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https://github.com/historicalsource/bureaucracy
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69 lines
3 KiB
Plaintext
69 lines
3 KiB
Plaintext
Ideas for Bureaucracy?
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The global concept for this game can be summarized by the line "Just because
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you're paranoid doesn't mean that everybody isn't out to get you."
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We've all had the feeling from time to time that somebody (particularly
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those small, beady-eyed bureaucrats who work for banks, insurance companies,
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etc.) is out to get us. This game provides the answer: In fact, there is
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a massive conspiracy to do just that. And things are stranger than that,
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because this conspiracy is centered in some sort of fantastical underground
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(literally) catacomb, connecting all of these various dens of iniquity.
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The player, when he successfully completes the game, will have the
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intense satisfaction of having crushed the nameless and faceless hoard
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of bureaucrats, and, with luck, having gotten the bank to acknowledge his
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change of address (or whatever the player's initial task is set up to be).
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--
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This game is intended as a kind of dark comedy. The mood which is to
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be created is one of frustration, anger, and eventually paranoia as
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everything in the player's life goes from bad to worse, all because
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of petty errors at the bank, etc.
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At some point, the player can gain access to the 'infernal regions',
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where some bizarre series of accomplishments will have to be made in
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order to destroy the enemy's apparatus.
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One possible source of problems is trying to do the things that
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the bureaucracy hates most: folding, spindling, and mutiliating punch
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cards, filling out forms incorrectly, perhaps stealing rubber stamps
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and stamping forms improperly, and otherwise botching up the works.
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Perhaps this type of problem in the above-ground area will help create
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a diversion allowing access to the underground where more bizarre
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things will happen.
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Presumably the game starts with the player needing to get some very
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simple task done (e.g. getting the bank to acknowledge a change of
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address form). This will turn into more of a problem than it seems
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and events will cause such things as his credit cards getting recalled,
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his house getting repossessed, etc. leading to absurd heights of
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nonsense. Clearly, at some point the player will realize that things
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are getting out of hand.
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Confronting the various bureaucrats will be no easy task, since they
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probably won't want to talk with you, preferring that you fill out
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a request for conversation form. My guess is that no matter what you
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try to do, you can't get them to answer questions very reliably (which
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fits in well with parser limitations).
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--
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Places of Interest
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Your Home - probably just a few rooms a la Hitchhiker's
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Outside your Home - front steps, etc.
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Bank - your bank, with a number of rooms, for tellers, safe deposit
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boxes, vault, waiting area, etc.
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Post Office - your local post office
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Insurance Company -
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Underground - Lots of stuff here, maybe some sort of semi-militaristic
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order of bureaucrats with lots of arcane machinery linked up to a gigantic
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computer which controls the hoard. Perhaps they all turn out to be
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androids or some such. |