never been considered by the game’s designer(s), instead created from a complex set of rules that, when mixed together, create emergent cultures distinct from one another. We’re already getting glimpses of these “machine-created cultures” (MCCs) in games such as Mark Johnson’s Ultima Ratio Regum, and more are coming. One day we’ll have a Turing test for cultures to determine what is real. How will we determine that level of reality, and if a new, born-digital culture thrives, what obligations do we have to interacting with it, and ultimately to preserving it?
—Andrew Reinhard, Archaeogaming