Info about Half-Earth Socialism:

Official game description:
If you've enjoyed the book or the game Half-Earth Socialism, then join the HES discord server where you can chat with gamers, readers, and the authors. There you can chat about strategies for the game, organize with fellow ecosocialists, and learn more about history, theory, and utopia! To get an invitation to the channel email: half.earth.socialism@proton.me  
**SET THE PLANETARY PLAN**: _Half-Earth Socialism_ allows anyone to try their hand as a global planner of a future society. Starting in the year 2023, you must make decisions about what projects the world will pursue--new research like alternative energy sources, or massive infrastructure projects like mass electrification or space travel, or one of over one hundred other possibilities. Decide how energy and food is produced across the world. Should we immediately halt all fossil fuel usage, or should we swap to a "transition" fuel source first?  
**WORK WITH PARLIAMENT**: At the same time you must juggle relationships with competing political factions in global parliament and improve the quality of life for everyone on the planet. Will you be able to guide the world into a better future amidst differing interests and visions?  
**IMPACT THE WORLD**: _Half-Earth Socialism_ features a simple model of the world: the impact of your decisions are simulated using the HECTOR climate model and a model of planetary production and demand. See how the world changes according to your actions--perhaps new culinary trends around eating invasive species, or the emergence of eco-terrorists if your plans fail to improve planetary health and human well-being.  
This game, based on the book _Half-Earth Socialism_ (Drew Pendergrass and Troy Vettese, Verso 2022), is the fruit of the labour of many designers, researchers, and artists (full credits below). Francis Tseng (Jain Family Institute) is the game developer and Son La Pham (TRUST) is the designer.  
Concept: Arthur Röing Baer, Chiara Di Leone, Drew Pendergrass, Son La Pham, Francis Tseng, Gregory Vettese, Troy Vettese  
Design: Son La Pham, Francis Tseng  
Development: Francis Tseng, Son La Pham  
Research and Writing: Lucy Chinen, Drew Pendergrass, Son La Pham, Spencer Roberts, Francis Tseng, Troy Vettese  
Music: PRINCE SHIMA  
Playtesting: Spencer Roberts, Dargan Frierson, Sean Raspet, Sarah Friend, Filip Mesko, Wassim Alsindi, Bradley K, Julia, Grace Van de Pas, Michael Vettese, Xinyue, Lukas Eigler-Harding, Adrian Dinh, Aural Ephem, Nick Houde, Simon Zhang, Paul Turberg, Jan Philipp Dapprich, Matt Goerzen, Neilson Koerner-Safrata, Kira Simon-Kennedy, Nicholas Carter

Release date: Jul 19, 2022

Categories: Political Simulation, Resource Management, Strategy, Economic Simulation, Environmental Simulation, Card-based Gameplay, Turn-based Strategy, Real-time with Pause


- Hardware Profile: No data
Feature extractions:
- Community Price: No data
- Playtime Metrics:
  - Game completion: 3.0h
  - Story completion: 2.0h
  - Session length: 1.5h
  - Endgame: N/A
  - Reasoning: The evidence provides several indications of playtime metrics. The first quote suggests that a typical session length is around one or two hours. The second and third quotes indicate that the game can be completed in around two to three hours, which aligns with both the story completion and game completion times. The fourth quote reinforces the idea that the game is generally played for a few hours, supporting the session length and total completion times.
- Time-to-fun:
  - Summary: The game has a steep learning curve and early decisions impact mid-game enjoyment. Late game becomes repetitive and less fun, with players mostly waiting for builds to complete.
  - Stance: Fun then drops
  - Anchor: Gaining political power by reducing emissions
  - Time to anchor: 1h 0m
  - Friction: Complexity of the game; Insufficient tutorial; Early decisions impacting mid-game negatively
  - Unlock drivers: Focusing on reducing emissions early; Gaining political power
  - Conditions: Understanding game mechanics; Making strategic early-game decisions; Patience for late-game progression
- Player Archetypes:
  - Freebie Explorer (sale)
    - Motivation: Entertainment value for free.
    - Playstyle: Casual, exploratory, and willing to overlook flaws for free content.
    - Experience: newcomer
    - Purchase stance: sale
    - Labels: casual gamer; free game enthusiast
    - Reference games: N/A
  - Ideological Enthusiast (sale)
    - Motivation: Ideological alignment and hopeful messages.
    - Playstyle: Engaged with the game's themes and messages, willing to overlook some flaws for the ideological content.
    - Experience: familiar
    - Purchase stance: sale
    - Labels: progressive; ideological gamer
    - Reference games: N/A
  - Curious Tester (deep sale)
    - Motivation: Curiosity and openness to new experiences.
    - Playstyle: Tries the game once out of curiosity, but may not continue playing extensively.
    - Experience: mixed
    - Purchase stance: deep sale
    - Labels: open-minded gamer; curious player
    - Reference games: N/A
  - Experienced Strategist (no buy)
    - Motivation: Depth, realism, and strategic gameplay.
    - Playstyle: Compares the game to other titles, seeks depth and realism, and prefers grounded experiences.
    - Experience: veteran
    - Purchase stance: no buy
    - Labels: strategy gamer; experienced player
    - Reference games: Democracy series; Frostpunk; Civilization games


Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category.
Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews.
What players like:
- Highly engaging and interesting game (weight 0.63): Many players found the game to be very interesting and engaging, with unique gameplay mechanics that set it apart from other games.
- Educational and thought-provoking (weight 0.42): The game is praised for its educational value, introducing new ideas and ideologies, and teaching players about political, economic, energy, and environmental issues.
- Beautiful and relaxing aesthetics (weight 0.29): Players enjoy the game's beautiful music, good visual design, and relaxing sound effects and visuals.
- Easy to understand mechanics (weight 0.24): The game's mechanics are described as challenging but understandable, making it easy for players to pick up and play.
- Unique blend of strategy and climate modeling (weight 0.22): The game offers a unique mix of strategy and climate modeling, providing players with a realistic and engaging experience in addressing climate change.
- Unique and interesting concept (weight 0.18): The game is praised for its unique and interesting concept, which combines various elements to create an engaging experience.
- Hopeful and inspiring message (weight 0.14): Players appreciate the game's hopeful and inspiring message, which gives them a sense of optimism for the future.
- Focus on socialism and planned economy (weight 0.14): The game's focus on socialism and planned economy is noted by players, who find it interesting and engaging.
- Complex and nuanced gameplay (weight 0.1): The game offers complex and nuanced gameplay, which players find entertaining and engaging.
- Various successful strategies (weight 0.1): Players appreciate the various successful strategies that can be employed in the game, adding to its replayability and depth.
- Interesting political simulation (weight 0.1): The game is noted for its interesting political simulation aspects, adding a unique dimension to the gameplay.

Common complaints:
- Anti-nuclear bias in game (weight 0.59): The game exhibits a strong bias against nuclear power, portraying it as unsafe and non-productive. This perspective is seen as unscientific and overly pessimistic by many players.
- Extreme political bias (weight 0.38): The game is criticized for its extreme political bias, which affects the portrayal of parties and policies. This bias is seen as detrimental to the gaming experience.
- Lack of crucial information and options (weight 0.26): Players feel that the game lacks real information and options necessary for managing energy transitions. This lack of policy control is a significant drawback.
- Game is buggy (weight 0.24): The game is reported to be full of bugs, which makes it frustrating to play. These bugs affect the overall gaming experience negatively.
- Limited replayability and repetitive gameplay (weight 0.24): Players find the game's replayability limited due to its simplicity and predictability. The repetitive nature of the gameplay reduces its long-term appeal.
- Unbalanced and unfun game design (weight 0.23): The game design is criticized for being unbalanced and unfun. The mechanics are seen as poorly aligned and not enjoyable.
- Unrealistic portrayal of power sources (weight 0.22): The game is seen as having an unrealistic dominance of solar power while underestimating the impact of other energy sources like hydro and geothermal power.
- Confusing and annoying UI (weight 0.17): The user interface is found to be confusing and annoying, which detracts from the overall user experience.
- Poorly explained mechanics (weight 0.14): Many players find that the game mechanics are not well explained, which makes it difficult to understand and play the game effectively.
- False sense of choice (weight 0.13): The game gives players a false sense of choice, overwhelming them with options that ultimately feel like an illusion.
- Scientific inaccuracies (weight 0.13): The game is criticized for not being based on real science, with several inaccuracies that disagree with actual scientific facts.
- Difficult to win (weight 0.13): Players find the game very hard with only one way to win, which can be frustrating and limit the enjoyment.

