xopods' messages

If the game itself comes off as preachy, you’re probably assuming that the regulators are meant to be the good guys, but that’s not the intent. The game is sympathetic to fishermen and meant to show how naive attempts at regulation make it hard to profit and don’t do much to actually protect fish stocks, or in the case of catch limits, actually hurt, by imposing race conditions on the fishermen which force them to use irresponsible catch methods and increase bycatch as a result.

The conclusion of the game is that TURF and/or catch share regulations are a positive compromise which actually help fishermen profit and are effective in maintaining populations.

As a right-leaning environmentalist, that should be a message that appeals to you, if it was getting through. Unfortunately, it isn’t.

I agree that the game is not really effective in getting that message across, largely because the game is too long, and the trite dialogue is giving the wrong impression. Maybe the game would have benefited from some intro text to indicate more clearly that the regulators are misguided antagonists and the fishermen are the heroes.