Goddess Maker Mechanic: POLITICAL INFLUENCE

Introduction

From out of left field, there’s a mechanic in Goddess Maker’s “Lab of God” game section where politics is involved, a distinct mode of operation away from the norm of conducting lewd science, but one whose importance to the game section is highly complementary to “Lab of God” whole human-centric tenet.

Simply put, the ascension from man to god, incorporates an ascension from man to king along its path.

The Attributes “Strength and Beauty”

If the attribute “Intelligence” quantifies Research Power and “Prestige” quantifies Max Breast, Penis, or Pig Size; “Strength”and “Beauty” quantify how much Political Influence that one can exert towards the development of a “Project”.

The attributes “Strength” and “Beauty” on their own sake are projections of one’s appearance, carrying self-faced and couple-paired merits, but when linked to the external community of which the lab sits center of, it translates to power.

Power whether by the straightforward “might makes right” approach or the more luscious seduction approach of wielding power through a follower count of admirers, developing strength and beauty has a unshakable importance upon the core gameplay.

Player-Partner Political Differences

Mechanically speaking, the player character’s strength and the partner character’s beauty are expressed both as influence, neither having an outright attribute advantage, but whomever is significantly taller wields the legitimacy to influence on the lab’s behalf.

And as an expansion to the player and partner characters’ workplace conflict, their modes of how they conduct their political influence also differ in implementation:

•The player character’s influence is a byproduct of their masculinity, a leadership projected outwardly through militaristic means, supported by a self-cultivated revolutionary ideology of the ascension of the region’s population and the creation an utopia.

•And the partner character’s influence is a progression of her god complex, an inward religious and indulgent expectation of moving the world to revolve around her, and to encase her presence within a noble queendom that’s not akin to a cult of sacrifice, but more resembling a cult of personality, namely acknowledging the partner character’s intellect and demeanor as if she were already divine.

These two vastly different political approaches is again determined by who leads the lab, but there is also a mix of the two when the player and partner characters are in a state of equal partnership, in where both the player character’s military projection and the partner character’s inward-facing absorption of others' fascination of her are in play, but aren’t overly exaggerated; but instead interlock in a balance expressed more powerful than apart.

Political Participation 

As soon as the debt is paid off and the third month’s conflict begins, whomever of the protagonists represents the lab is granted entry to the region’s political bureau, the “Shaker’s Resort” to advocate and lobby on “The Lab”’s behalf.

Since politics in conducted during the day,  prior to the morning work shift, the Lab Leader / Lab Representative chooses the location to conduct their affairs for the day, leaving the subordinate of the two to stay behind at the lab if they choose venture to the political arena, unless it is an equal partnership where the equal partner can choose to join the influence effort.

At the Shaker’s Resort, the Lab Representative is allotted time to propose/dictate a single influence/command onto the region per session, an action that revolves around a multiple of factors, such Prestige and Reputation.

Prestige and Recognition 

Prestige is a core attribute for the player and partner characters to gain through awards, titles, etc. within the “Lab of God”, but it is not the same as an outward influence dictated by strength and beauty, it instead a core mechanic of earning respect and imbued confidence, that can optionally be translated physically as a larger breast size, or a larger cock or hog size.

Mechanically in the gameplay of participating in politics, the leading protagonist’s prestige level determines how much of their brainstormed propositions are taken seriously by the political elite, like if the protagonist proposes a vast construction project but they themselves don't meet the merit or qualifications to oversee such a feat, their attempt would fall on silent ears.

Using the example of how the authority of an accredited doctor is above that of a unrenowned civilian, the community needs to have faith that the protagonist has the ethos to see their vision through before they can influence it to happen.

Prestige legitimizes influence akin to an inhibitor to one’s power, as entry-level political influence can only be allowed to achieve so much, as opposed to an entity with high prestige who’s word is considered truth, but their influence may not be enough to enforce that “truth”. Therefore, Prestige works hand-to-hand with Influence to succeed in politics.

Nevertheless, Prestige isn’t the same as one’s place in the social hierarchy, but it may as well be so thematically, and when the opportunity following the timeline arrives, it serves as an practical advantage to secure a higher position in governance.

Political Capital 

To influence politics expends political capital that is measured by the matter of order given and the manpower needed to accomplish it.

Each time the protagonist expends their political capital, their reputation, shared by both the player and partner character takes a hit toward the dislike, as the use of power puts pressure on the people, levying the player to consider how much political capital they should spend on a given issue.

These development projects are at a scale where they can accrue a lot of political capital over a period of time to fully materialize to existence, but like how Research is handled with one’s Intelligence Speed, the more Strength and Beauty the protagonists have, the less amount of Political Capital needs to be expended, as protagonist(s)’s Influence speeds up the development of the projects.

Reputation Gains and Losses

Reputation is based off an ongoing mechanic where a max of 100 individuals, counted incrementally based off the protagonists’ notoriety, are polled daily whether they hate, dislike, like, or love “The Lab”.

When translating to political capital, “Hate” is non-compliance, “Dislike” is weak compliance, “Like” is stable compliance , and “Love” is optimistic compliance.

As political capital is spent, a specified number of the “like” category move to the “dislike” category, and when there is more dislike than like, those in the “dislike” category move to the “hate” category, lessening the amount of political capital available.

