Over the last year, we’ve dived into the different choices you have for designing a society in Dissent on Mars. We’ve talked about allocation systems, property rights, money, and consumption rights. Today, we’re diving into the final choice: decision making.

Depending on how productive property is owned, workplaces may have an individual owner or a group of owners. So, how should owners make decisions inside of a workplace? In Dissent on Mars, your answer to this question changes the rules of the game.

If decisions are made autocratically, one person or group makes decisions and everyone else follows. The decisions could be made by a private owner, a government official, or an elected manager. For example, if someone owns a bakery, the owner will make all of the decisions regarding what to produce, how long everyone works, and so on. No one else has input in these decisions. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you probably know this is how most workplaces work on Earth.

However, if a workplace has multiple owners, they can elect someone to be the decision maker. The other owners won’t have input in specific decisions (what to produce, how long to work etc.), but they can at least decide who gets to be the autocrat. If there are people in the workplace who aren’t owners, they have no input in who’s elected.

Maybe this is a controversial thing to say, but I think this is how most “democratic” political systems work in the world today. We have input in who’s elected to represent us, but once they’re elected, there are few (if any) ways for us to have input in the specific decisions they make on our behalf. Unless, of course, you have a briefcase full of cash to donate to their campaign!

If decisions are made democratically, decisions are made collectively and each owner has input in proportion to how much they’re affected by a decision. If there’s a group of owners, they’ll elect someone to be the decision maker, but they can also have input in specific decisions. For example, if the decision maker creates a work schedule that unfairly benefits them, the owners could vote for them to create a fairer schedule. If the decision maker continues to do things the owners disagree with, they can immediately recall them and elect someone else.

To be clear: this doesn’t mean that every single decision requires a vote. If the owners are happy with the decision maker they can let them be. However, if they plan to do something the majority of owners disagree with, there are mechanisms in place to let them have input.

I wasn’t able to model this in as much detail, but notice I said that owners have “input in proportion to how much they’re affected by a decision.” In the game, all of the workplace decisions impact everyone so each owner has a say. But in the real world, some decisions may impact one group of people while not impacting others at all. For example, if the animators at a game studio need to decide what software to use, it doesn’t make sense for the audio department to have a say since it doesn’t affect them.

Hopefully, this gives you an idea of how decisions can be made in a workplace! In short, owners can make decisions autocratically or democratically, and who’s considered an owner depends on how productive property is owned.

Now, here’s the real question: how will workplaces make decisions in your society?

If you haven’t yet, please wishlist and follow the game so you can stay connected! It would be great if you could tell your friends about it too.

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Thanks for reading,

Michael

Dissent on Mars is now one of the top wishlisted upcoming games on Steam! Thanks to everyone who wishlisted it or helped spread the word, we couldn’t have done it without you. It’s taken a long time, but it looks like we’re on track to finally release the game next year. We’re still promoting it, so if you haven’t wishlisted it or told your friends yet, we’d appreciate the help.

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Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving,

Michael