[Subtitles by danielsangeo] Hey! It's starting to be springtime,
so you know what that means: cult-recruitment season, so I'm
going to be covering "Cult Tycoon", or the formal name:
"Super Cult Tycoon 2 - Deluxe Edition". This is a cult-management simulator. Now, don't be fooled by the
name; this is a prototype game, but it is overflowing with potential. Look at this opening screen. "Build 3 monoliths to
summon the mothership, "then defend your
compound until it arrives." Well, this is off to a good start already. I love how our cult has a clear
vision from the beginning, something we can work towards. Now, "United Blisstonians" isn't a
bad name, but I wanted to make my own. Although, you'd be
surprised how hard it is to come up with an ominous cult
name that isn't already taken. Take a look at these -- these are all
in use by one group or another. Well, I'm saying hell with it,
we're the "Children of Restoration". I'm probably offending some
church in Baltimore right now, but that's just too bad. We need to summon the mothership
and it's not going to happen if people think we're the
Mickey Mouse Club. "Made for the Mysticism pageant
at Super Friendship Club "itsalteracationtime.com". Wow. That tells you everything you need
to know, doesn't it? Let's get started. So, we start off and a
disembodied voice tells us we're already running from the
FBI after our last escapade. Boy, that puts us at a big
disadvantage already. This is going to be a short game. Also, the camera and van
movement here are kind of choppy. It's the game, there's no way around it. Oh, yeah, this is bad.
We need to leave now. Alright, here's the first big
thing I dislike about this game: I hate how the background
is always out of focus. Turning down the graphics
doesn't help. It's always like this. This is apparently called
"tilt shift photography" and while that could
be cool for screenshots, I hate this for actually playing
it. But, again, no way to fix it. So, after wandering the woods,
we enter this convenient clearing with a big barn in the center. A perfect place to start our cult. This feels like a shortcut to me. We didn't have to buy the property,
know someone who owns it, get permits... Now, if this was a full-fledged sim, I feel like you should start off
with a certain amount of money, or know a certain number of people, and work your way up to
acquiring property like this. The movies might make it look
like all you need to start a cult is a bunch of hooded robes and a bonfire, but the reality is: it takes a lot of time,
work and money for a cult to be successful, and it can all go wrong at any stage. That's why this is a perfect
theme for a sim game. But anyway, we have property,
we have some money, so our next big step, of course,
is to get some followers. Now, in the game, this is a
simple operation. You just drive your windowless van
playing an ice cream jingle into town, and they'll walk towards your van,
or you can just grab them directly. While I love the ice cream van music and
how this is named the "Enlightenment Van", to me, this needs to be developed
into much more complex process. Like, driving around and grabbing
people to come into a van will be one method of recruitment. And
not necessarily the most stable one. Better methods would be to
campaign on college campuses, some church groups, yoga or meditation
classes, natural food stores... in my opinion, those are the
rich spots for recruitment, depending on your cult's message. Anyway, once you round up a full load,
you bring them back to the barn, then BAM! They're converted into cultists
and your FBI wanted rating increases. See, they're simplifying
this WAY too much. Bringing nonbelievers into the fold, I would argue, is THE hardest
part of the cult-building process. There are so many stages
and you're never going to get a 100% conversion
rate like you do in this game. Ideally, you would have a
smaller introductory compound that new recruits stay in for a couple
months before they join the real deal. See, as you get more resources, that could
be a potential upgrade for the simulator. Basically, you want an easy
exit for the initiates who are never going to fit in
with the group anyway, but you want to cut off and
isolate all the others from the outside world so that
the cult becomes their family, and they're not led astray by
the temptations of modern civilization. Also, this takes time. There shouldn't be
any of this instant conversion crap. It should take at least a
few minutes real time. In a good cult sim, you should
always be planning ahead. Anyway, we have our fresh acolytes--
I like how they're dressed--but what's this? We have idle cultists standing
around?! Not on my watch! Idle hands are the devil's workshop,
so let's take care of that right now. "Crafts Corner -- Acolytes sew a
variety of wallets and vintage jeans "for international export
and fun." Perfect. Wow, look at the size of that.
