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[Troopperi]

Dwarven fortresses are quite communistic systems: all food, goods etc. belong to the fort and are in anybody's use. Dwarves usually own only their clothes, their apartments aren't actually owned by them, you can anytime kick that dwarf out of his bed and move it next to refuse pile.


(I don't know was this really good for a new topic but made this anyway)

[Sallen]

I was thinking this just yesterday. I couldn't find a reason why I needed peasants that didn't have a job that was beneficial to the whole because they didn't even pay taxes. Then I thought their work for the good of the fort were their taxes.

Although communism is supposed to have as it's ultimate goal the happiness and well being of the citizens, not the fulfillment of some whimsical leader's wishes... heh.

[agatharchides]

Actually it is more communal than historical communism since there is collective 'ownership' of consumer goods, rather than just the means of production. To me it resembles monastic communities more than the USSR.

[Totte]

Dwarf Fortress is tribal.  To some extent tribal societies resemble communist societies, but they are much less complex.

[Zoomulator]

I'm thinking more of a hive than anything else.. communism is supposed to be decentralized(USSR was no real communism, and there hasn't ever been one. All examples through history have been corrupt), while the dwarven society is quite hierarchical with the nobles and the mountain home and all. They're ants!

[Sallen]

Dwarf Fortress is tribal.  To some extent tribal societies resemble communist societies, but they are much less complex.

That other thread went all academic.

[Jacob/Lee]

I'm thinking more of a hive than anything else.. communism is supposed to be decentralized(USSR was no real communism, and there hasn't ever been one. All examples through history have been corrupt), while the dwarven society is quite hierarchical with the nobles and the mountain home and all. They're ants!

Yeah, Communism is one of those things that sounds good in theory but is complete bullshit in practice because no human can pull it off without becoming a power-hungry dictator.

[peskyninja]

The only reason that communism fails every single ******* time is because only one country or region is communist. If the whole world was communist the system probably would work.

Spoiler:  Sorry I couldn't resist (click to show/hide)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDQ7hXMLxGc

[Flying Dice]

I'm thinking more of a hive than anything else.. communism is supposed to be decentralized(USSR was no real communism, and there hasn't ever been one. All examples through history have been corrupt), while the dwarven society is quite hierarchical with the nobles and the mountain home and all. They're ants!

Yeah, Communism is one of those things that sounds good in theory but is complete bullshit in practice because no human can pull it off without becoming a power-hungry dictator.

Or more precisely, it cannot exist for any substantial period of time without some random asshole (or more commonly, thousands of them) taking advantage of the power vacuum; see also: libertarianism.

[Jimmy T. Malice]

I'm thinking more of a hive than anything else.. communism is supposed to be decentralized(USSR was no real communism, and there hasn't ever been one. All examples through history have been corrupt), while the dwarven society is quite hierarchical with the nobles and the mountain home and all. They're ants!

Yeah, Communism is one of those things that sounds good in theory but is complete bullshit in practice because no human can pull it off without becoming a power-hungry dictator.

That's pretty much what the player is: an invisible, omniscient noble with ultimate power over the dwarves, sending them to their !!deaths!! for shits and giggles.

[Newbunkle]

I'm not a communist, but I think it's a little disingenuous to look at eastern bloc countries and say communism always leads to dictatorship. For one thing, correlation doesn't imply causation. For another, I think the authoritarian nature of those regimes is far more likely to be the result of the circumstances surrounding the formation of the new order: multiple factions lending temporary support to each other to overthrow a corrupt leadership, only to turn to infighting and a struggle for dominance. Paranoia would have played a part, leading leaders to offer special favours to the influential in order to buy support (and leading to ever-expanding corruption).

[Maklak]

It was before my time (40d I think), but DF had economy implemented, and it was a total mess. Dwarfs had to pay rent for their rooms, and pay for their food and drinks. The result was a total mess. Those Dwarves that had some money, would generally spend it on trinkets, and forget to pay their rent. Some were too poor for that. The solution was either giving them 1x1 rooms with low quality beds, and no engravings or setting up homeless shelters. Probably both. Because they couldn't afford good quality food and drink, there had to be some unskilled breweres and unprocessed food around, as well as wells. This lead to less happy thoughts. Worst thing of all, Dwarves were spending most of their time hoarding coins. This in addition to having dozens of nobles was worse than sieges.

Now we have tribal economy with limited private property, and it works. In real world it also works for small isolated communities that struggle to survive. It collapses when they grow bigger, tough.

[Loud Whispers]

Meh, Dwarves don't care about government or property values unless it'll save them from the next eldritch horror.

[Montague]

It's more like a monestary or tribal society then a commune.

Communes, like Kibbutz and whatever, have everybody doing everything, they all share in each type of labor while dorfs specialize. Commies also have endless meetings and discussions and debates and votes because leadership is supposed to be egalitarian with nobody 'in charge' so to speak. Dorfs have nobility, elites, nomeklatura and sherrifs and militias to maintain the power structure. Commies like terrible Social Realism artwork. Dorfs engrave whatever stupid thing they happen to have on their mind.

[Sallen]

Now we have tribal economy with limited private property, and it works. In real world it also works for small isolated communities that struggle to survive. It collapses when they grow bigger, tough.

Pretty much like DF then.