aMaze'n Politics
What if the best way to understand ourselves as political beings is through a game?
aMaze'n Politics is an innovative role-playing game that invites us to navigate a maze of personal and public dilemmas, confront complex choices, and discover the “inner compass” that guides us - sometimes without our even knowing it.
The name points to a simple yet revolutionary idea: instead of politics as a populist spectacle, something that happens only “up there,” the game brings politics down to where it truly belongs - with us, ordinary citizens.
Whether on your computer screen or in your own room, you can do politics: make choices, weigh options, struggle with uncertainty, and form a considered opinion.
This is not another political quiz with right and wrong answers, but an experiential lab where you make choices, explain them in your own words, and watch your personal compass take shape and sharpen.
The game draws inspiration from ancient philosophy (Socrates’ daimon), from fantasy literature (His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman), and from contemporary research in moral psychology -and turns them all into a fascinating interactive experience.
The brilliance of the game lies in the fact that it doesn’t just show us who we are, but also where we are.
Each playthrough takes place within a politeia - a particular political system, either historical or imaginary. You might be a citizen of ancient Athens, a general in Brazil, the president of a colony on Mars, or an influencer in Korea.
Every regime distributes decision-making power differently among twelve “seats of power” - the demos (the people), the military, the judiciary, the artists, the media, religion, and so on.
When you choose a role, you truly experience what it’s like to be part of such a system - to feel its pressures and constraints, to encounter “pushback” from other centers of power.
This is not a dry simulation; it’s a living experiment in one of the most essential questions:
How would you feel, think, and act if you lived there?
Beyond the personal experience, aMaze'n Politics offers an ambitious research project: to examine what truly makes democracy flourish or collapse.
The game is built on a fascinating theory of “virtuous and vicious circles.” Authentic democracy depends on liberalism, a protected space in which individuals can grow. Liberalism, in turn, depends on autonomy, the human capacity to think and decide independently. And autonomy, in return, strengthens democracy: a virtuous circle.
But there is also a vicious one: oligarchy (the rule of the few) thrives on the absence of autonomy, enabling totalism, the erasure of private space. This creates a self-consuming cycle.
The game gently measures where you fall on two main axes:
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Autonomy vs. Heteronomy - do you define what is right and good for yourself, or leave it to others?
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Liberalism vs. Totalism - how strong is your protection of the private sphere?
The results can help us understand not only ourselves, but also our society.
The game reaches its peak in a fascinating concept of “victory.”
You play several rounds, each time under a different role or regime, experiencing alternate versions of yourself and the politics around you. At the end of each round, you hear a “farewell speech” from your surroundings, or even a eulogy, reflecting how you would be remembered.
Then comes the decisive moment: Which version of yourself, in which regime, would you want to be?
That is the question that truly matters, not “What would I do in situation X?” but rather “Who do I want to be, and in what kind of world?”
This is where the game transforms from a mirror into a tool for change: it helps us imagine alternative political futures, test our values in action, and form a clearer picture of the democracy we truly want a three-dimensional democracy that unites representation, deliberation, and direct empowerment.
It’s not just a game, it’s an opportunity to learn about ourselves while playing, to turn political philosophy into a living experience, and at the same time to contribute to vital research on what makes democracies succeed or fail.
In an age where so many people feel alienated from politics, aMaze'n Politics invites us to reconnect with ourselves, with one another, and with the political possibilities we have yet to realize.
This is the labyrinth worth walking, the place where politics begins.
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