Who am I

[Orinsul]

or potentially who are we, that is to say, who is the player in the context of the game.

The latest DD goes on about reducing the power of the State in order to reduce the amount of time the player needs to devote to every little issue, well this itself raises an issue, is the player the State?
I always took it as read that the player was rather something along the lines of the Hand of History, in a similar manner to the god of the heathen capitalists, an invisible guiding hand that sets the path of the nation and can fiddle around in a good number of its affairs, rather than the state itself. As of course though Events the player can undermine the state, and the player continues though revolutions might tear the state asunder, but the Player prevails.

So the question is dear developers and/or anyone else who feels like giving answering a go, when im playing the game, AM I THE STATE?

 

[unmerged(83789)]

I always assumed you were a great bureaucratic consciousness. That the civil service makes up a hive mind and your it but I supposes that doesn't really work.

 

[Subcomandante]

You're the spirit of history, hovering over it all, whispering into the brains of decisionmakers, lawmakers, military officers and scientists, and even the people themselves. You can be well meaning or malign, you can be competent or abysmally ignorant. Your powers of suggestion are limited however, as you cannot influence these persons to make decisions which are competely against their nature and worldview. You can change these views indirectly over time though.

Alternatively, you are the head of a secret cabal, a conspiracy deep in the bowels of the state, that propels its members into positions of importance, and bullies, blackmails or turns those who can be useful. A spider net of informants keeps you up to date with even the slightest changes in the populations' moods. You take the long view. You know their secrets, you know their desires. Your trade is power for power's sake.

 

[safferli]

I always assumed you were a great bureaucratic consciousness. That the civil service makes up a hive mind and your it but I supposes that doesn't really work.

Indeed, I see Vicky players as a sort of Sir Humphrey Appleby.

 

[DaeMoohn]

Offtopic: Did you play Floor 13?

 

[RELee]

You're a codfish!

 

[Garek Maxwell]

I always assumed you were a great bureaucratic consciousness. That the civil service makes up a hive mind and your it but I supposes that doesn't really work.

We are the bureaucrats. You will be assimilated. We will add your simple and easy methods of accomplishment to our own and complicate them. You will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile.

 

[MistMage]

We are the bureaucrats. You will be assimilated. We will add your simple and easy methods of accomplishment to our own and complicate them. You will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile.

I don't feel comfortable about how close to reality this is.

Also: I'd go with Subcomandantes version. Either of them

 

[Emre Yigit]

You're the spirit of history, hovering over it all, whispering into the brains of decisionmakers, lawmakers, military officers and scientists, and even the people themselves.

How Hegelian.

 

[telesien]

I would say that jewish-masonry supervillain supported by bankers and other influential people

 

[JimmyCos]

You're the big brother

 

[Baro]

The reptoid/ZOG/Alien conspiracy that's obviously been controlling the earth for all of history.

That or you're just the player of a historical strategy game that one shouldn't think too much about.

 

[The Andy-Man]

Offtopic: Did you play Floor 13?

Thats was a great game, though I always wondered, for whom does Mr Garcia work, and why am I always in such need of flying lessons?

 

[ddudee]

I am the "Zeitgeist". I am the collective effect of many decisions.

 

[Barón Rojo]

The Illuminati and the Rothschild family.

 

[Delegate]

l'etat c'est moi

 

[Cinéad IV]

I always consider myself to be the state - president, monarch, cabinet, departments, generals and admirals.

 

[pewpewlasers]

You can't be the head of state, the head of the military, or any political or appointed office, since you survive overthrows of government. You can only be the people. Basically, you're the country proper.

 

[Cinéad IV]

Well if the regime I'm leading ever gets overthrown, I'm simply the new regime, and behave accordingly. I'm the 'office' rather than the 'person'.

 

[Capt. Kiwi]

Thats was a great game, though I always wondered, for whom does Mr Garcia work, and why am I always in such need of flying lessons?

That is the most intriguing comment I have seen on these forums, and I beg you not to explain. The reality cannot possibly live up to all the weird possibilities such a vague statement could refer to.

As for who you are, you're not Brittania, Uncle Sam etc - the spirit of the nation seems more like the mood, the identity, the capability of the nation as far as I'm concerned. Instead, I think you're the mad doctor choosing what drugs to feed Brittania to get her mood just so, or to slowly poison her, or to get some unnatural muscle growth. You toy with the POPs, the politicians, the events happening around them, to get them just how you want (if you're skilled enough). Of course this would not apply to the first Vicky - I'm assuming things like wars and colonies are less directly caused by the player, and require the public mood to be right (which it will be due to your careful manipulation). That seems to be the direction Paradox are heading in, anyway.