Hierarchy

Frame · Power relations social

Top and bottom – a clear rank order, command and obedience, ascent as reward, descent as punishment.

Design question – In your game there is a top and a bottom. Who determines the rank order – birth, performance, force? And can one rise?

Reference example – Clash of Clans: leader, co-leader, elders and members – who rises is decided at the top. Kingdom Come: Deliverance: a blacksmith’s son in a world of lords and servants.

Associations

• Typical Activities – Commanding, Obeying, Climbing, Promoting

Coherence

Activities: Commanding, Obeying, Climbing, Promoting. Mechanisms: Rank Track, Worker Placement (rank determines action options), Variable Player Powers (rank = power), Scoring (rank increase). Ludic Organisational Structures: political order (rule), social order (stratification). Ludic Social Structure: asymmetric (different power levels); the ascent mechanism as long-term motivation.