted to scare them a bit by threatening to buddy up with India. Unfortunately, this was not an allowed option. Another time, I wanted to suck up to Russia so that they would pressure China. Couldn’t I have tossed them a couple of Eastern European countries to tide them over?
Thinking about my experience with BoP, I realize that Crawford has succeeded more than I realized at first. In what game can you plot to pressure a country diplomatically into submission? Have you been lectured by your in-game companions for shooting things too eagerly lately? The problem with BoP is that it unleashes all kinds of expectations about what you should be able to do. The truth is that international politics is a titanic subject that can’t be described in one work. As a result, any product that attempts to deal with a topic such as the role of the US President in the world will inevitably feel confined.
The difference is this: in games, we accept our chains. Game characters act like idiots, players shoot everything in sight and complicated disputes can be setted by singing “give peace a chaaaaance.” We see this and do not blink an eye becuse we’re used to it. BoP challenges those assumptions and breaks the chains. Sadly, it cannot quite contain what it has unleashed.
You owe it to yourself to try Balance of Power. For all of its flaws, it’s a window into another world. A hundred years from now, when when we chat with our computers about the day’s events, we will look at this time and see the beginning of something amazing. How many novels have you read that were about shooting monsters in corridors or managing resources? Eventually the games of today will become a niche and storyworlds about people will dwarf them in content. Until then, you can play Crawford’s first storyworld and imagine what may be. There is a long way from here to there, but this is the first step across the bridge.
I know that after I’m done with this post, I’ll be trying to bring peace to the Middle East. How hard can it be?
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