Gameplay feedback:
- Comprehensive simulation mechanics (weight 0.32): The game features extensive simulation mechanics, including political, environmental, and economic simulations. Players can engage with specific initiatives and ideological perspectives.
- Resource management focus (weight 0.28): A significant aspect of the game involves resource planning and management, including balancing energy and food sources, fuel management, and disaster management.
- Card-based strategic gameplay (weight 0.25): The game utilizes card-based mechanics for decision-making and strategic planning, focusing on combating climate change and saving humanity.
- Policy and research planning (weight 0.18): Players can engage in policy planning and research, implementing various policies and observing their effects on the game world.
- Political factions and alliances (weight 0.18): The game includes various political parties and factions, allowing players to make choices and form alliances.
- Energy source management (weight 0.18): Players can manage different energy sources, including nuclear and renewable energy, with specific mechanics for thorium-based nuclear energy and geo-thermal power.
- Challenging puzzle mechanics (weight 0.14): The game offers challenging mechanics and puzzle-solving elements, providing a high level of difficulty.
- Climate change strategy (weight 0.14): The game focuses on strategy and climate modeling, allowing players to simulate global climate change management.
- Real-time decision making (weight 0.14): Players engage in real-time decision-making, managing variables and decisions through a decision tree.
- Planet-saving theme (weight 0.13): The central theme of the game is saving the world, with players making choices for a livable planet.
- Multiple success paths (weight 0.13): The game offers multiple paths to success, providing players with various strategies to achieve their goals.
- Interactive policies and technologies (weight 0.13): Different policies and technologies interact within the game, impacting the world in various ways.
- Progressive policies (weight 0.09): The game includes progressive policies such as degrowth, allowing players to explore different political ideologies.
- Complex economic model (weight 0.09): The game features a complex economic model, adding depth and challenge to the gameplay.
- Renewable energy transition (weight 0.09): A key focus of the game is the transition to renewable energy sources, emphasizing sustainable energy practices.
- Global socialist reform (weight 0.09): The game explores themes of global socialist reform and socialist thinking, providing a unique political perspective.
- Ecological and political themes (weight 0.09): The game delves into ecological and political themes, presenting players with choices that lead to either ecological utopia or planetary destruction.
- Technology and environmental management (weight 0.08): Players manage various technologies and their environmental impacts, making decisions that affect the game world.
- Environmental impact assessments (weight 0.08): The game includes environmental impact ratings and assessments, helping players understand the consequences of their actions.
- Ideological outcomes (weight 0.08): The game features ideological representations and outcomes, allowing players to see the effects of different ideologies.

Performance notes:
- Game plagued by bugs (weight 0.22): Multiple reviews highlight that the game is riddled with bugs, causing frustration and affecting gameplay. These bugs range from minor issues to significant problems that hinder the overall experience.
- Menu scrolling causes freezes (weight 0.11): Several players have reported that scrolling through menus can freeze the game. This issue significantly impacts the user experience and navigation within the game.
- Overflow and engine errors (weight 0.1): There are reports of overflow errors and errors within the game engine. These technical issues can lead to crashes and other unexpected behaviors.
- Launch issues with Steam (weight 0.06): There is a significant issue where the game has a 50/50 chance of launching or breaking Steam. This can be a major inconvenience for players trying to start the game.
- Performs well on low-end hardware (weight 0.06): Despite various issues, the game runs well on low-end hardware such as cheap laptops. This is a positive note for players with less powerful systems.
- Linux compatibility issues (weight 0.06): The Linux version of the game has been reported to have compatibility issues, specifically not working on Fedora. This limits accessibility for Linux users.
- Optimization issues (weight 0.06): The game is reported to be not well optimized, which can lead to performance issues even on capable hardware.
- Sound settings problems (weight 0.05): Players have encountered issues with the sound settings, which can affect the audio experience within the game.

