In dystopias such as For All Time, What Madness is This? and Decades of Darkness, a certain tendency appears towards large, usually authoritarian empires which mercilessly grind a less-favored segment of the population into slavery, the Gulag or being subjects of a puppet state. Although this ultimately derives from 1984, this tendency has grown into a general concept of dystopia here on AH.com. This definition ignores that a dystopia applies to any place in which everything is unpleasant, including hypothetical scenarios in which online identity theft makes people's lives miserable with worry and wasted time.
There are many ways to avert this overarching cliche, such as creating a dystopia in which the suffering is primarily caused by a polluted environment. Creating a democratic dystopia is difficult, but creating a demarchic dystopia in which rulers are randomly selected by chance can be a viable option for those tiring of dictators. Creators should also note that increasing the number of powerful nations increases the conflict and that crises alone can create a sufficiently nasty environment.