39,327
edits
One Nation Under Copyright: Difference between revisions
m
update links
m (removed Category:Tabletop Games; added Category:Tabletop Game Tropes using HotCat) |
m (update links) |
||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
[[File:Caldari_State_104.jpg|link=
Line 65:
* ''Blue Planet'' has the Incorporate, corporations who bought "failed states" after a global famine with the consent of the UN to restore governance in those areas. They are run like corporations, but have their own armies, issue their own money and sit on the GEO (UN replacement) council just like nations.
* Much of the inner solar system in [[Eclipse Phase]] is governed by the Planetary Consortium, which is a confederation of the major inner-system corporations.
* In Star* Drive, the Stellar Nations Austrin-Ontis Unlimited, Rigonmur Star Consortium, Starmech Collective and Voidcorp are this, and Insight might be as well (it isn't outright stated, but they did begin as a division of Voidcorp [then again, they also ''hate'' Voidcorp...]). They vary in corporateness from Voidcorp, whose pursuit of profit leads them into things that are not just unethical and against the Galactic Concord, but also questionably profitable in a long-term perspective, like {{spoiler|selling out humanity to the Externals}}, to Austrin-Ontis Unlimited, who is, for all intents and purposes, a bog-standard republic that just happens to call its citizens 'shareholders' and its president 'CEO'.
Line 80:
* The Czerka Corporation from ''[[Star Wars]]: [[Knights of the Old Republic]]'', while functioning like a normal mega-corporation in Republic Space, actually has complete control over at least two known planets, Tattooine and Kashyyyk, in the first game.
** One of the loading screens says they and other mega-corps police themselves, being too large for the Republic to control. Czerka seems to still be in The Reblic's good graces in the second one despite openly dealing arms to both sides.
* The Caldari State, one of four playable races in ''[[
** Since the death of [[Only Sane Man|Otro Gariushi]] and the recapture of Caldari Prime, the glue holding the State together has increasingly become [[Putting on the Reich|Tibus Heth and his underlings.]]
* With the possible exception of ''[[Armored Core]] 2'' and its successor, Another Age, the world is dominated not by one, but multiple corporate states.
* In ''[[Mass Effect]]'' the whole planet of Noveria is a conglomerate of corporations. The planet is exempt from all but the [[The Federation|The Citadel's]] most anti-catastrophic laws. Corruption is rampant and generally ignored as long as it doesn't impede regular business. Also arguably the Volus species which are like the Ferengi but with morals. A variant in the Turians, who are instead of a nation corporation are a nation military, to the point the advancement in military rank is an advancement as a citizen as well (though non-military jobs are not lesser or looked down upon).
Line 87:
* The ''[[X (video game)|X-Universe]]'' series of games have the Teladi, a race of [[Petting Zoo People|anthropomorphic lizard-people]] with [[Planet of Hats|an almost religious devotion toward profit.]] They even refer to their race as 'The Teladi Company' and their ruler's official position is chairman.
** Whose name in the first game is Ceo. [[Lampshade Hanging]], much?
* [[System Shock|TriOptimum Corporation]] filled this role, until things went [[AI Is a Crapshoot|horribly]] [[Kill'Em All|horribly]] [[The Virus|horribly]] [[Gone Horribly Wrong|wrong]].
* ''Kaiserreich: Legacy of the Weltkrieg'' features AlgOstAsien GmbH, a German corporate consortium which controls the southern half of China as a de-facto government under the nominal sovereignty of the Qing Empire.
* The Vector corporation in the ''[[Xenosaga]]'' series fits this trope to a T. Almost to the degree of being ridiculous, given certain revelations in the third game {{spoiler|such as the fact that Vector's CEO is the head of a religious organization hell-bent on Vector's destruction too}}.
Line 101:
== Real Life ==
* The Italian city-states of Venice and Genoa. Aside from the usual practices of a maritime trading state, both cities also respectively specialized and profited from otherwise private enterprises like shipbuilding and banking. Pretty much anyone in government was either a merchant or a noble, although some posts required applicants to forgo all business practices for the duration of their office.
* The Honourable East India Company: Ran the British Empire's interests in India until the Mutiny of 1857 and thus, by a combination of bribery, alliances and superior competence - oh, and a private army larger than that of the ''Empire itself'' - controlled a substantial part of the subcontinent.
** And their northern counterpart, the Hudson Bay Company, which ran much of what is now Canada and the USA<ref>and is now a chain of mid-range department stores.</ref>.
** Their Russian counterpart, the Russian-American Company, owned and ruled Alaska.
* Going eastward: Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (known in English as the Dutch East India Company). The first stock-based, multinational corporation that controlled parts of Indonesia for almost 200 years. They had their own military, minted their own currency, and had the right to establish colonies, negotiate treaties, even wage wars! Their rule made an everlasting impression to locals even after they went bankrupt and the official Dutch government took over. So much that their legacy lives on to this day; the local word for colonial forces is still "Kompeni".
** In fact, the entire nation of Indonesia is essentially the Dutch East India Company's old territory plus sovereignty. It's currently the fourth most populous country in the world.
* The emirate of Dubai is run very much like a business enterprise based around tourism, trade, and finance.
* [[Anarchy Is Chaos|Anarchists]] and left Marxists say that so-called "socialist" or "communist" states are nothing of the sort, instead terming both them and fascist regimes State Capitalist, because they become this. In fact, both Marx and Lenin ''admired'' large monopolistic business for increasing efficiency! Basically, they just did this with the state, coming at it by the opposite route. This seems true, because workers are for damn sure ''not'' in control of those states.
* In the USA in the 19th century, [[wikipedia:Company town|Company Towns]] were commonplace. They had their own money (chits) their own stores, and their own lenders, among numerous other things. Their excesses helped fuel the rise of Labor Unions. And inspired the song "Sixteen Tons" (with a part of the chorus going ''"St. Peter don't you call me/'Cause I can't go/I owe my soul/To the Company Store."'') They were forcibly publicized after one entire company town (Pullman, Illinois) disrupted pretty much the entire rail industry during its riotous strike.
* The old [[wikipedia:Belgian Congo|Congo Free State]]. The people of Belgium were adamantly -against- joining the imperialism game, so King Leopold pulled some strings to have the whole thing done as a private enterprise initiative, turning the land into private grounds with a captive workforce that took in chains, ammo and mercenaries and churned out ivory and corpses.
* Interestingly the actual political concept of [[wikipedia:Corporatism|Corporatism]]—most notable for its association with fascism—is something completely different.
| |||