![]() While Nelson says much of the underlying irrationality of markets was already reflected in Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator, the team decided to lean into it more. The GameStop saga recalibrated the developers' understanding of the markets and prompted some changes to the game. "Of course, it makes sense in hindsight that value is also based on whatever people want it to be at a given moment, but seeing it all come together in a ritualistic, absurdist money spree has been kind of deeply eye-opening and existentially terrifying." SWOTS will let players have their own Tulipmania (although 'two-lip mania' might be more appropriate) He mentions diamonds as a real-world precedent, with the gems not being tremendously valuable or coveted until a marketing campaign tied them to the concept of marriage. I had completely missed the concept of value being based on what people want it to be," Nelson says. ![]() "We had put so much time into thinking logically about how financial systems and economic factors logically come together to explain the dynamics of supply and demand for a fundamental sentient need. The Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator team had already been deep into the development of a game specifically about economic markets, but watching the explosive growth of share price for a brick-and-mortar retailer in an increasingly digital industry during an ongoing pandemic forced them to revisit some prior assumptions. Take, for example, the recent GameStop stock surge. Because that's what economics represent: an opportunity to make something that should be logical into something that suits a financial economic environment. "But that's something we're doing every single day - with water, with clothing and with shelter - in ways that are increasingly abstract and absurd. "It isn't until you listen to what you're saying that you realize how fundamentally messed up that is," Nelson says. "It takes less than five minutes for you to see a fundamental piece of the human body as nothing more than a rare shoe you sell on eBay" Effectively, a human soul is just a PS5 waiting for the currency conversion."Īs Nelson says, Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator is the kind of game where someone can ask why this or that event took place and the answer can be "Oh, well the price of hearts went up." "Once you turn a heart or a spleen into a trade good, there's this domino effect of capitalistic consequences that are really jarring, especially when you see it within the context of a human body," Nelson says, adding, "It takes less than five minutes for you to see a fundamental piece of the human body as nothing more than a rare shoe you sell on eBay. As he explains, organs are meaningful, easily categorizable, and "inherently absurd."īeyond that, he took it as an opportunity to examine markets, both how they operate and how they impact the people within them. Nelson felt the genre fit well because organs worked for tycoon gameplay purposes. ![]() "Me making a game about organs was inevitable it was just a question of what form that would take."Īs could be inferred from Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator's title, that form would be a tycoon game. "The visceral tangibility of that experience - being introduced to something always working away inside of you, that everyone has and needs but we spend as little time thinking about as possible - stuck with me for years," Nelson says. So he got his experience, and Nelson got to see his heart, kidneys, and intestines doing what they do to keep him alive. ![]() Nelson would win that bet, as the strange man turned out to be a nurse practitioner who needed more experience with the ultrasound machine. "I said yes, because I thought there would be a good story out of it, and I took the bet that it would not be the story of my murder." "Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator is a sci-fi body horror market tycoon game that originates from a fascination about the human body, partially inspired by a strange man walking up to me in a hospital - not dressed up in hospital garb - asking me if I would like to see my insides," Nelson tells. nevertheless has a strong origin story for his latest project. It's not a textbook elevator pitch by any means, but Xalavier Nelson, Jr.
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