Megacorps as the Not-Bad Guys

[VashVet]

Basically this. It is particularly true when the corp is "mega". No matter how much they expand, how much they grasp and gain and (likely) steal, there is one thing that no megacorp will ever manage to get: enough

Yeah, the problem is simply in the framing - a mega corp presumes a level of dominance over other entities, it’s why they are “mega”. That automatically puts me on a footing of “these can’t be good guys”.

Megacorps also tend to be faceless which doesn’t help. Perhaps what’s needed is a CEO NPC that one could try to see a good person or a neutral person, and therefore see their corporation as an agent for good versus evil. Think “Wayne Enterprises” in the DC Universe as opposed to “LexCorp”.

 

[Bohandas]

For-profit corporations face one overriding imperative: grow or die. I treat them as implacable forces - not so much evil as amoral and inhuman. Basically, viruses, which works great in a cyberpunk setting.

They're essentially a paperclip maximizer, except for money instead of paperclips

 

[ErisIndomina]

A corporation can't really get Mega in the first place without some level of amoral exploitative behavior at the very least. Maybe it doesn't set out with intention to do Evil Things, they aren't wringing their hands while cackling at their brilliant cruelty, but if Evil Things make the number go up on their stocks, they aren't going to lose any sleep about doing it.

 

[Bohandas]

The whole corporate system is basically set up to insulate people from responsibility and disconnect them from consequences, and conversely to screen out humanity from the business, so that even if the people in charge were good they would still end up making the same decisions as a sociopath because the world around them is structured in such a way that the business becomes a zahir. They effectively become possessed while they are working

 

[FrozenNorth]

Note:

I would argue that evilness of a corpo is an implied sideffect of missing control mechanisms, missing obligation factors and lack of principled individuals in positions of power.

Yes, but very often those elements have to be missing in order to engage the characters in the setting. In a world where the police is competent, efficient and not corrupt, a PC who discovers evidence of a crime goes to the authorities, they don’t gather up their friends and form a vigilante group.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Yes, but very often those elements have to be missing in order to engage the characters in the setting. In a world where the police is competent, efficient and not corrupt, a PC who discovers evidence of a crime goes to the authorities, they don’t gather up their friends and form a vigilante group.

The exception there can be out-of-context problems, or ones where the PCs have access to tools (either literal or in terms of personal abilities) that law enforcement doesn't have access to. You can see both present in secret-supernatural monster hunter games.

 

[Umbran]

To summarize, in a well organized, civilized world evilness of a corpo is limited by multiple elements I've tried to outline above.

In a well-organized, civilized world, there isn't a whole lot of source for adventure - the civilized order solves problems on its own.

Well-organized, well-operative systems aren't dramatic story points.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I also have to note there are somewhat different dynamics and incentives that impact this between privately owned and publicly traded companies. While both are about profit, the former can be influenced far more by the owner(s) own values and concerns for good or ill than the latter--and the latter is far more likely to produce a lot of odd and perverse incentives.

 

[Umbran]

I also have to note there are somewhat different dynamics and incentives that impact this between privately owned and publicly traded companies. While both are about profit, the former can be influenced far more by the owner(s) own values and concerns for good or ill than the latter--and the latter is far more likely to produce a lot of odd and perverse incentives.

One could imagine a world in which that were not as true. Like, a world where fiduciary duty to shareholders was not the only duty executives had. Or a world in which regulation better controlled excesses. Or in which a world religion drove shareholders to enforce ethics on their holdings...

Your fictive world can be what you want.

 

[Thomas Shey]

One could imagine a world in which that were not as true. Like, a world where fiduciary duty to shareholders was not the only duty executives had. Or a world in which regulation better controlled excesses. Or in which a world religion drove shareholders to enforce ethics on their holdings...

Definitely. Of course one could question how much at some point the term "megacorporation" describes those at a certain point. As a case in point, even though they're money making operations most people wouldn't describe most utilities with that term (even though some of the same dynamics are in play).

You could get some very different dynamics in a situation where most things were driven by social credits rather than what we think of as "money" too.

Of course you have the problem even in other situations where what drives corporate leadership is power rather than money anyway.

The real question about how to end up with most such structures not sliding into being bad guys are what their incentives end up being; because if the incentives are bad, what will usually happen is going to be bad, because the position of the decision-makers will tend to select for people with bad natures.