Civ4 - Non-State/Transnational Actors

[Kayak]

Well it apears that religion is being included on some lavel of civIV. I think that that is a no brainer. It's the other sorts of organizations that ought to be disscussed and evaluated. What about the multinational corporations or the international brotherhood of communists? That would make things more interesting in my book. Especialy if certain groups or event didn't apear in every game I played. This would make each round more unique and one wouldn't know just what to expect.

 

[dh_epic]

Yeah, corporate power is another one of those transnational actors that can be both helpful and a hinderance to your regime. The choice to cooperate or smite their power isn't a choice you make in Civ. You discover corporations, you make more money, end of story!

 

[sir_schwick]

It would also facilitate the idea of trade wars more easily. Also, what if certain trans-national actors only came to existence as an opposing form of a prominent trans-national actor. Suppose that 'labor union sentimentalism' starts to exist in places that 'coporations' were really powerful. You could choose to support unions at the cost of money but increase in populism, or support companies but risk economic or even political revolution. This kind of interaction, old gaurd vs. new, side a vs. side b, would put you in the executive rather than diety role.

 

[dh_epic]

I rather enjoy those kinds of ideas. Do you crush unions? Do you crush corporations? Do you maintain a balance of power? Do you crush both? What if your neighbor is handling their unions or corporations in a way that you don't like? What if you just hate your neighbor and want to make his life a living hell?

To me this would have huge benefits. Not unions vs. corporations per se, but the idea of managing your people's tastes and interests instead of controlling them.

 

[sir_schwick]

Also, I think the important part of trans-national actors is that no one person can completely control them. They theorhetically should transcend national boundaries, and good players try to manipulate the ones that originated in their territory.

 

[Kayak]

The other trick would be to keep the MM out. "Try to manipulate" should be the operative part of this. Nothing you do should automatically work, or produce the same results each and every time.

 

[dh_epic]

Yeah true. The biggest variables are the other players. If someone earns their favor of, say, the pope sooner, then the other players might have a hard time with their usual strategy, because the pope might be a little more pushy and tense with them. But it doesn't mean you couldn't play up something they did wrong and muscle away from control and influence from your opponent.

Think of the pope as an AI civilization that has a lot of immunity, and kind of exists without borders.