I’ve been playing alot of Half Life 2 lately. It gives me this dystopian esc / future feel. To have a dystopian future you’ll need an opressed government, so would these things happen randomly or does the player choose what route his species history goes. A dystopian future can also come after an alien invasion, where the advanced sapients take control over Earths government. Yes, there is a dystopian theme on the Thrive soundtrack, but I am curious on how this will work.
Heres a few references from where my ideas came from.
I would think the player has one civilization that they control, which can only fall into a dystopia if they wanted it to. As for non-player civilizations, they may fall into it depending on circumstance.
As for dystopias caused by alien intervention, that would be down to what the aliens want to do with you, your planet, or whatever else. As well as if the aliens even are in the society/industrial stages.
Another thing is that these don’t just happen out of nowhere, the player may choose to do something like this because of their circumstances, such as horrible environment and hostile neighbors.
Heck, the players species may have a completely different view of what a dystopia is, for example, a species which has massive colonies and sees freedom as a meaningless and terrible.
And what if the player happened to fall upon a civilization (say this civilization has the technology of the present day human), and they were under a dystopian situation. Could we potenially save this species from possible extinction? Help them defeat the other sapients that are treating them like pests? Because if so, I’m down.
I would like to see it that way. This can also depend on the players morals.
But, yeah, I’m sure if you were a space faring civilization you could attempt to save a dystopian civilization.
Species is roaming the streets in slums, propoganda lines the dead, decaying world. Then amidst the dark and treachery, a shining light descends from the heavens. The sapient creatures stare in awe at the shining light. Could it be? Could it be the beings they fantasized for milennia? The light went back, among the dark, and out came something new. A large, goliath machine, with sparkling blue ligts and a shining aura. It lowered its behemoth body to the ground, and out came something truly special.
A large goliath machine is cool, but I was thinking something along the lines of influencing their political process through generous campaign contributions…
Keep in mind that it’s really hard to define dystopia. After all, one man’s dystopia is an other mans utopia. For an example, the Soviets saw our cvilisation and culture as horribly decadent, unfair and inequal. We saw theirs as harsh, restrictive, hypocritical and generally tyrranical. Or the Romans, who had a culture in which it wasn’t just accepted, but encouraged for a father to kill his son if he dissobeyed, and where bloody, gladiatoral combat was an every day part of life and an entertainment form most suited for children. And they thought that their culture was enlightened, of the only civilised ones in the entire world.
One thing I was wondering about recently is how society would change if people were immortal. If the world fell into a dictatorship would it last forever? Could you have the same people in government for 1000 years?
Surely sport would be dominated by a few people who loved the game they played and had hundreds of years of experience.
In a way that might be a dystopia, a world where there is very little social mobility.
Huh, I never really thought of that. Though the dystopia i’m thinking of is oppressive governments, strict rules, propoganda, slums, wastelands, all the other stuff. But there can be many different dystopias, and the word ‘dystopia’ might mean something very different for an alien species outside of Earth. For example, one of my latest TU stuff is set on a fractured and broken world with many things a human-themed dysopia would have.
Even something like that will have some supporters. “Freedom only leads to rebellion and violence, at least we have purpose now. Propaganda? I think you mean government checked truths, right? Slums? Pretty sure you mean the districts assigned to the Inferiors, yes? Why would you want them to live close to us. Wastelands? I think you mean unfortunate conseqyences of rightious and glorious progress, a neccesary sacrifice.”
Yes, a dystopian civilization will still have supporters. But those who live in the far off districts ( the outskirts), may even support it, too. Dystopia can mean many differen things to a person.
I know, those living in the outskirts could see themselves as inferior (it sounds weird, but stuff like that actually happened). “We’re better of being ruled by the Elite”. They might also think that they have a chance of rising up the ranks, and that only the worthy are allowed to live nice lives. Lot’s of possibilities.
Resistance groups could be formed, trying to fight back against the elites.
I’ve actually been writing down ideas for a story i’m writing, which is not thrive related. It’s where these aliens invade earth and take over it’s government. I may call them ‘The Elites’.
Even in such a scenario, you would have people supporting the aliens. For reasons I already said, plus also the added bonus of them being alien invaders. Which means you’d get people hoping to get their technology, hoping to get higher positions in the new government by collaborating, and even worshipping them as gods. It sounds like a cool idea, though.
Yeah. As I said before, I’m getting most of my inspirations and deptictions from Half Life 2. The combine and everything of the sort. I may actually make a species for the TU who do that type of stuff. But i’m still planning to make more TU submissions, though. Some will have different styles and they’ll do different things, just a little bit of everything. I’m getting of track here, hold on.
People would be supporting them, aswell for their technology. But it might be two different sides though. One side could be supporting them as a biblical purpose, “Peace is within our reach, we are saved.” would be something they would claim. Others might use their technolgoy against them, just as the resitance members in Half Life use combine tech against their oppressors. Basically everything you said. I’m still tryingto build this world, and when i’m done writing it I may make into a wiki on the fandom.
