#OccupyTamriel - the concept

[Paul Mason]

Summary

 

To infest the new multiplayer game Elder Scrolls Online (ESO) with a community trying to “live despite” the violent, tribalised, market based society in the game.

 

Outline

1.  ESO is currently in Beta and due for release across four platforms in 2014: Xbox, PS4, Windows and Mac. The game promises highly customisable characters and the ability to do role-play.

2.  The game itself is not a reactionary environment. Players of Skyrim (its predecessor) note the prevalence of mystical elements, eco-friendly scenarios, challenging intellectual puzzles, and landscapes of natural beauty.

3.  However like all “open world” games its setting – a world known as Tamriel - assumes three things which, if subverted, could produce very unpredictable, revolutionary and funny results:

a. A market: so wealth accumulated by hunting, gathering and combat with non-player beings (beasts, zombies, ghouls, dragons etc) is spent on homes, food, spells and weaponry.

b. A racialised world: there are three alliances, each of three “races” and the authors of the game have invested heavily in the backstory of these races, peoples and species

c. Violence: the three alliances are at war with each other and with various non-player groups and forces

 

Proposal

1.  A global network of ESO players should form under the banner #OccupyTamriel

2.  Their aim should be to “live despite” the primitive capitalism of the Tamriel economy, building communities that are:

a. Non-market

b. Collaborative

c. Peaceful

d. Socially and gender experimental

e. Multi-tribal

f. Sustainable

3.  The experiment should be time-limited, for one month, and its results should be recorded in an online exhibition, virtual conference etc

4.  Documentation should include individual and group reports of interventions, screengrabs, etc

5.  The participants should try and publicise/ learn lessons from what happens

 

Specifics

Phase One:

· Sign up volunteers quietly

· Hold online general assembly (GA) to decide the following details of where the experiment should begin:

o What platform (Mac, PC, Xbox or PS4)

o Which alliance to begin with (Daggerfall, Ebonheart or Aldmeri)

· Publicise the project and announce the start date

· Engage the game designers (if possible)

 

Phase Two

· Players buy ESO and create a characters in it

· Players use some form of #OccupyTamriel handle in their name

· Players interact as normal with the game to get used to its parameters

· An off-game website flags up times and dates of gatherings, and which servers these should be held on

· Via off-game discussions players form affinity groups and specify what project they are going to try to achieve

· Players write about their experiences (eg character design, preparation, planning)

 

Phase Three

· Play begins.

· Since ESO allocates you to a server according to where your friends are, we will need to game this process to end up together in the same place

· The ESO world is not persistent, as far as we know: so what you build or achieve that cannot be “carried” by your character will not survive your game session.

· Players critique, muse, analyse etc their experiences in a game diary, that can be private or public

 

Phase Four

· After a set number of days the experiment ends.

· Players review their experiences and write up the project

· A repository of experiences, eg exhibition of screen grabs, written diaries, balance sheets etc is created and published

 

 

Worked example

 

1.  A group of 6 people attempt to establish a non-market based commune as part of the Daggerfall Covenant.

2.  They choose an area – eg Rivenspire (see interactive map http://elderscrollsonline.com/en/map/tamriel#top )

3.  Week 1: They create characters and get to know the terrain, the controls, the economic conditions, the general playing styles of the normal players.

a. Daggerfall consists of 3 races: Redguards, Bretons and Orcs (friendly ones in this game).

b. So the 6 players divide between these three races and numerous personality types that defy gender stereotypes etc)

4.  Week 2: They specify a regular time and place (daily if possible) to try and create the commune. They work out what can be sustainably farmed from the environment for free (eg wolf pelts), and whether this produces enough energy to survive the (in this case) cold weather. Ie they work out what the sustainability and economic survival “game” is and they subvert it.

5.  They agree rules against participation in the wider market economy, and ways of undermining it: ie is it possible to produce and distribute free, collaboratively produced goods. Can they undermine the exchange mechanism?

6.  During the execution of this numerous “normal” players will be expected to invade, challenge, attempt to trade, possibly to initiate relationships etc with the experimental player. The group will need to decide how to respond: does it fight? Does it use coercion? Does it “obey” various strictures in the game – ie there are a number of general conflicts going on that are scripted, where you just die if you don’t fight back.

7.  Week 3-4 continue, logging the issues and evolving new strategies.

8.  Week 5. The experiment ends; the players “de-role” and try to meet or Skype in real life to discuss the outcome. Somebody writes it up. They all go back to reality or remain in game as normal players. The experiment leaves a residue of alternative economic, social, gender etc experience inside Tamriel.

9.  Obviously much more audacious projects are possible – like the attempted overthrow of the entire social order inside the game.

 

ENDS