Hidden Agenda (game)
Encyclopedia
Hidden Agenda is a text-based
Text-based
Usually used in reference to a computer application, a text-based application is one whose primary input and output are based on text rather than graphics or sound. This does not mean that text-based applications do not have graphics or sound, just that the graphics or sound are secondary to the...

 computer strategy game whose scenario was designed and written in 1988 by Jim Gasperini, with input from project consultant Eric Ehrmann
Eric Ehrmann
Eric Wayne Ehrmann is an expatriate American author, polemic columnist and essayist who resides in Brazil...

. While the scenario was implemented in text form, the game made use of an innovative graphical interface, with naturalistic characters, settings, and digital video interstitials. The narrative simulation system was designed and implemented by Greg Guerin and Ron Martinez (who also produced the game). Ron Martinez also designed and implemented the front end user experience, in the process inventing one of the first implementations of digital video with frames grabbed from a hacked four-head VCR. The game was intended to simulate the conditions of a post-revolutionary Central American country. It is considered a forerunner of the Games for Change
Games for Change
Games for Change is a movement and community of practice dedicated to using digital games for social change. An individual game may also be referred to as a "game for change" if it is produced by this community or shares its ideals...

 movement, alongside other early Macintosh
Macintosh
The Macintosh , or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced by Apple's then-chairman Steve Jobs on January 24, 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a...

 games including Chris Crawford
Chris Crawford (game designer)
Christopher Crawford is a computer game designer and writer noted for creating a number of important games in the 1980s, founding The Journal of Computer Game Design, and organizing the Computer Game Developers' Conference.- Biography :...

's Balance of Power.

The game is set in the fictional country
Fictional country
A fictional country is a country that is made up for fictional stories, and does not exist in real life, or one that people believe in without proof....

 Chimerica which has been recently liberated from the rule of the corrupt
Political corruption
Political corruption is the use of legislated powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain. Misuse of government power for other purposes, such as repression of political opponents and general police brutality, is not considered political corruption. Neither are illegal acts by...

 dictator
Dictator
A dictator is a ruler who assumes sole and absolute power but without hereditary ascension such as an absolute monarch. When other states call the head of state of a particular state a dictator, that state is called a dictatorship...

 Farsante and his ruling clique
Ruling clique
A ruling clique is a group of people who jointly rule an oligarchic form of government.Ruling cliques generally differ from another type of oligarchy: a military junta. Military juntas are always ruled by military personnel . A ruling clique can include people from various professions...

. The player takes the part of the newly elected president of Chimerica.

Game play

The game begins with a press conference where the new president is asked a series of questions which determine the social class
Social class
Social classes are economic or cultural arrangements of groups in society. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, economists, anthropologists and social historians. In the social sciences, social class is often discussed in terms of 'social stratification'...

 the new administration is likely to favour.

The rest of the game consists in choosing whom to consult and making decisions based upon the proposals of advisors. In addition to cabinet ministers, the player may choose to consult the representatives of various groups, as well as study press reports and an almanac
Almanac
An almanac is an annual publication that includes information such as weather forecasts, farmers' planting dates, and tide tables, containing tabular information in a particular field or fields often arranged according to the calendar etc...

 of national statistics.

The challenge of the game is to balance the interests and influences of conflicting factions within the country. Too many concessions to one side of a dispute can lead to the disenfranchised party seeking extra-political redress such as an insurrection. Overreliance on one faction
Political faction
A political faction is a grouping of individuals, such as a political party, a trade union, or other group with a political purpose. A faction or political party may include fragmented sub-factions, “parties within a party," which may be referred to as power blocs, or voting blocs. The individuals...

 can leave the government vulnerable to a coup d'état
Coup d'état
A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...

.

Economy

The economy
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...

 of Chimerica is mainly based on two export crops
Cash crop
In agriculture, a cash crop is a crop which is grown for profit.The term is used to differentiate from subsistence crops, which are those fed to the producer's own livestock or grown as food for the producer's family...

, cotton
Cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....

 and coffee
Coffee
Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...

. The cotton industry is mainly dominated by large landowners, whereas coffee fields are mainly held by small to medium sized coffee growers. Most of Chimerica's food (primarily corn
Maize
Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...

, flour
Flour
Flour is a powder which is made by grinding cereal grains, other seeds or roots . It is the main ingredient of bread, which is a staple food for many cultures, making the availability of adequate supplies of flour a major economic and political issue at various times throughout history...

, beans, and rice
Rice
Rice is the seed of the monocot plants Oryza sativa or Oryza glaberrima . As a cereal grain, it is the most important staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and the West Indies...