Note that changing opinion to and to away from love and hate is more stubborn of a malleable accomplishment than the movement from “like” to “dislike” since each anonymous person is mechanically independent, and there may be cause for where the characters polled are connected to characters in-game.

A gameplay strategy would be to focus on earning reputation to fill up the “like” and “love” categories, so to have enough political capital in reserve for conducting politics.

In order to earn reputation, the Lab must do a public good, like completing public works projects, increasing the attributes of the community, and/or performing great blessings like curing ailments.

Other things in-game can ruin the lab’s reputation like exposure to the lab’s true intent or community harassment, but mechanically this is the main meta for reputation expenditure as a means to use up political capital for mass efforts.

A good reputation allows the lab to perpetuate its affairs into the future, as in the gameplay, a highly negative reputation is something the protagonists need to worry about in periods of when an undefeated external threat is looming over the horizon to disrupt the lab’s affairs.

As when the day of conflict occurs, the irate community will rally support for the opposition to overthrow “The Lab” and guarantee a route change away from continuing the “Lab of God” game section.

Dictatorial Dilemma

Due to the protagonists’ dictates being limited to their political capital or more appropriately their reputation, drying up of political capital essentially makes the lab a pariah in the region and puts them at odds with the people’s interests.

Since reputation is based on people, it is still possible to earn more political capital, even under circumstances of a pissed off the public by not relying on the manpower of humans, but rather the manpower of investing into robotics, artificial intelligence, and psychic power development to substitute control over these vulnerable areas.

On that wavelength, it would be possible that even with a highly hated reputation, that government-led affairs would proceed as ordered, as the means have been replaced by a dependable workforce that cares not on reputation.

But there is a catch-22 in that a replacement to humanity, first requires humanity to build it, so at a certain point it’s not a plausible strategy to fully recover mid-collapse, unless that had been the plan from the beginning. 

Psychic powers, in contrast to robotics, don’t have this liability, however they aren’t a substitute against external threats, but are reserved as a practical means to conduct mass labor under controversial circumstances.

Project Development

Projects are like Research in that they are divided up by progress and whose pace of completion is determined by the level of strength and beauty needed to exert the amount of manpower to bring it to fruition.

These “Projects” can consist of vast industrial efforts, mass manufacturing, and "Mandates" like a program to increase the attributes of the community or the need to raise an army to defend the region.

In addition to improving the economy and in turn the reputation, these projects are also a way to earn awards to raise leader’s prestige.

Note that when the protagonists act in unison on equal partnership grounds, due to their similar height, their collective influence toward the completion of these projects is stacked, but access remains capped to the lower partner’s prestige, encouraging a leader to rise between the two to throw off the detriment of the other.

Social Responsibility and Totality

As part of the ascension trajectory, “The Lab” in the “Lab of God” game section will face a set of circumstances where it’ll end up becoming the parental authority over the region’s affairs since it is an entity with an omnipotent grand vision.

Such things as “The Lab”’s cash being intertwined with the region’s treasury, and the region’s developments complementing “The Lab”’s personal objectives, will undoubtedly raise the protagonists’ responsibility to not only their lab but the over whole industrial affairs of the region.

It'll become the “The Lab”’s pride and burden to take great care of region to not let it go astray, and because of the higher stakes being carried, “The Lab”’s scrutiny of their sudden social privileges will play a factor in the ongoing critique.

Like failed governments due to unrest, a leader must not overstep their position even if they have the power to spam commands.

Pacing Aggression and Selfishness 

To conquer and to become a god, can involve aggression and selfishness, but one can masquerade these achievements by progressing towards it through a politically correct manner.

Instead of ordering the construction of a nuclear weapon to overcome an external dilemma quickly,  conflicts can be resolved through dialogues and concessions, subversive tactics that require a high intelligence to plot out and execute.

Although the pacifist route is better for the reputation of the protagonists’ regime, it draws more valuable time than swiftly ending a threat with immense force. 

It should be emphasized that “Time” in Goddess Maker’s “Lab of God” game section is a finite resource in this strategy role playing game.

Thankfully, the spectrum between “Passive Triumphs for Good Optics” to “Aggression to Free Up Research and Development Time” is player character specific choice.

The partner character, on the other hand, is caught between the negative influence of ever indulgent selfishness versus the positive influence of benevolent generosity.

Since the partner character makes her own choices, her automated choices will lean towards selfishness over selfless, so it’s player character’s burden to call her out on it, even if it ires the relationship in favor of the reputation.

Relationship vs. Reputation

Whether it’s the player character and partner character against the world, or the player character siding with the world over the partner character, it should be stated that the relationship mechanic of the player character and partner character is independent from the reputation of “The Lab.”

It still applies that possessing a low reputation can hurt the relationship, when there is a leader between them, since the subordinate is caught up in the negative backlash due to their association with the lab and is expected to push back to protect their own clout.

In power challenging situations between the player character and partner character, a low reputation is an opportune time to strike a turnabout, as the leader is focused on mitigated the external protests.

An example of the triangle strategy would pivot Leadership to cause a rift in the Relationship, then the lower Relationship can instigate a lower Reputation, and then finally the lower Reputation can invoke the conditions for a potential Leadership Change.