So somewhere on the internet I found a link to this game called The Republia Times (or just Republia) by Lucas Pope. The basic idea is that you are a newspaper editor in an oppressive regime whose family is being “taken care of” by the government. You are supposed to make citizens read the paper and make them very loyal to the government. That isn’t so hard, is it?
Order is slowly returning to Republia and it's your job as newly appointed editor-in-chief of The Republia Times to keep the nation's morale high.
I am going to do a little bit of a Lets Play here. The game plays quickly, so I encourage you to go do it right now. But if you don’t want to, follow me along on my adventure.
Tic tac toe glow games. So this is the opening screen. This gives you all pertinent information about the game.
After being a successful editor of the most oppressive paper in the world, I started getting weird little red lines and messages that showed up in my “feed” of stories. I just assumed they were redacted stories that the government didn’t need to see, but then this part popped up. “Please hear me. I am Kurstov, leader of the rebellion. We need your help.” I’m going to be honest: up until this point I had no investment in the game. My family, which I assumed was supposed to be my emotional connection to the diegetic world, just didn’t resonate with me. I didn’t care if they had privileges. But the rebels speaking directly to me actually gave me pause. I continued my job as I was supposed to, but I knew immediately that I wanted to do whatever I could to help the rebels.
The rebels eventually contacted me again and told me what I had to do: gotta make people hate the government. I immediately changed what I was doing. I didn’t have big stories about celebrity weddings; I had huge hunks of page dedicated to revealing the political reeducation of teachers and professors in labor camps. After the first day, my family began to lose privileges. They didn’t matter to me. They were faceless and did not speak to me directly. They didn’t have the color red to tantalize me. My family was the subject of objective statements told to me by my overlords, and besides, they were going to be safe when the rebels won anyway.
The rebels won. My family was killed. I am offered a new job. I don’t really know what I feel, but I understand the point that the designer, Lucas Pope, is making here. Here’s the new boss, same as the old boss. And I can get behind that. A radical change in the ideology of a structure isn’t necessarily going to change the experience of people on the ground. Think of it like the American democratic process. After I got to this screen, I smiled and thought about the Emma Goldman quote where she explains that women gaining access to voting rights is really only women making sure that they are enslaved.
And now it is The Democria Times. Democracy reigns. The job stays the same.
Kona brewing company beers. Go play the game for yourself. It looks like there are a couple ways that the game can play out, and you should go try to experience them all! Also, follow Lucas Pope on Twitter.
There’s no denying it: we are all collectively going through a some weird times. It’s an experience unlike anything most people have seen in a century – a global event that has brought modern life to a standstill. Every aspect of our daily activities have been fundamentally disrupted, from how we eat, to how we work, to the fact that millions of people across the globe are being asked not to leave their homes for weeks. We can only hope that in this time everyone stays safe and healthy, and for those out there treating patients or otherwise keeping society running, particularly in the medical field, you have our profound thanks.Now, with that all said, let’s have a little fun in the meantime.Today we want to share with you what we’re calling the April Game Hike. Part gaming pictorial, part trivia challenge.
Over the course of the month we will be posting a daily picture over on our account of a game either set up ready to play or already in action. Except something will be wrong. Somewhere in the image there will contain one or more pieces from a different game instead. And it’s up to you to figure it out which game. They will also clue you in on what tomorrow’s game will be.It’s a little like Where’s Waldo, but with more cubes.Why? For fun mostly. But if enough people join in by the end, we may try to scrounge up something to celebrate with.Here are our ground rules:.
Each day we’re asking for you to comment on both games: what the current game is being shown and what game the wrong pieces belong to. The wrong game piece(s) will be, to our knowledge, unique to the game itself. The challenges will start off relatively easy but get progressively more difficult as the month goes on.So let’s get started! Follow along and join in each day using #AprilGameHike! And here is today’s.