Three Moves Ahead Episode 482: Radio Commander

[Rob Zacny]

Three Moves Ahead 482:

Radio Commander
Troy, Jon, and Rob have been to The Nam and deep in "The Shit" this week as they play Serious Sim's narrative wargame, Radio Commander. To what extent is Radio Commander an actual wargame versus a cleverly disguised RTS choose-your-own-adventure? Does the distinction matter? What are the game's politics, and how do they affect Radio Commander's portrayal of contemporary politics? Most confoundingly, the crew wrestle with whether this is a good game that people should play, or merely an interesting experiment.

Radio Commander

 

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[Khan Khomrad]

First time I heard about this game. Sounds interesting and worth giving a try. The way that the panel described the gameplay loop and how the consequence of your actions are presented reminded me a lot of King of Dragon Pass. 

 

I feel like the panel has been talking more about politics in the games than they use to, but that might just be me having a better ear to notice it coupled with how everyone (not only in the USA yay!) keeps bringing politics into all sorts of discussions. After all, Troy has been talking about how games portray their subject matter and hidden agenda since the show's inception and maybe even before that.

[Akalabeth]

Don't know the exact radio message, but the helicopter guy complaining about darkness at 6pm-  vietnam is near the equator so they wont have long summer days like up north in Canada.  Looking online, daylight is going to end between 530 and 620 depending on the time of year-

[chanman]

On 11/27/2019 at 1:39 AM, Akalabeth said:

Don't know the exact radio message, but the helicopter guy complaining about darkness at 6pm-  vietnam is near the equator so they wont have long summer days like up north in Canada.  Looking online, daylight is going to end between 530 and 620 depending on the time of year-

 

I was going to say the same thing. Darkness also comes much faster near the equator too. You also wouldn't get the long sunset/twilight that you do up north.

 

That said, on the subject of design choices, it would have been handy if there were designer notes to give a more detailed explanation for design intent and choices/if they were available for the panel to read. There was an RPS interview with the designer on some of the design choices, which were interesting.