Oiligarchy - Gameplay Report

Oiligarchy is a modification of the word ‘monarchy’. It implies that the player is a totalitarian ruler of all the oil in the world.

The game is set in the post WWII era. The primary objective being that as the CEO of an oil company the player has to explore the ground, drill into oil deposits and make money. The player starts out with $4000 and has to manage his budget while expanding his empire to meet global demands for oil. The player can drill in locations around the world, each with its pros and cons and can also bribe the government (oil the government) to get certain laws passed. If the player is generous enough, he bribes the president and gains access to a secret room under the White House from where he can create global chaos and basically call the shots.

There exists on the lower right corner an oil demand bar. When the consumption is below the demand, the in-game oil prices rise. Price rise results in increase of dissent (people who will defect their vote in the next election) and environmentalism (turn more undecided representatives green).

The game has 5 major options and some area-selective options available to the player in any of the locations displayed on the map except Washington D. C.:

ACTION	COST($)	DESCRIPTION
Select pointer	Nil
Explore	100	Shows presence of oil in selected area
Explore Sea (places with sea)	300	“
Deploy small well	500	Yield = 25bbl/yr
Deploy normal well	2000	Yield = 100 bbl/yr
Deploy Platform (places with sea)	4000	Oil well at sea Yield: 100 bbl/yr
Deploy Mercenaries (Only Iraq)	100/Mercenary	To protect oil well from attacks
Demolish	300	Demolish selected structure

Below are the descriptions of the various places on the in-game map at the beginning of the game (1946):

PLACE	DESCRIPTION
Washington DC	Home of the government, environmentalists and dissenters.
Texas	Available for drilling.
Venezuela	Available for drilling. Small tribe will be displaced. Later government missions will make it peaceful drilling
Nigeria	Available for drilling. Corrupt Nigerian govt. helps for small sums of money.
Alaska	Unavailable for digging due to wildlife reserves but a well oiled government will allow it
Iraq	Unavailable for drilling. Elaborate set of government missions before drilling can begin.

For the purpose of this report, I will detail one experience I have playing the game. I will explain new phenomena that haven’t been addressed so far when they occur during the game.

ATTEMPT 1:

YEAR	EVENT
1946	Begin exploration and drilling. Oil starts at $10/bl.
1952	Another well put in place (big).Big wells make lesser noise than small wells in-game.
1959	Production<Demand. Prices rise. Shareholders upset. (On this attempt I didn’t get very far, but after a certain year, the shareholders don’t mind the disparity in production and demand that leads to a price hike. It shows how profit becomes more important than public welfare in the oil industry around the early 21st Century.)
1961	Oiled the government. More oil friendly acts get passed (such acts increase oil addiction leading to increased demand and hence increased prices in the long run.) [List of Oil-friendly and Oil-unfriendly acts given later on] Underground Chamber missions available. Mission 1: Enemy of the Enemy: Finance Shi’a opposition for regime change in Iraq
1962	Mission 2: Messing Iraq Economy: Use ally Kuwait to damage Iraq economy. Provoke conflict, provide justification for intervention.
1969	News: Iraq Invades Kuwait (The game periodically gives news updates based on the events taking place in the game.)
1970	Mission 3: Operation Desert Storm: Defend Kuwait, Attack  Iraq.
1971	Didn’t oil government. Oil-unfriendly acts begin passing.
1972	Warning 6/8 board members are unhappy. (The board reserves the right to fire the CEO if they are unhappy with his performance. If they fire you, game over.)
1977	Texas oil production peaked
1979	Search in Venezuela. Displaced animals and locals. Set up oil wells, deforestation.
1981	Oiled govt. (Multiple mission choices based on which area you want to focus on) Mission 4: AIDing Democracy:  Form right wing opposition parties in Venezuela to obstruct social reforms.
1894	Mission 5: A New Way Forward: Send troops to Iraq. (Can send more every year by repeating mission)
1985	First Water Search.
1986	News: Global Warming
1991	Didn’t oil govt. on purpose (Oil addiction falls. Helps keep prices constant and reduces need for investment)
2001	Oiled govt. Set up sea drilling station. New missions available include: ‘Create a Monster’ and ‘Anthrax Everywhere’ both of which are intended to scare the population of the USA to reduce dissent and internal unrest.
2003	News: 9/11
2010	Searching in Nigeria
2011	Not oiled. (To sustain prices)
2021	Tribes occupying oil wells. Pay Nigerian govt. to raid tribe
2026	Tribes demonstrating. Pay Nigerian govt. to conduct public execution
GAME OVER	SUSTAINABLE WORLD ACHIEVED. ALL OIL-UNFRIENDLY ACTS GOT PASSED BECAUSE I DIDN’T OIL THE GOVT. ENOUGH EARNINGS: $117,306 OIL PRICE: $27

Below is the aforementioned list of some acts:

OIL-FRIENDLY	OIL-UNFRIENDLY
Greasing the Breaks	Big Cars Special Tax
Heil Highway	Clean Cars Act
Drill Baby Drill	Livable Cities Act
SUV Craze	Mass Transit Act

I noticed a mild amount of audio rhetoric in the game:

·         The title track is catchy and has very interesting lyrics.

·         The rhythm that the oil wells produce is fun to listen to.

·         Dissenters and environmentalists make annoying noises.

There are several alternate endings to the game and I will have to play it quite a few more times before I can completely understand the important rhetorics of the game.