I give up; I keep losing my posts. My computer seems to be protesting downloading a game and allowing a Gameboomers post simultaneously.

Anyway, just short comments then. Oldmariner, very insightful comments, and you're right, it does seem as though power is the number one motivating factor in the World Union.

Rmt, great point about the butterfly symbolism.

Anyway, I had a lot more written which may or may not have been insightful, but I have to work in the morning, and I don't want yet another post eaten. Maybe I'll try again tomorrow.



She was very wise in this area.

Is there a fundamental flaw in Culpa Innata? Or is Barmanbek just painting us a possible picture of the future without showing a solution or an utopia to look forward to? Is there a solution for our hard sought utopia? We can't seem to find such solutions even today.

Most citizens of Adrianopolis are so selfish, they seem very happy in their individuality and superficial existence. I have still only read half of the book and I will keep an eye on this. But so far I fail to see such a failure in balancing a perfect form of government and system, or that Barmanbek failed to understand something crucial or might be attempting to deceive, but I will keep an eye.

There is no rule stating Barmanbek should have found a balance, he is showing us where we might be heading with this globalisation and one world government. Citizens are the government in Culpa Innata, it is presented to us as an utopia initially, and all seems fine until Phoenix finds out what is going on behind the scene. There will always be this hidden power in the background fighting for more money and power, and even for whom money is meaningless (only because they have so much of it) and can be burnt in order to gain control.

At any rate if the Rogue States are supposed to represent socialism, you can see Barmanbek painted it as something much worse, it is chaos out there in the Rogue States and no one in their right mind would wish to move there. Culpa Innata 2 is called Chaos Rising and takes place in the Rogue States, we might get answers there. I must finish the book and think further, I will get back to you about these points.

But certainly Barmanbek has painted the indictment against power hungry people. Did he wrongly blamed capitalism when capitalism is not responsible for this extreme behaviour? Maybe. Was he right though? Maybe. There must come a time where capitalism leads to all the money and assets of the whole world being in the hands of only a handful of people, and we are reaching that stage. Are you sure Barmanbek is still not showing us exactly where capitalism leads?

The parallel with The Longest Journey is interesting because they too had a great meltdown and bloodbath, and this happened between the Longest Journey and Dreamfall. It is also a quest by some shadowy people to control both Stark and Arcadia and actually bring them together. Funny how we can easily miss this whole background when we play.

But do we see a resolution in the Longest Journey or just the failure of these shadowy people in wrecking the world? Do we reach a real balance concerning the system? Are we presented with only one side of the coin or again just a painting of a possible world? There is no utopia in the Longest Journey. Life in both Stark and Arcadia does not appear ideal even after resolution.

The balance in all things is first about the balance between science and magic, between these two worlds being kept separate. I must read again your comments to understand better what is the balance you feel Barmanbek should have presented us. The Renovators might have seem a more ideal people, but we realise they are as bad as anyone else.

What has been gained by such other utopian books like Men Like Gods of H. G. Wells? There is certainly a lack of balance there and an unrealistic possible world, and was destroyed by the critics. A Brave New World of Huxley was written in answer to that. I have written an article about that if you are interested:

Humankind's future: social and political Utopia or Idiocracy?
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Humankind-s-future-social-by-Roland-Michel-Trem-091101-248.html

And this other article about the difficulties in writing a book about the very topic of Culpa Innata (both these articles are light hearted and meant to be funny):

How to Create a New World Order
http://www.opednews.com/articles/How-to-Create-a-New-World-by-Roland-Michel-Trem-100212-326.html

You see there can be no Utopia as every story needs conflict it is built into human nature. Take for example free speech. I can say anything no matter what it is someone will find a part or all of it offensive. If everyone had what they needed then no one would have goals. A society needs those people at the bottom of the pyramid to hold it up. A comment was made a few years back by Bill Gates when he said he did not wish to burden his children with wealth. A few talking heads on the financial network CNBC discussed how he could give a few million to every person in the country without disrupting his fortune in a significant way. Joe Kernan, one of the level headed analyst pointed out the flaw. "If he did that no one would have to work. Who would provide all the essentials to run the society? No food on the store shelves, no electricity, no on and on if no one needed to work. sorry guys that would destroy the economy."

One story, a tv series explored what happens if we had machines to do all the work. Remember the Cylons? That did not go too well they turned on us destroying the world literally. A Utopia cannot occur without those people at the bottom of the pyramid. The dreamers who build such worlds need those at the bottom with a strong military to protect us from the hoards invading from the Rogue States.

People need conflict as shown repeatedly when one acquires great wealth and seemingly have everything they grow restless and begin to covet power. There are those who have no wealth, who begin with focusing on disrupting creating a power base to achieve that wealth and power.

A one world government cannot possibly work because of those very reasons. The closest example we have of that experiment is the UN. The UN is clearly a corrupt organization filled with self interest and power seeking entities. You cannot possibly explain how an organization could with any regard for justice put Syria on the governing panel of Human Rights a year ago. It is another case of paying off favors. Favors which we have no knowledge. Their every act is based on anything but equality or justice.

It is a flawed world with flawed people. Nation States are required to provide at least a small corner where some of the people have rights and equality. For those at the bottom of the pyramid Capitalism offers an opportunity for those to strive and climb to a higher plateau. My career as a Social Worker for decades can attest President Johnson lost the war on poverty years ago. Government's goal clearly is to keep the poor, poor as they hamper every effort to increase their HDI. Organizations like Salvation Army, Catholic Family Services do a far better job than the government.

This is a long way from the book and our author did a fine job of exposing the flaws of Utopian experiments. Nothing changed in the World Union, power and control remain the central theme. I will leave you with that while repeating Culpa Innata was a great game and the book is a better follow up to flesh out the story leaving us all something to think about. Thank you Mr. Barmanbek for an intelligent thought provoking and excellent Adventure.

If our discussion is any indication, the book Culpa Innata should become a classic. There is so much that can be said about everything mentioned in the book. And we have only covered a few aspects with restraints, in order not to give out any spoiler.

By the way Venus, if I thought the first interview was a great read, wait for the third one. My head is still spinning. I must read that all again right away, I must have missed a hundred details.

Edit: I finished reading Culpa Innata.

It was an astonishing book and I highly recommend it to anyone who played the game and also to the ones who didn't. However I understand now what Oldmariner was saying, it seems final with no part 2 coming.

I can certainly imagine a book 2 and see in which circles it might take place (the high society of the World Union). However all the woven threads have been resolved and Barmanbek would have to imagine a totally new story set in those familiar settings.

And yet, the way the game finished he must have had a clear idea of where it was going, when Phoenix ended up in Russia to investigate Bogdanov's murder. So I suppose he could still develop the adventure game Culpa Innata 2 following his original idea, as long as it radically differs from the ending of the book. We can only hope. These would be important questions to put to B. Barmanbek.

I can't criticise his choices, the ending of the book is rather impressive. Maybe there is still a way to do the game Culpa Innata 2 following the book and leading to the same ending. Who knows.