Social Democracy: An Alternate History, by Autumn Chen

Have you ever wondered what it feels like to be inside a society in transition to fascism? (Yes, we are aware that we may look back on this historical moment and say to ourselves, “Oh yeah, that’s what that was.”)

Plenty of books, fiction and non-fiction, dive inside inter-war Germany and Italy. There’s also Sinclair Lewis’s classic 1935 novel It Can’t Happen Here, for an American take, as well as a host of other books and films (Example: Berlin Stories, by Christopher Isherwood, which became Cabaret the stage musical and movie; there are many more). It’s a fascinating genre, if you go for that sort of horror show. 

But what about an online game simulation? Interactive fiction writer Autumn Chen is developing a word-based game placing you in Weimar Germany in 1928. As her website tells us, Social Democracy: An Alternate History is a “narrative game using the DendryNexus engine, which is in turn based on StoryNexus, the engine originally designed for Fallen London”. 

I don’t know what that means, but if you do, you might want to give it a try. I did, and after an hour I needed to be pulled back from the abyss. You are the Social Democratic Party making weighty choices, trying to stop the rise of Naziism.  It’s a history lesson and, well, maybe not exactly fun, but pretty absorbing. Check out the beta version here.