Posted By: Colin Bunn
Being an evil empire is just wonderful. Having to be moral is such a pain. Caring about lives is a pain too for that matter. It felt good to be the balancing power against the United States (What role did you play). Watching the other powers in the room realize that they had so little power over me was amazing! I had objectives which the team and I had already hammered out. Because of this and my knowledge of all the other countries and their goals I felt extremely prepared. We had three main goals. Keep the sovereignty of our ally which we did quite well. Take in only a small number of refugees which again we did. Only 5% of the total number. Finally, we needed to block the USA in the region which not only did we do but we dominated in. We were the primary check against the capitalist scum. Being an Apex predatory feels good. Especially when the old Apex predatory (USA) still thinks they’re on top. HA! It did feel good when it started to dawn on everyone just how much power Emperor Palatine, I mean Vlad Putin, I mean the High Priest of Malil truly had. So yes, I felt very prepared and felt like we accomplished everything. We got everything we wanted.
What I enjoyed most about the situation was the role playing aspect. It really made me view the world in a different way. I can understand some crazy decisions countries make better. Mr.Putin has begun to seem really intelligent in recent weeks. Which, is I guess what I hoped to get from taking IR, a new perspective on the world. Also, having to make choices that completely defiled every moral imperative I have for myself was a little fun for the short time that it lasted. Like I said, sometimes it just fun to be evil đŸ™‚ (What did you enjoy about the sim.)
I struggled with not caring. Weird, I know, but hear me out. There were so many times when I knew that if I gave way to the rest of the group, a whole group of people would be spared from oppression. Even if they were fake, and the simulation was fake, I connected to the Rubits like they were Syrian refugees. There were better resolutions that could’ve been made if I hadn’t played my role. But I did, to the letter.
I also struggled not caring about what other countries said about Malil. I always wanted to defend myself. Until I realized at the end of the second day that we had all the power and were just giving it away.
That was another thing I struggled with. Convincing people not to care. At one point my teammates wanted to budge. To break from our objective because they felt pressure from the others. I had to alert them that our goals were completely separate from everyone else’s. We did not care about the lives of the Rubits. The insults from the other teams didn’t effect us at all. Knowing when and what to care about was something that we grappled with. However, once we figured it out things became a lot easier. (What did you struggle with)
There needs to be more economic limitations. Just saying this country is rich or this country is poor is too vague. Also, there needs to be maybe one or two people from other nations. Maybe they represent multiple nations. But the neighbors MUST have a say. Dumping close to 75K Rubits on them seemed WAY too easy. Like we unlocked a cheat code. (What could be changed)
I learned that morality is relative in politics. That you can turn the other cheek if an ally is doing horrific things if it benefits you. And, most importantly, power is not what you actually have. It is the power that you are perceived to have that is your true power(What did you learn)
*ALSO* Dibs on North Korea. If Malil was this fun, I want to be the mad man with nukes. You know I can do it Mr.Bailey. Gimmie the nukes. I’m good at being an evil dictator. You know I want be a push over. Everyone will treat me like I’m evil. It will be SO realistic. North Korea versus the world. Come on………………………………………Come on……………………………………..I just really want to be *evil* again.