Lilac Song

Some knowledge of, or experience with, Autumn Chen's Social Democracy: An Alternate History is ideal for understanding this game. I've hung out in the fan-made Discord server a little, which isn't officially run by the dev although she's in it, and through this I've learned that there was originally a frame story planned for Social Democracy, where the protagonist would be playing as a trans woman in Weimar-era Germany who spends time working on a simulation of German politics and trying to imagine any plausible future where the Nazis don't take power and destroy everything. As development went on, the simulation expanded in scope, and expanded some more, and kept expanding until it swallowed up the fictional context completely and Social Democracy became a pure simulation of politics in 1930s Germany.

Lilac Song evidently brings the frame story back as its own mostly-independent project, no longer inextricably tied up with the weighty and ridiculously popular Social Democracy game. Well, ridiculously popular for a Spring Thing game, at least. It's been fascinating to see the game increase in popularity. There are thousands of people in the Discord server by now, and the subreddit has a fair number of subscribers as well.

But frankly, I left the server a long time ago. In large part this was because I got tired of the political debates people would have. It's a political game, so it's understandable, but I'm not one to discuss politics with other people online. Even seeing other people talk about it can be exhausting, especially when so much negativity is around these days, for highly understandable reasons. Yet no matter how many insults get slung around and how many endless circular arguments get reiterated again and again, it never seems to mean anything. Can disaffected people arguing online have any real impact? All the flamewars always seem empty on some level, frustrations from the powerless, pale imitations of actions that could be performed in the real world by political leadership to stem the seas of blood and yet nothing is happening.

The protagonist of this game wonders if any of her work really means anything, even as she dedicates herself to making the simulation: studying history and economics, reading past and present news, and discussing politics with her employer, Prussian minister Otto Braun. She aspires to make a realistic simulation, one that shines a light on the path forward for German democracy. Of course, the irony of a historical simulation is that the closer it approaches real life, the harder it becomes to change from real life, the harder it becomes to avoid the historical truth. A game like Social Democracy exists in a constant tension between realistically depicting what happened, and giving you the chance to fix it.

"The game's models are imperfect, always approaching reality, never reaching it."

The original Social Democracy is an extremely difficult game; my best attempts ended in civil war and my worst with Hitler in charge of the nation. Could the Social Democratic Party really have succeeded? Was there anything they really could have done? Braun is much vaunted in the Social Democracy fan community for the many ways he can stop fascism in the simulation, even though he failed to stop fascism in real life.

Lilac Song takes place not in an alternate history simulation, but in real life. No matter what happens in the simulation, how many alternate futures you try or fail to spin up, how deeply you investigate and reproduce the systems that led to the Nazis taking power, how much you try to change it, it's only a simulation in the end. Otto Braun refuses to listen to you. You have no actual power; all you can do is watch.

"Do you believe that a game could really save Germany?"

One last note. The cover art, and some of the other art in the game, is by Paul Klee. He was targeted as a Jewish "degenerate artist" in Nazi Germany due to his avant-garde style, and had to flee to Switzerland where he died. He's known for being admired by Walter Benjamin, a German and Jewish philosopher who was also targeted by the Nazis. Benjamin was forced to flee Germany as well, but he left too late. When he learned he would not be allowed to cross the French-Spanish border as a refugee and would be forced to return to Nazi Germany, he killed himself.

I know this mainly because of a funny internet post criticizing one of Paul Klee's drawings for its abstract, avant-garde style compared to Walter Benjamin's lofty description of it, which went viral and spread to several social platforms. The original poster was criticized for their criticism, because it replicated the same line of attack the Nazis used against Paul Klee's art. They proceeded to double down and use AI to generate what they thought was a better version, painted in a sweeping, dramatic, realistic style. Many angry commenters told the original poster to commit suicide.

Somewhere near the start of reading Lilac Song I was reminded of the novel The Remains of the Day, which I find to be an interesting and helpful point of comparison. Where Stephens takes every opportunity to distinguish himself, in his position as a butler, from Lord Darlington, the relationship between Otto and Sibylle has a more parent-like quality to it, perhaps best represented by Otto calling Sibylle his child, at one point. Sibylle is hopeful and imaginative, qualities which occasionally bring her into conflict with Otto, even if Sibylle harbors too much respect for the man to argue much.

I found this relationship to be profound and well portrayed. There are lots of fine details in here that complicate the narrative beyond a dichotomy of two similar stereotypes, one which portrays the young rebellious thinker as childlike and naive and another which portrays an old powerful man as out of touch with modern political realities. This is not to say that Lilac Song does not have a point of view on these politics. The world portrayed here is one that is preciously aware of time and its consequences, one that contends with the value of recognizing the past while imagining the future. I would hope to live in a world where Sibylle keeps working on her game, where it's possible to map out the path to a brighter future.

Important context: I have not successfully played any of the Social Democracy games. I tried, but history was not my friend until recently, and it’s hard to immerse myself in the gameplay when I only understand about 5% of what’s going on.

But Lilac Song is a short story with no strategizing required. The scale is small enough for me to catch the vibe, and the premise is entirely laid out in the beginning: “Berlin, July 19, 1932. … Your name is Sibylle Hoffmann. Twenty-nine years old, a servant, an amateur scholar of mathematics and politics, and a transvestite.” You have an interest in politics, both academic and personal. You have the ear of a politician. And by playing through the simulation game you created, you’ve developed some ideas about what’s needed to defend the Republic.

I’m glad this game exists, because I feel like I got a different angle on Social Democracy by playing it. This approach was immersive in its own way, especially with the period music and artwork to help set the scene.

When I realized this story was being told from the perspective of someone who made a game about saving democracy in 1932, I got chills. We’re here in the 2020s writing games about saving democracy! Did I think it was only present-day people trying to capture our moment in history? We wonder if the games we’re creating will actually make any real difference. Did I ever consider that people throughout history were probably wondering the same thing? Drawing a direct line to the past this way expanded my thinking about our current predicament.

Anyway, you can reflect on how to make a difference, but ultimately there’s not much you can do—which is also more relatable to me than trying to meddle with actual politics. The ending feels very pessimistic, which is entirely appropriate. But one late-game question was the key for me: “Do you believe that a game could really save Germany? Or is this nothing more than an enjoyable diversion?”

I had to really think about that one, through space and time.