Rogue Television introduction

ROGUE TELEVISION
Playtest draft v1.0
By PeterAmthor

Rogue Television takes place in a world that is much like our own, but one that has gone radically wrong in the area of media control. It’s a world where the high rise media corporations that pump out endless amounts of television broadcasts set back and brainwash the public viewers with embedded messages and flashing images. Where the networks are the political power and they make the laws to fit them and their ratings. It’s a place where it’s illegal to turn off your television.

In the beginning…

The first steps that were taken into this direction occurred during the United States Presidential Elections. Both the Republicans and the Democrats put up candidates that the majority of the populace was immensely unhappy with. There were demonstrations, protests and sometime acts of outright violence towards the two parties. In an attempt to become more favorable to the people an increase of television adds was put into place. Doubling the number that were shown, literally, overnight. This did not go over well.

Anthony Slater, owner of three networks that all had gotten the increase of ads, took notice of this and was displeased. He watched as the rating plummeted on his stations, where the increase of political propaganda drove the audience away. This began costing him financially as other advertisers began to stop having their ads shown with the new glut. Only one action came to his mind that could solve this, that of giving the people another choice, so he decided to run for President as well.

On the very same day that he announced his candidacy in the race he pulled all of the ads for the other two political parties from his stations. In their place he put up support for his ‘Network Party’ but not nearly in the numbers that the others were using. His platform was based around change in the political world to better serve the people. By putting those in charge that know what they want because they’ve been providing it for them for decades. The reaction was overwhelming and almost completely positive.

A landslide victory was the gift received by Slater when he pulled over eighty percent of the vote. His stations were the leaders in ratings and watched worldwide now. This, of course, didn’t settle well with his competitors in the television business. Soon other networks began running their own people into other offices; senators, congressmen, mayors, you name it. With the precedent set there was nothing the former leading political parties could do as they slowly watched their power get pulled from underneath them.

Within the eight years that Slater was the in the Oval Office the entire spectrum of the political arena changed hands. The networks were now in control leaving only five percent still in the hands of the old parties. Due to the sheer amount of different networks this basically created dozens of political parties now. This lead to a change in the way the television media operated also for now they were the ones in charge of the very offices that restricted what they showed and how they showed it. The power was in their hands and, like all power; it corrupted those who held it.

They created and approved laws that helped them. Now subliminal messages were in and privacy rights were out. Technology that could create a competitor was buried under red tape and restrictions that crippled their development. Computer technology was suppressed and the home computer system has never really came to exist as it does now. While anything that could be used to enhance the televised media and strengthen its grip were given free reign.

Now twenty years after Slater’s victory in taking the Presidential Office of the United States things are very different, although disturbingly familiar at the same time. The Network Governments rule over the masses and feed them constants streams of mindless and mind numbing programming. This is the world of Rogue Television.