Secret\nHitler is a hidden role multiplayer card\/board game which attempts to\nsimulate the complex political dynamics that can facilitate the rise\nof fascism. Players are randomly and secretly assigned one of three\nroles: a liberal, a fascist or Hitler. Only one player is Hitler for\neach game. The fascist\u2019s aim is to either enact a certain number of\nfascist laws, or to elect Hitler to power. Liberals must either enact\na certain number of liberal laws, or to successfully execute Hitler.\nLiberals do not know who the other liberals are. Fascists know who\nthe other Fascists are and know who Hitler is. Depending on the\nnumber of players, Hitler may also know who the fascists are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Each round an election occurs where one player runs for president with another player chosen as chancellor. If successfully elected, laws are enacted through decisions made by the president and chancellor. If six liberal laws are enacted, the liberals win. If six fascist laws are enacted, the fascists win. If Hitler is executed through a presidential power, the liberals win. If Hitler is elected after three fascist laws are enacted, the fascists win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Secret Hitler, like most games, is composed of a variety of rules and systems. However, the rules and systems of Secret Hitler introduce only a limited number of constraints. Its defining feature is information asymmetry. Who has what information is decided by the assigned roles, but how information is communicated and transmitted between players is not limited or constrained by the rules. Players are free to speak truthfully, to lie, or to say nothing at all. The win and lose states act as incentives that guide their play but do not impose any strategy or play style.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Consequently,\nSecret Hitler is a highly emergent game. The events that occur in the\ngame and the progress made towards specific goals are highly\ncontingent on the actions of players. Informal alliances and\nrivalries can occur spontaneously. This balance, between the guiding\nhand of the game\u2019s rules and the dynamic emergent phenomena, makes\nSecret Hitler particularly effective at exploring how the systems of\ndemocracy can be vulnerable to subversion by fascists. Democratic\nsystems of governance ostensibly consist of a framework of rules that\nare designed to be anti-fragile and self-preserving, but they are\nsystems that humans work with, and humans are capable of a great deal\nof unpredictability. The unpredictability encoded in Secret Hitler\u2019s\nrules are minimal. The unpredictability comes from human beings. So\ntoo does the chaos that can emerge in politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nIn 1972, German writer\nHeinrich B\u00f6ll coined the term \u2018crypto-fascism\u2019. A crypto-fascist\nis an individual who supports fascism, but does so secretly, often\nbecause overt support of it is an easy way to attract unwanted\nscrutiny. This principle remains relevant today. In Contrapoints\u2019\nvideo essay, \u2018Decrypting the Alt-Right\u2019*, she outlined four\nstrategies contemporary extremists use to conceal the extent of their\nright-wing leanings. One such strategy used is the use of euphemism.\nFor instance, contemporary white supremacists like Richard Spencer\noften use terms like \u2018ethno-nationalist\u2019 or \u2018identitarian\u2019 to\navoid \u2018dirty\u2019 terms like \u2018fascist\u2019 or \u2018Nazi\u2019. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This\nnecessity for secrecy and concealment of identity is embedded in\nSecret Hitler\u2019s rules. The roles assigned to players are left\nunknown. Only fascists know who other fascists are. In contemporary\nreality, this secret revealing of fascist identity comes in the form\nof oblique references to Pepe the Frog or the \u2018Okay\u2019 hand\ngesture**<\/sup>.\nThe oblique gesture du jour changes frequently, ensuring that\nliberals, like the liberals in Secret Hitler, are not privy to the\ntrue identities of fascists. The paranoia endemic to the rise of\nfascism is mirrored in the game. You cannot be certain of who is a\nfascist, in both the game and reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Secret Hitler explores the dynamics of how fascism rises, but it can be argued that the game does not extend into condemning fascism. Players are assigned the roles of fascists or Hitler and are incentivized to win. The game makes no quantifiable or qualitative difference between liberals winning and fascists winning. The game simply ends with victory for either faction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In\ncontrast, consider Brenda Romero\u2019s board game Train. In Train,\nplayers work together to populate a train with as many people as\npossible. Little context is given during play. At the end of the\ngame, it is revealed that the train they were filling with people\nstops at Auschwitz. Players are made complicit in the Holocaust. A\nwin state is subverted and becomes a lose state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, the emergent nature of Secret Hitler makes it difficult for the game to condemn fascism with win\/lose states alone. Consider a hypothetical addition to the game: should the fascists win, a card is flipped that reveals that their victory leads to the events of World War II, resulting in the defeat of Germany, the deaths of millions, and the suicide of Hitler. Would this subvert the win state? I would argue that it would fail to do that. Due to the emergent nature of Secret Hitler, the victory earned by players feels like a consequence of the play styles and creative stratagems used by them. Gameplay in Train is fairly constrained with little room for improvisation or creativity. \u2018Victory\u2019 in Train thus feels like a result of close interaction with the rules of the game. On the other hand, victory in Secret Hitler feels causally related to a player\u2019s creativity and decision making. Victory feels earned. Attempts to subvert it feel arbitrary and unconnected with the playing of the game. The fascists will be happy that they won, no matter what.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If\nthematic messaging in a game results from the interactions between\nplayer and system, then the thematic messaging in emergent games are\nfundamentally more unpredictable or uncontrollable. Care should be\ntaken as a designer, lest the game says something that might be\nunwanted or problematic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n *:\nDecrypting the Alt-Right – Contrapoints<\/p>\n\n\n\n