) is produced by campesinos
Peasant
A peasant is an agricultural worker who generally tend to be poor and homeless-Etymology:The word is derived from 15th century French païsant meaning one from the pays, or countryside, ultimately from the Latin pagus, or outlying administrative district.- Position in society :Peasants typically...

.

Later on, with development aid
Development aid
Development aid or development cooperation is aid given by governments and other agencies to support the economic, environmental, social and political development of developing countries.It is distinguished...

, individual campesinos and farmers can receive help in producing vegetables for the American market along with utilising highly mechanized agricultural techniques. The development of the economy is up to the player, and can take the form of either a free market-oriented approach in which the player would receive support and aid from the United States, or a collectivist approach which is supported by the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 and Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...

.

Cabinet

Central to the game is the appointment of ministers to the player's cabinet. There are four positions that need to be filled, and ministers are chosen from the three main parties. The Agriculture Minister is perhaps the most important, being responsible for determining the extent of the much-demanded land reform policies, as well as being responsible for developing the country's struggling export commodities. The next most important is the Defense Minister, who implements policies concerning control of the Army. The Internal Affairs Minister decides upon budgetary policies such as infrastructure development and healthcare, and the External Affairs Minister manages Chimerica's diplomatic standing on the international stage.

Ministers effectively function as tools to implement the player's decisions, rather than to advise the player upon several courses of action. Players employ both the ministers and their party's ideals when they are appointed. When using the Consultation function, the player can choose from the courses of action recommended by any of their four ministers on any issue raised, for example allowing them to accept advice from the defence minister on agricultural policy, and so forth. A flaw of this system is that it is impossible to make a decision outside of what the ministers advise. If an "interrupt" decision comes up, or an Encounter is initiated, there are only two courses of action available: that of the relevant minister, and that of the character who is being encountered. For example, if the player is being petitioned by an army general, the only options available will be those suggested by the defence minister and the general.

Political parties

The player may choose up to four ministers from the three political parties
Political Parties
Political Parties: A Sociological Study of the Oligarchical Tendencies of Modern Democracy is a book by sociologist Robert Michels, published in 1911 , and first introducing the concept of iron law of oligarchy...

 to fill their cabinet
Cabinet (government)
A Cabinet is a body of high ranking government officials, typically representing the executive branch. It can also sometimes be referred to as the Council of Ministers, an Executive Council, or an Executive Committee.- Overview :...

, from the "contacts" list. As each party only offers three candidates, note that the player cannot fill all ministerial roles unilaterally. The three political parties are:
  • National Liberation Party: Composed of nationalists, Marxists, poor farmers, and adherents of Liberation Theology
    Liberation theology
    Liberation theology is a Christian movement in political theology which interprets the teachings of Jesus Christ in terms of a liberation from unjust economic, political, or social conditions...

    , the NLP is the left-wing party. They side with Cuba, the USSR and other socialist countries.

  • Popular Stability Party: The PSP finds most of its supports among landowners, the wealthy, the military, and religious conservatives. This party sides with the United States and other capitalist
    Capitalism
    Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...

     nations in foreign affairs.

  • Christian Reform Party: The only opposition party that was tolerated by Farsante. Members of the CRP are centrist
    Centrism
    In politics, centrism is the ideal or the practice of promoting policies that lie different from the standard political left and political right. Most commonly, this is visualized as part of the one-dimensional political spectrum of left-right politics, with centrism landing in the middle between...

     politicians who often recommend a middle-of-the-road course of action. The party will offer the most moderate advice and are the most open to compromise. The party advocates non-alignment
    Non-Aligned Movement
    The Non-Aligned Movement is a group of states considering themselves not aligned formally with or against any major power bloc. As of 2011, the movement had 120 members and 17 observer countries...

     in foreign affairs.

Reception

The game was reviewed in 1989 in Dragon
Dragon (magazine)
Dragon is one of the two official magazines for source material for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game and associated products, the other being Dungeon. TSR, Inc. originally launched the monthly printed magazine in 1976 to succeed the company's earlier publication, The Strategic Review. The...

#150 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 4 out of 5 stars. Computer Gaming World
Computer Gaming World
Computer Gaming World was a computer game magazine founded in 1981 by Russell Sipe as a bimonthly publication. Early issues were typically 40-50 pages in length, written in a newsletter style, including submissions by game designers such as Joel Billings , Dan Bunten , and Chris Crawford...

gave the game a positive review, calling the game a deep simulation. However, it was also noted parts of the game, especially the individuals, could get predictable after a few games.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK