Homework Project : First Steps

textfilter: chose text/plain from a multipart/alternative

I've been revisiting the official timeline and reviewing world
historical
events for the past couple of decades to aide in thinking about
near-term
future history. I've also been trying to derive some design precepts and
goals that would guide the process. I thought I'd share some of the
early
thoughts and steps I've taken.

I. Preparation
    i) List all canonical political entities or powers in the GZGverse

	The logic for this is that I wish to try to preserve most or all
of
the key or interesting
	factions of the GZGverse as Jon initially wrote it. This may not
be
entirely sensible
	or feasible, but I am treating it as a design goal.

    ii) Review recent history (mostly 1990-2011, a few longer delves

    iii) Review ongoing discussion on this list (lots of interesting
discussion)

    iv) Realizing that this effort properly requires a main timeline
that is
integrated, but
	also subsidiary timelines by region

	 There is too much going on even in one region to capture how
major
changes
	  could occur there without having some sort of continous
regional
perspective on
	  the evolution of the situation in the region. The integrated
timeline will end up
	  growing simultaneously here, but it can't contain the detail
from
the regional
	  timelines. Regional summary notes will also help make sense of
how
a particular
	  region developed into the 'now' of the alt-GZGverse in a more
coherent way than
	  just having a single integrated timeline will.

	  Still, the intention is to keep these sparse enough to not be
constricting and simply
	  have them feed into the larger integrated timeline with key
events.

II. Early Concepts Impacting Design

    i) Neo-colonial flavour of GZGverse

	We can see that power blocks and renewed monarchies and such
like
are the trappings
	of an updated late 1800s political structure with the Great Game
of
Nations clearly afoot.
	Trying to preserve this flavour seems like a goal.

    ii) The GZGverse is not about wars of extermination

	Whether it is because such wars are very messy and unpleasant
and
thus not fun to
	contemplate or game out or just because such material may be
inappropriate for
	games for younger folk or simply that such focus may detract
from
marketing, the existing
	GZG history focuses on limited wars or broad wars that appear to
be
primarily
	political and economic rather than being about baseline resource
requirements and
	extermination. The wars with the aliens may have more of a dire
existential conflict
	aspect, but even here it seems there are times that alliance was
sensible and thus
	some measure of diplomacy or co-existence has ensued.

	To put some substance behind this observed historical fact: Once
you
have open access
	to abundant power (necessary for large space empires to exist)
and
multiple
	human-sustaining biospheres, resource shortages on a large scale
which spawn such
	genocidal conflicts should be non-events. Water should be
readily
available as should
	sufficient food supplies. Of course, localized shortages may
exist
and this may provoke
	various conflicts, but these do not threaten larger human
existence
and prosperity or even
	larger political power blocks and consequently, major wars of
extermination can be
	considered not prevalent. Certainly localized shortages will
exist
and conflict will occur,
	but these are politically interesting and economically lucrative
potentially for some
	factions.

    ii) Wars in the GZGverse revolve around land (apparently)

	As can be seen in the current GZG timeline, there are plenty of
large and small conflicts
	that appear to revolve around control of territory. Possible
reasons
for this include:
	    a) territorial control as a route to security for a
population
	    b) territorial control as a route to resources to be
exploited
	    c) territorial control as a route to political power

	I believe we can assume that most of the clashes will have a mix
of
these aspects
	involved. We can throw in religious or racial or cultural
aspects as
a faint 4th; Even in
	the history of our real world most of these are actually simply
a
'blind' for real motivations
	for warfare that tie to security, resources, or political power
for
elites.

	If we imagine most of the wars in the GZGverse ensue due to  mix
of
these 3 or
	4 motivators, we will understand why their may be both large and
small wars but that
	most wars are not wars of extermination while yet requiring the
control of space and
	planetary systems. They do not not necessary require occupation,
simply sufficient
	control to gaurantee the above motivations are satiated; If you
can
control enough to tax,
	to prevent threats to your population, and to ensure some form
of
loose or tight
	political hegemony for your political elite, there is little
need
for absolute control.

    iv) There are aliens in the mix

       Aliens will not obey the identical logic to that which drives
humans.
If they are broadly
       capable entities that are adaptable and have survived to occupy
the
space between
       the stars in a broad way, one assumes they are not so infexible
as to
have singular
       hangups that will limit them to single motivations or stratagems.
They will still be in some
       fashion tied to basic motivators (food/water, need for energy and
other resources) as
       are humans, but their species' logic for pursuing these similar
higher targets (even if we
       include political hegemony or the religious/cultural/racial
aspects)
may differ somewhat
       from human logic. This man manifest itself in what they do and
how
they do it and
       where they interact with humans, misunderstandings and confusion
as
well as false
       attributions of motivation may be expected to ensue. This may
make
relations challenging
       as humans and aliens both tend to interpret the other in the
context
of their own mindset.

    v) Corporations and economic interest have grown large enough to
have
significant impact

       No polity seems likely to be prosperous without some form of
successful business sector.
       Large corporations may be expected to rival large political
factions
in power. Mostly, this
       will be a symbiotic (or at worst, parasitic) relationship, as
business interests tend to be
       amoral and exclusively focused on profit and self-growth, rather
than
directly on political,
       religious/cultural/racial, or security motivations. This means
that
they have a much more
       focused attention strategically to a single motivator and their
policy decisions will map to
       that. Most of the time, it will be in their interest to work with
political blocks of all sizes,
       lobbying their political movers and shakers at all levels, to
obtain
their own goals for
       growth and prosperity. There is little profit in direct, large
scale
military intervention. There
       is certainly room for many smaller scale military actions. Note
however that if you fight like
       merchants, you are likely to lose when you engage those who do
not
(case study:
       Carthage and Rome). So corporations will be large, numerous,
everpresent, and likely to
       span political boundaries of power blocks. On the other hand,
they
will usually work within
       those and so will not generate many large scale conflicts that
make
the news. Small scale
       conflicts or military strongarming by shows of force may be much
more
common, but will
       not shape the overall timeline as a rule.

III. Nature of the Effort

The point here, to me, is not to try to create a totally realistic
future.
Dear Lord, we've already
got space ships, aliens, faster than light travel, and broad warfare
that
does not result in wars
of annihilation. And those are the *less unlikely parts*. (RH, NAC,
ESU...
I'm looking squarely
at you here).

We are simply looking to re-envision some aspects of the game to produce
a
future timeline a
bit more in line with the existing world's current day and perhaps to
unleash a few new an interesting twists or ideas, food perhaps for
further
gaming and more fun discussions.

Obviously, the real world may well not revert to monarchies restored and
power blocks
rebuilt along traditional lines (Boers in space? The Brits handing
ruling
North America and
laying a beat down on all of South America? The Chinese and the Russian
kleptocrats
getting in bed together?). But these are sort of central to the figure
lines
and the game
flavour. So rebuilding this is more of an exercise in re-interpretation
while preserving most
major aspects where feasible.

That's my thoughts for today.