This section is designed to help players understand the history and some of the design ideas underpinning Modern Command.
| Game commands
Execute your decisions with precision, become a master of in-game actions. |
Character Generation
Design compelling leaders with unique strengths, craft leaders with the skills to tackle any challenge.. |
Economic
Transform your nation into an economic superpower, fuel your military and political goals with a booming economy. |
Military
Raise and deploy forces capable of decisive victories, develop a formidable fighting force. |
Political
Master diplomacy and secure your place on the world stage, build alliances, scheme against rivals, and seize power. |
About
Discover the rich lore and mechanics behind Modern Command. |
Modern Command simulates running a contemporary nation-state. You assume the role of a senior level official, and make decisions that effect the lives of millions of people in your country, and across the globe.
Technology, time, geography, social, political, military, and economic issues all reflect events in today's news. You will control and manipulate this world just like real life leaders do; you will issue orders, sway opinions, set priorities, budget resources, provide a vision and structure for your apt minions to do their work. You will negotiate, order, ask, sign, give, take, listen and talk.
The seed for Modern Command was planted waaaaaaay back in the days of Zork, Zork II, and Zork III. Those games, coupled with the other great Infocom games provided a deep, expansive, rich, texttual and fun world to explore.
Although countless other games have come and gone, nothing really moved me the way text-based games did. The world was extraordinary - no graphics or sounds, simply the canvas of your imagination to paint worlds and characters with no equal. It was like an asychronous book.
Modern Command actually satrted out as a PennMUSH implementation of a minature wargaming ruleset (Fist Full of Tows2 by Ty Beard). However, I soon realized there was a much better game waiting to be made.
The science fiction and fantasy genres have been done in PennMUSH. Like, really well. Rather than add a mediocre game to an already full genre (I toyed with yet another Star Trek MUSH for a few weeks), I decided to take on the contemporary field. A real world, with real countries, real issues, and real dynamics.
As Modern Command was in the design stages, Massively Multiplayer games were really starting to take hold (Ultima online, Everquest, and now World of Warcraft). This, coupled with decreasing amount of free time, moved me more towards a mix of hard-coded systems with not as much reliance on role-play. I was also uncomfortable with an unwritten and unspoken rule for many of today's MUSHes; more time online equals more success. There is no real finish line, or minimal amount of time one can play, and stil be successful.
Wouldn't it be great if someone could log on for 30 minutes during their lunch break, maybe an hour or two per week and still have fun, enjoy the game, and participate in an online community?
I also wanted to invite and include non-technical users into the MUSH/MUD world. With a few exceptions of some web-based clients, it requires slightly more than average technical skill. Why can't we include folks outside the normal mush world?
About two years ago, I became increasingly interested in the role of games in education. As a public school teacher, I saw a valuable place in my classroom for games and games-based-learning. It is with this curiousity, I started looking for ways Modern Command could be used in a classroom! I spent an afternoon linking activities on Modern Command to Massachusetts State Standards, and discovered several great connections.
Modern Command is a game first. It will always be a game first; that we can link relevant and important learning standards into the game is a wonderful addition.
Modern Command is still in alpha. There are hundreds of significant and interesting challenges ahead. With a clear game design, and increasingly involved playerbase, and a committed administration team, Modern Command is destined for success!
I've gotten so much support and help for this project