Libertarian Video Games?

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A post-apocalyptic role-playing game set in a bombed-out, futuristic Washington, D.C. known as the Capitol Wasteland. Warring tribes of wannabe authority figures fight for control, thugs and scammers try to take your guns and your money at every turn, super-intelligent robots try to reengineer society, and the whole place is overrun with super-mutants. In other words, it’s a lot like the Washington, D.C. we all know and love today.Fallout 3 is also one of the most expansive, open, and darkly funny games ever made.

L.A. Noire offers a down-to-the-shoelaces recreation of Hollywood shortly after World War II. And where many open-world games allow and even encourage players to engage in freewheeling thuggery, this time the objective is enforcing order: Players take the role of an earnest police investigator moving up the ranks by solving cases. The game’s most intriguing innovation is the chance to conduct “interrogations” of suspects. The challenge is to determine, based on the suspect’s behavior, whether he or she is lying. But unlike most video game challenges, there’s no trick to mastering it. In the end, it’s a mix of thorough prior detective work and subconscious intuition. And even then, it’s easy to be wrong. The subjective nature of the game play highlights the uncertainty of much police work. Sometimes even good players—or cops—make big mistakes. 

6. Deux Ex: Human Revolution

Deux Ex: Human Revolution casts players in the role of Adam Jensen, a grim security chief at a biotech corporation that specializes in human augmentation. Set in a bleak, William Gibson-esque cyberpunk future, the game kicks off when anti-biotech militants break into the headquarters of Jensen’s company on the eve of a legislative hearing about biotech regulations. Jensen fends off the attackers but is injured and must be rebuilt with biological enhancements. From there, players must uncover the truth about the break-in against the backdrop of an ongoing debate about the safety and ethics of human augmentation. The game’s cast will be familiar to anyone who has followed such debates in real life—uncompromising anti-science radicals, moderates who favor regulation, self-interested political players, scheming corporate leaders, and apolitical scientists. The noirish story has no heroes, but it does subtly highlight the value of biological modifications. The key to winning: enhancing Jensen—and yourself. 

2013-01-24 22:48:32

Source: http://teresamerica.blogspot.com/2013/01/libertarian-video-games.html