And the smokestacks. That is some heavy-duty fun
they're going to be having. Now you may notice that now
that I have my followers, my "Kool Aid" supply is going down. This is essentially your
cult's morale meter. If you run out of Kool Aid, your
cultists will get spooked and start leaving so, to offset that, you have to
build Kool Aid Breweries. Again, this is too simple for me. It's a tricky formula determining
who's going to stay or not. It depends on individual personalities, how
many motivational speeches you're giving... Are you teaching your followers
daily lessons about your cult's beliefs? Do they have a routine they follow? Do you have celebrations? Are people making friends? And so on. While, yes, you could drug Kool Aid
to keep people in a kind of haze, that's a short term solution. No drug is going to be
as powerful as a sober mind that's been focused
in the right direction. Next, we need to build some housing for
future acolytes. These are pretty cheap. We don't need to splurge here as the Children of Restoration are
humble servants of a higher force. So, this pattern continues for a while. You keep driving into town or nearby
farms, recruit more followers, and your economy, FBI rating and
scale of operations increase and you get more upgrades along the way. One upgrade I had really mixed
feelings about was the "Robert Sentry" which will round up stray
cultists looking to leave. On one hand, we're clearly
crossing over into fiction now. If you want to round up
cultists, you use search parties, dogs, perimeter patrols,
that sort of thing. On the other hand, this is in
homage to the show "The Prisoner" where a giant "Rover" sentry would always
stop the protagonist from leaving the area. "The Prisoner" was a very surreal show. I've seen the whole thing and
I'm still not sure what happened. So, while the reference
to the show is cool, I feel like this would be
good as an unlockable or something for a
goofier expansion pack. I think we're straying out of
sim territory with this one. Let's talk about the economy for a minute. In this game, you get the bulk of your
money from making the wallets and jeans, but you also get a little bit in
tithes from new followers. If we're going to be realistic about this,
I think it should be the other way around. In real life, donations from
followers are hugely important. You need to be convincing people
that your cult is all they'll ever need so they should cast off their
old life full of material possessions, and donate all that stuff to the
cult in order to further your cause. For poorer members, it just
means pawning off their goods, but for wealthier ones, it means
taking out a mortgage on their house, or donating additional property...
this stuff can be your lifeline. Even then, for your true believers, you
want to get some of them back out there convincing THEIR friends and family to donate
THEIR money and possessions to the cult. I mean, yeah, you still want to keep
selling the handmade crafts on the side, but getting fresh money coming
in should be an ongoing need in the game. Anyway, after a while, your FBI
rating increases even more and they start sending units
to your compound. You have to stop them from
entering your barn at all cost because you lose mysticism each
time they get a peek. To prevent this from happening,
you can build public relations buildings to bribe them to go away. To me, this right here is where
the game falls apart. I have problems with this
on multiple levels. First, only THE biggest cults have
dedicated PR buildings like this. If you're operating out of a barn in
the woods, you don't have a PR department. Second, we're BRIBING FBI
officials?! Excuse me?! Now, I'm not saying it's impossible for
an FBI agent to become corrupted, but the vast majority of agents
are not going to back down if your cult throws bags
of money at them. Do you have any idea how
many background checks federal law enforcement
officials undergo? Actually, no. Background INVESTIGATIONS. We're talking about the FBI, not the
local town sheriff and his cousin deputy. The feds are largely vetted. You offer to bribe them, you're giving them
a nice juicy excuse to bust your ass. Third, law enforcement should
not feel welcome to come in and stroll about your compound. If an FBI truck is rolling up,
they either need a warrant or need to get the hell off
your property. The end. Now, if they DO have a warrant,
that's another story; we'll come back to that in a minute. Now, if they wanted to make this
more real world, they could do sweeps for
surveillance equipment, or worst of all-- try to root
out an undercover agent who has infiltrated your compound. That would only happen at late
game stages, though. Before the FBI or the ATF start knocking on
your door, you know who's likely to show up? Child protection services if they think any
children aren't getting a proper education; the IRS if you're not
on top of your taxes; city officials making sure your
paperwork or permits are in order. That stuff can all bring you down long
before the feds even know who you are. Your first line of defense with
your cult is isolation. This game seems to cover that. But once "the Man" knows where you are,
your next step should be to lawyer up. Make the law work for you. You should be handing those bags
of money to the lawyers, not the feds. They're the ones who are going
to turn these trucks around, or make them wish they never came here. You want to get sued for harassment?
Because you're acting like you do. So, I don't like this
PR building system one bit. But, sooner or later, if your
cult keeps growing in influence and achieving greatness, the
feds are likely to raid your place, especially in the post-Homeland
Security world that we live in. Now, the way you handle this, I think should be based on how
close to our goals we are. I haven't started building the
monoliths yet because, in this game, once you do that,
your FBI rating will not stop increasing. These monoliths get their attention;
they can't handle the truth. But, really, what this game should do is
if the feds were to raid you at this stage, then your best bet would be to
have pre-built underground panic rooms where any VIPs, guns, known felons could
hide out while they conduct a search. Like, this might get to be an issue if one of your cult members is
related to someone influential, like, say, a congressman's
daughter is part of your cult. You might think she would be
more trouble than she's worth, but she could also be bringing
in the MOST MONEY into your cult, so it's really a balancing act.
