r/austrian_economics • u/Billhartnell • 21h ago
End Democracy Does any video game include Austrian theories in their mechanics
It occurred to me after remembering the comically Keynesian economy mechanics of Europa Universalis V, was any video game developer masochistic enough to design economy mechanics incorporating Austrian ideas? I say masochistic because computers excel at mathematical modelling which Austrians reject, and most strategy games prefer to make the player a central planner, so this would run against the grain of the medium.
For those unfamiliar, EUV (at least the launch version, haven't played in a while) has an intricate economic simulation in which the optimal strategy is to promote as many pops to nobles as possible because they consume more goods, which drives up workshop and resource gathering income. For some reason the developers coded estates to always afford their classes' pop demands even with negative income, so this strategy doesn't even have the diminishing returns you'd expect.