Recommendations:
- Highly recommended for educational value (weight 0.32): The game is frequently recommended for its educational insights, particularly in management, ecology, economics, and politics. Players appreciate its depth and learning potential despite some issues.
- Gameplay mechanics improvements (weight 0.17): Players suggest various improvements such as removing bias against certain power types, adding more meat options, making events more dynamic, and giving space a use to enrich the gameplay experience.
- Faction balancing and additions (weight 0.14): Suggestions include making factions more impactful, replacing consumerists with a reformist faction, and balancing eco-feminists to improve gameplay diversity and depth.
- Companion to Half Earth Socialism (weight 0.1): The game is seen as a companion piece to the book 'Half Earth Socialism,' enhancing the understanding of ecosocialist movements.
- Mixed recommendations on playthroughs (weight 0.1): Some players recommend the game for at least one playthrough, while others see it as a cautionary experience, indicating mixed feelings about its overall value.
- Free and manageable gameplay (weight 0.06): Players recommend the game because it is free and becomes manageable once understood. This makes it accessible to a wider audience.
- Desire for free play mode (weight 0.06): Players express a desire for a free play mode, indicating a want for more flexible and less restricted gameplay options.
- More unlockable content (weight 0.06): There is a demand for more unlockable cards, which would provide players with additional content and enhance the game's progression system.
- Potential for Steam Workshop (weight 0.05): There is a noted potential for integrating Steam Workshop, which could enhance the game's modding community and extend its replayability.
- Viable authoritarianism path (weight 0.05): Players suggest making authoritarianism a viable winning option to add more strategic depth and varied gameplay paths.
- Recommendation for Democracy 4 (weight 0.05): Some players recommend playing 'Democracy 4' instead, suggesting it might offer a better or more fulfilling experience.

Other player notes:
No miscpoints

Emotions:
- Frustration (weight 0.29): Players are frustrated due to a combination of unclear tooltips, numerous bugs, and game mechanics that are perceived as unbalanced or unfair. The game's difficulty, lack of player agency, and ideological biases also contribute to this frustration, making it hard to progress or enjoy the game.
- Enjoyment (weight 0.15): Players enjoy the game for its unique mechanics, fun factor, and aesthetic qualities such as music and art style. The game's educational value, strategic elements, and simplicity also contribute to a positive experience.
- Disappointment (weight 0.14): Players feel disappointed due to the game's perceived biases, lack of depth in political and economic consequences, and bugs that hinder completion. The game's ideological stance and inaccuracies in portraying certain topics also contribute to this disappointment.
- Satisfaction (weight 0.07): Players find satisfaction in understanding the game's mechanics, overcoming challenges, and achieving successful outcomes. The game's complexity, strategic gameplay, and rewarding experiences contribute to this sense of satisfaction.
- Hope (weight 0.06): Players feel hopeful due to the game's educational content and its message about climate change. The potential for more complex games and the game's impact on believing in a better future also inspire hope.
- Frustrated (weight 0.06): Players are frustrated by the game's bugs, interface issues, and limited replayability. The developers' political alignment and unpredictable game behavior also contribute to this frustration.
- Appreciation (weight 0.04): Players appreciate the game's concept, dialogue, and accurate representation of politics. The game's performance, art style, and overall design are also well-received.
- Interest (weight 0.02): Players are interested in the game's premise and the thoughts it provokes about climate change and politics. The educational aspects and focus on solving real-world issues also spark interest.
- Disappointed (weight 0.02): Players are disappointed with the game's treatment of nuclear power, perceived bias, and lack of meaningful content in certain aspects. The implementation of government mechanics is also criticized.
- Curiosity (weight 0.02): Players are curious about the game's choices regarding technology and how it compares to real-life scenarios. The game's difficulty and realism provoke thoughts and questions.
- Criticism (weight 0.02): Players criticize the game for its strong political bias and unbalanced gameplay. The illusion of choice and limited power options are also points of criticism.
- Enthusiasm (weight 0.02): Players are enthusiastic about the game's educational content and its unique perspective on socialism. The engaging gameplay and focus on important issues contribute to this enthusiasm.
- Amusement (weight 0.02): Players find amusement in the gameplay experience despite its flaws. The game's alignment with communist principles, such as being free, also adds to the amusement.
- Determination (weight 0.01): Players feel determined to succeed in the game, even if it takes multiple attempts. The challenge and difficulty of the game drive this determination.
- Inspired (weight 0.01): Players feel inspired by the game's message and its impact on their beliefs. The game awakens something within the player, encouraging them to think differently.
- Approval (weight 0.01): Players approve of the game as a good free game that addresses important issues. The game's focus on significant topics and its educational value are well-received.
- Encouragement (weight 0.01): Players feel encouraged by the game's message to be radical and ambitious. The game's potential for more complex and elaborate future games also inspires encouragement.
- Confusion (weight 0.01): Players are confused by the game's strange ending. The lack of clarity in certain aspects of the game contributes to this confusion.
- Support (weight 0.01): Players support the game's propaganda and agree with its message. The game's alignment with their beliefs and values drives this support.
- Hopeful (weight 0.01): Players are hopeful about the potential for a more complex game in the future. The game's educational content and its message about climate change inspire this hope.}