Resources as Players - Over/Under
The logo for Over/Under, created by Sam Sorensen.
I've been participating in the giant experiment that is over/under, and I've had extreme highs and lows with it so far. If you aren't familiar with the rules, you can find them here.
This past weekend in O/U, we saw wildly polished ARGs (Augemented Reality Games) that fooled the bosses and denizens around the station. It caused quite a bit of OOC (Out of Character) discussion but also made for some of the most compelling roleplay in the server. I don't want to dig into that here (see another post coming soon), but these events have made me consider player agency and its application in this wargame.
The way O/U is structued is all players (denizens) have the following actions:
- Join a faction
- Roleplay (business, personal, etc.)
- Trade Credits, Tokens, or Shares
After this weekend, players felt the wargame element ceased, and all factions had entered into a peace treaty. This was not the case. Still, the idea of peace left many players feeling lost, myself included. The faction espionage intertwined with roleplay stagnated, to some degree, and players felt their sense of agency was gone even though nothing about it changed on a mechanical level.
To be clear, O/U has two Tiers of play simultaneously going. Tier 1 is the wargame with the bosses, and each faction trying to achieve its goal. Tier 2 are the denizens roleplaying, living their lives, forming connections, etc. Remmeber, each faction has its own goals. A way to help achieve those goals is when it has enough people (real life humans) to utilize their Class Actions. An active player on the server as a Teamster is a resource the Union Bosses can place on a Dock to earn resources and further their goals. The Tier 2 denizen player won't actively see this but loosely knows it's happening.
When this is all put together, you get interesting things like resources (denizen players) having player agency (being real people and making their own decisions). Joining a faction is the singular most impactful way a player can shape the war game play. As a Teamster, I only see one side, but it's very difficult to leave once you join. I've heard from other players this is true across the board and reaffirms in my mind that choosing a faction is powerful.
Recently, some Union members have become disgruntled for a variety of reasons and opted to leave (both in character and out I believe). Even though we don't see what that does behind the scenes, I imagine that greatly hurt the Union at a wargame level. This makes being a Boss extremely difficult. Not only are you playing a wargame with strategic goals in mind, you must lead your faction and provide direction. Otherwise, you lose your resources to be succuessful in the wargame at all. I can't think of many games where resources make independent decisions beyond how you utilize them, and that's what makes O/U interesting. People can quit a faction or refuse to join one. They don't have to engage with that part of it at all if they don't want to, so factions have to make it enticing for them to join. Otherwise, why bother?
Maybe this is just a love letter to the bosses, and/or me desperately trying to peel back the curtain I can't find, haha. Either way, O/U is giving me a lot to chew on as a designer, and I hope for any who have or are participating, they're taking care of themselves and enjoying it for what it is - A BIG OLE' EXPERIMENT.