Games and Political Thrillers

[Mazer]

I'm not much of a gamer but this one looks interesting. Empire is going to be a video game about a 21st century red state vs. blue state American civil war, and before the game is released a novelization of the story will be published. Video games and politics usually don't share screen time so I'm looking forward to this one. I'm posting this here because chapter two of the book (linked below) is quite a different take on the current political situation and it makes a good case for the possibility of Democrats and Republicans taking up arms against each other in the near future. The implicit question it posits is whether it's better to give up on the idea of American republic (what most people call democracy) in order to save the lives of millions of citizens.



Advent Rising devs unveil first game from new studio
Empire to be Chair Entertainment's debut title; Orson Scott Card to write novelization for futuristic tale of second US Civil War.

By Patrick Caldwell, GameSpot
Posted Jun 27, 2006 2:20 pm PT


If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.

Or so says a team of former Advent Rising developers. After the retail and critical disappointment of last year's Advent Rising, which featured a story penned by sci-fi writer Orson Scott Card, a handful of developers departed from that game's developer, GlyphX Games. They formed their own company, Chair Entertainment, and have announced their first game, Empire--again featuring a science-fiction story in collaboration with writer Card.

But this time, the typical video game adaptation cycle is flipped. Chair Entertainment created the story of Empire, while Card is adapting it to his medium of choice. Card's Empire is set to be released in November by Tor Books.

While details of Empire's gameplay are sparse (it will be a first-person shooter running on Unreal Engine 3, as first reported by fan site FiringSquad), the game's backstory is much more fleshed out. Empire is set amid a second civil war in the United States that takes today's partisan politics to extremes.

"The American Empire has grown too fast, and the fault lines at home are stressed to the breaking point," reads the book's description. "The war of words between Right and Left has collapsed into a shooting war, though most people just want to be left alone."

As Republicans and Democrats in the United States gear up for November midterms, Card's adaptation will introduce the book-reading public to the franchise before game players get a chance to play through the story. Chair Entertainment hopes its partnership with Card will boost Empire, with its politically charged storyline, to a new level.

"Given the current state of politics and the upcoming fall elections, we think the timing for this story couldn't be better," Donald Mustard, creative director at Chair Entertainment, told GameSpot. "[It] is certainly going to have people talking."


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Read the first five chapters of Empire by Orson Scott Card