ORATOR

Power, stripped of all its associations, is energy. In human terms, the discipline which purports to study power and its circulation, is Politics. The phenomenon of conflict, debate, rhetoric, compromise, and war all fall under the sphere of Politics. Politics signifies the dynamic permutation of human energy. The greatest dilemma that has ever faced societies is the enlightened distribution of power through an effective organism and/or government. Throughout history, there have been many different experiments and models. Some have succeeded better than others. Often, timely advice was ignored and an appeal to force was made. Many men, winners and losers, wise and foolish, have deposited the record of their thoughts, theories, speeches etc within huge dusty tomes. For all practical purposes, they are lost to the audiovisual generations on the horizon. ORATOR is an attempt to resurrect the commentary on Politics throughout the ages. Players will try to prevent power from becoming Absolute and in doing so will learn about the intricate mechanisms that have undergirded civilized societies and the men that made them possible.
At the center of the political process is the ORATOR, the man who speaks to and for his people. He may be part statesman, part professor, part entrepreneur, part demagogue, part guru. Above all, he is a mediator. His mediation is fundamental and primary to the game. Attitudes about this relationship are also important. Players adopt an avatar and proceed to a variety of environments to engage with their opponents over proposed subjects for debate. They may study, in private, by watching the speaker deliver a speech or a portion of significant political philosophy. When debating, they will be able to sort through a database or index of ideas representative of the orator they are playing. They may use his words or their own but are warned against making contradictory arguments. The goal is to become the Philosopher-King, the enlightened ruler.
There is an element of puppetry involved with ORATOR. The Avatar/Orator is a mask with a voice and a certain sense of things. Theoretically, the puppets would have certain bodily postures that were unique to that person. Their words, unless reciting a certain speech or philosophic discourse would be fed through a keyboard or even a microphone.
There is also the background. For instance, one could meet in the old US Senate Chamber, the Roman Forum, or the British Parliamentary Chamber.
ORATOR is a virtual forum where the focus is on the interplay of ideas. This is a war of ideas. Games present us with an artificial laboratory. They contain elements that are immersive and magnetic. The potential for drawing people into the sweep of a particular moment in human history or in presenting clearly, abstract concepts that have been personified, offers an artistic amplification hitherto untouched by even the most sublime formats to date.