Perfect of a sim game. But once you have enough
resources, you construct the monoliths, then it's game on! I love how the tone changes here. Now this feels like a world
changing event! But, god, I hate this PR building system, because, let's face it, if we
are THIS close to our salvation, then now is when you bring out
the guns. None of this PR building crap. The game should switch over to a
tactical shooter at this point. You should bring everyone into
the barn and start firing from the windows. You should keep whole families
together, especially the children, because the feds will think twice
about spraying the place with bullets if they know it's full of kids
and other noncombatants. Now, if you were prepared,
you would have gas masks and if you were REALLY prepared,
you would have underground tunnels also, but that's a lot of work. 50% MYSTICISM! NO! WE ARE SO CLOSE, MY CHILDREN! All right, I hate to be a buzzkill
with such a great buildup like this, but the ending to this game is really weak. Whether you win or lose, the
ending is totally anticlimactic. If you win, you drive away and the
ominous voice says hateful things to you. I don't even feel like showing
it; it's just poorly written. It just ruins the whole mood. But here's the "bad" ending. So, yeah, that's "Cult Tycoon". I think there's a lot
to be learned here. "Cult Tycoon" is serving up a
prototype of a game that should be made. In the past, I would've said this game
concept is money lying in the ground. If someone were to turn this
into an all-out simulator, I'd think you could sell copies for sure. Nowadays, it's anyone's guess if
a game will be successful or not, but there is currently no game
like this on the market. There are no other cult simulators I know
of, except for some cheap web game I found. It never hurts to have a unique
concept for a game. All right, I should finish this
up, but before I do, I know some people out there are saying,
"Ross, now I want to get involved with a cult "but I don't know what to do! C'mon!
You can't leave me hanging like this!" Well, not to worry, I've got you covered. Now, I can't tell you what cult you
should join as that's a very personal decision, but I can at least get you started. If you want to get involved with
a cult, the best resource I know is the Fellowship for Intentional
Community homepage, or ic.org. This has everything--books,
blog entries, its own magazine, various events, and most
important, its directory. Here, every group that's anybody
is going to advertise themselves and give you some details of
what they're all about. There's a big variety, too. For example: do you hate
technology and think it is evil? Are you tired of so-called "religious people"
who don't REALLY follow their faith and want to be the with the True Believers? Do you love the Second Amendment
and want to live in a community where every single citizen is
armed at all times? Do you want to find neighbors
with similar views that shouldn't be creepy to intentionally
live near to yet somehow is? Or maybe you're a vegan
and hate meat eaters and never want to be around
another one again. Do you want to be involved with
some expensive co-housing group that might be a scam? Do you like busting your ass
doing farm work? This one in particular will make
you popular with a lot of groups. Do you have so much debt your
life is effectively ruined, or you're on the run from Johnny Law
and want to fall off the grid? Do you have no direction in your
life and want others to help find it for you? Or, maybe you're like me and
want to see what your best options are before we exit peak oil and enter
a long collapse scenario. Well, if any of these
situations describe you, then you'll find what you're looking for at
the Fellowship for Intentional Community. Or maybe you've got a cult ready
to go and need to find some followers. Now, I should warn you.
A lot of these entries, I'd say even the majority, are NOT cults. But you bet your ass some of them are. You'll have to read between the lines. It takes time to look through the directory and figure out who is actually going to
start summoning the mothership or not. But hey, if you're not willing to invest
time into this, cult life is not for you. Okay, let's wrap this up.
Time for awards. First award: Bifocal vision-- I never
got used to that damned blurring. Second award: Why hasn't
someone done this yet? This is a game concept waiting to happen. There are multiple prison simulator games
out there but we have nothing for cults. Somebody might want to get on that. Okay, that's all I have for this game. Stay tuned for the next episode which will
be one of the worst named games I've played. Until then, "it's altercation time". [banjo music] [strange humming noise]
Well... that review was more about cults then the game itself.
Although I don't blame him for that, that game really doesn't have much meat on its bones, it really is just a prototype with a really interesting idea.
This would be a definite moneymaker if done right. But goddamn, that review was spectacular. It was just fantastic how he kept building in more and more elaborate cult-reasoning for how the game should've worked.
EDIT: Oh crap, I thought he sounded familiar! This is the guy that did Freeman's Mind!
Build a cult outpost in the middle of a jungle?
Heh, looks a lot like "Jonestown simulator". Wonder if there is an option that allowd you to lace the town's water with cyanide...
I loved how indepth he went into how a good cult sim game would work. As amusing as it all was he had some good points on what features should be included and what changes should be made.
I hope he does more videos along the same lines as this.
Can you turn off the depth of field? It seems very excessive.