The Aggressor People's General
About the game
The game “People's General” was made by “Strategic Simulations Inc.” and was published by “Strategic Simulations Inc. / MindScape” in 1998.
It belongs to the genre of “Global/Local Strategy”. It is part of the “Living Battlefield” series.
It features both single-player and multi-player mode.
The game is classified by the database as one with a “Designated Aggressor,” a “Fictional Setting,” and an “Active Player Role."
About the Aggressor Categories
Aggressor Type: Designated
- This game features the “Designated Aggressor." It indicates that the game tends to focus on one side of the conflict, either constantly or episodically. The Aggressor(s) are set by the narrative and rules of the game and cannot be changed by the player, meaning that the perspective on the Aggressor is fixed.
Setting Type: Fictional
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This game has a fictional setting that, nonetheless, is strongly influenced by historical events or processes. This can serve to provide a layered sense of meaning or separation between darker or more serious topics of history and sometimes requires the player audience to do more decoding in order to grasp the historical commentary.
Player Agency: Active
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In this game, the player's agency towards the Aggressor(s) is enabled by the game and they are able to take actions. This can include resisting the Aggressor or acting as one themselves.
Individual Assessment
The setting in “People's General” is a fictional one for the 1998 audience, imagined to be a conflict between the People's Republic of China and the NATO forces in 2005 over the independence of Taiwan. However, it is clearly framed that the PRC is the Aggressor, with the secession and retaking of Taiwan lauding in a world conquest scenario. The Western Alliance forces, mostly identified with the USA but also named as the UN troops. are tasked with hemming in the Chinese Aggressor.
The manual makes a specific mention of the legacy of Genghis Khan for the PRC-side, asking the player if they can finish what he started. The focus of the game lies in wargaming and world conquest, that is, a simulated World War III that appears solvable only through military force.
