GOVERNMENT

I was really intrigued by the historical scale that was developed by Polybius. In today's government we see three prominent types of government working together to create our nation, we are not solely a democracy. Our democracy stems from the Legislative branch in which we have the good rule of many whom we elect. The President can be seen as a Monarch but again we elect him but we don't give him all the power. The Aristocracy can be seen in the Judiciary branch of government. They all work together to function as best it can without developing an oligarchy, tyrant or mob.

I was researching trying to find a children or young adult game that brings any one of the government forms into play. I came across a very interesting game called Civilization IV. "Indeed, while Civ IV deserves praise for integrating non-material elements like religion and culture into the game play, in the end these pieces suffer the same fate as the rest of the game's components. Civ IV, ultimately, is less about the development of civilization than it is about the expansion of imperial tyranny,"(Ballor). I think that games like this are educational but it's also rated E for everyone. I don't think that little kids should be playing games like this, they tend to have the disadvantage of having the power go to their head. I remember growing up my little brother started playing a karate video game and then started running around the house kicking everyone for about a week until my mom finally took the game away.

The idea of manipulating a society by means of religion, culture, money and economy sounds fascinating. It would be really cool if you could choose and manipulate the types of government played in the game. Having one ruler makes the game controller be either a tyrant or a monarch, I think that they would inevitably become a tyrant since the game is all about war and conquering land.


Ballor, Jordan J. "Power and Tyranny in Civilization IV." Home @ Blogcritics.org. 07 July 2008. .