Freelancer as Social Commentary

[Grumblesaur]

No.

You're correct.

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A way a lone a last a loved a long the riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay,
brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs.

[Jongleur]

Every ship we use is equipped to blast others into oblivion, or blast others into oblivion and make money, or the Whale :ylove:.

Yep that's pretty reflective.

[Loken]

No social commentary, just borderline racist stereotyping and a theme of history repeating itself. You'll notice the history of each house is almost identical to a period of history from its original nation, up to the point where aliens get involved.

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[Domjan]

Don't forget the hispanics, they are either drug dealers or thieves

There should be a wall between Hispanics and Liberty to prevent migration.

[escopton]

Junkers remind me of Gypsie clans:PThe gypsies have always been a socio cultural group that fascinated me.

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[McNeo]

It's the most stereotypical look at every nation you could get.

Bretonia - Queen/Tea
Rheinland - Fascists/War machinery
Liberty - Capitalism/corruption
Kusari - Traditionalism/Monarchy

Also reflecting 40s a lot.

That's not the vanilla representation of those houses... this is:

Bretonia is a reflection of Victorian England, minus the Empire of course, and the mature yet dirty heavy industry that was a feature of the country at the time. There were many mines, especially in the north of the country (thus, Planet Leeds being one big mine), as well as polluting heavy industry in the richer more central areas of the country. Education and knowledge creation was towards Cambridge, as was rich agricultural land. Dublin, and the Mollys, are the only direct representation of colonialism, and to anybody who knows anything about the UK, the Mollys represent the IRA.

Rheinland is a reflection of post-World War One Germany, also known as the Weimar Republic. After the war, they were suffering from crushing reparation payments demanded by the allies, mass emigration of the upper classes (thus, population movement from Planet Stuttgart to Planet Los Angeles (or maybe Denver, I forget)) and social unrest. The economy was on the brink of collapse and the currency was undergoing hyperinflation as the government of the time simply printed money to pay domestic war bonds left over from the war. Let me be clear here, the image of Rheinland as facist and militaristic is one created in full by the Rheinland Military player base. I could guess why, but this isn't the place. Dresden represents the heavily industrialised areas of the Saarland and the Ruhr region, while Omega 7 and Omega 11 represent the surrounding foreign industry of Germany, in the then Czechoslovakia and Poland.

Liberty is both past and future. The past is pre-Great Depression America, reaping the benefits of the slowly shrinking but still large industrial output, wealth in general and isolationism. It's also worth saying that Liberty's aesthetic is based on art deco, which is best characterised today by the Empire State Building. The future part is the extension of Republican right wing economic and social policies almost to their limits, resulting in privatised public services, such as the Police and, presumably, the fire service and others considered as merit goods as well, such as education. As a result, you have the ridiculously obscene stratification of wealth, with the rich being extremely rich, and the poor being totally penniless. This is illustrated by the squatters eviction vanilla news story on Denver I think it is.

Kusari is Meiji Restoration-era Japan. Crucially, they were not isolationist, nor did they particularly care about foreigners as long as the two respected each other. Meiji-era Japan had two main features, the deposition of the Tokugawa clan and the rapid industrialisation of the country. The first is characterised by the Sakura coup in Kusari and the second by the presence of Kishiro's research facility in Kyushu trying to copy Gate/Lane technology. Traditionalism was emphasised though (what do you think restoration means?); western laws were taken and implemented in Japan, but their spirit was not. It's also worth saying that Samura and Kishiro represent the massive conglomerate enterprises that the Japanese formed to defend themselves from Western business; pick any of these three, Mitsubishi, Sumitomo or Mitsui.

The Corsairs represent the militancy of Mediterranean pirates during the colonial era, preying on valuable shipping from the Americas and taking it for themselves, while the countries to which they belonged suffered from being largely left behind by the other European powers. They also represent, through artifacts, a rich cultural heritage and the past of their lands being filled with the great and powerful. You only need to look at the history of Greece, Italy and Northern Africa to understand that each held its own great Empire at one point.

The Outcasts represent late 20th century South America, the hub of narcotic production and the vengeance which they may hold against American and other western communities for exploiting their continent for cheap labour, wealth and raw materials. This is represented by the anger they all hold towards the houses, for what they view as sabotage of their chances in Sirius, and their view that Cardamine is the way to gain ultimate control over the populace.


I would suggest that these are mostly familliar to anybody who takes an interest in world affairs, so I would go on to say that as a social commentary, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri provides much more meat on which to chew. It even provides seven social archetypes, complete for you to analyse and judge.

[DarthBindo]

Bretonia is a reflection of Victorian England, minus the Empire of course, and the mature yet dirty heavy industry that was a feature of the country at the time. There were many mines, especially in the north of the country (thus, Planet Leeds being one big mine), as well as polluting heavy industry in the richer more central areas of the country. Education and knowledge creation was towards Cambridge, as was rich agricultural land. Dublin, and the Mollys, are the only direct representation of colonialism, and to anybody who knows anything about the UK, the Mollys represent the IRA.

The odd thing about the Mollys though, is that the developers wholesale lifted the story of the Molly Maguires for implementation, even though the Maguires were Irish immigrants in the Pennsylvania coal fields, not Republicans.

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gone four years, first day back: Zoners still getting shot in Theta :|

[CzeReptile]

It's the most stereotypical look at every nation you could get.

Bretonia - Queen/Tea
Rheinland - Fascists/War machinery
Liberty - Capitalism/corruption
Kusari - Traditionalism/Monarchy

Also reflecting 40s a lot.

No its not.
French aint got white flags and run-away songs.

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[rwx]

French aint got white flags and run-away songs.

Gallia isn't vanilla?!

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We make the rules, you follow them.

[Varok]

In my opinion, McNeo has a very good idea of what the houses were meant to be.
So to answer Azrael's question, I think it is mostly a representation of the past of the humanity.