9. Dungeon Keeper 2
This game makes the list because despite the fantasy dressing, the game is very much about the use of resources to inspire, control, and rule a populace. The economic system in this classic game is more than a systematic necessity but a game in and of itself. Dungeon Keeper 2 featured a highly intelligent NPC AI that freed the player up quite a bit, allowing them to focus on the various other tasks set before them, all of which were markedly evil. The most prominent example of the capitalist overtone starts with a simple message voiced in game by what appears to be the players shadowy ally in all things heinous. Your minions are sad; build them a casino to cheer them up. Sounds pretty straight forward, an in character attempt to provide pop up help to the player. Building the casino is truly the beginning of the player thinking like a capitalist, if the player feels like they need to reward their minions for all their hard work terrorizing villages and murdering people they set the odds in the casino to the monsters favor. On the other hand, the player could feel that the pay the monsters receive is more than enough and rig the casino in their own favor. Luckily for the player, either choice results in improving the morale of the populace (yes, thats familiar, sad and disturbing all at once) no matter what. I must point out that setting the odds in the monsters favor sets up the most hilariously awesome moment in the history of video games as a reward to the player not being a douche. http://youtu.be/0Z4sfjGfQxY Caption: This happens whenever a monster wins in the casino, this is the actual in game music. If someone wins during a battle, both Heroes and Monsters begin to boogey down.
Dante R Maddox
Contributor
Dante R Maddox got started in writing about pop culture in 2007. He developed his conversational style majoring in English and minoring in speech communication, his desire to write as if he were speaking to the reader face to face was the bane of many professors. An odd blend of geek cred and regular fella chic', you're just as likely to end up talking about baseball or politics as you are about comic books and movies (just don't mention Tucker Carlson, you are addressing the man who will go to jail for assault in the future after all). He wrote a book called The Lineage of Durge that's available on Amazon for a small amount of money, he's writing a second while acting as Editor-in-Stuff over at Saga Online Press, there is a graphic novel expansion of his book series also in the works as well as continued development of his cheesecannon, one day Canada...one day (Seriously, a piece of ham, you slice it up and now it's bacon?!?!? I say thee nay!!!)
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