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SimCandidate - Why Aren't There More Political Sims?
Thanks to Slate for their piece discussing why there aren't more videogames simulating current-day politics. The article posits: "The U.S. presidential campaign may be the first true election of the digital age, but it's still missing one key ingredient. Where is the video-game version of Campaign 2004?" It goes on to suggest that "presidential politics lends itself naturally to the idiom and audience of today's games. Political campaigns are already structured like games, with an escalating series of discrete competitions that determine the eventual winner. In addition, there's an existing body of readily available data, going back many decades, that could be harnessed to craft the simulation" Would you play a modern-day political sim videogame?
Why hasn't there been a reality TV show yet, like
"Who wants to be a Senator?"
Are you an NBC-Crat or a CBS-ican?
The key to the enjoyment of pop music is to replace any instance of "love" with "C.H.U.D."
Where is the video-game version of Campaign 2004?
Lol, so, you start out running for mayor, promising the smaller companies (construction) projects if they support you, and donate towards your campaign. After elected, you help nominate judges to ease laws towards construction, which leads into more money for your election for the Governor. Easing tax burdens to keep large companies in your state, and try to make honey deals, you spend money on pork projects for all your supporters.
Deny the local transportation requirements that might have to cross the richer areas of town. As the money rolls in, you run for Senate. Promise to ease tax laws, or support some religious view to gain support. Slander everyone, showing how righteous you are, never broke any laws (or just got caught), and you are the perfect person for the job.
Now as Senator, you get to join some nice Committees. Maybe join Energy and Natural Resource, so you allow a nice company from your home state to "Ahem, Bid" on natural gas mining in federal land.
After some time, you get bored with milking federal and state money and decided to run for President. All you need is a platform. If you're the Republican you have the religious backing, but you have to ban personal freedoms, unless its gun control and force religion on some states. If you're Democrat you have try to pass gun control and help further rights, (gay, women, etc) and spend lots of money public programs that don't work.
So after you choose your poison, Democrat or Republican, (Not Liberal, as it doesn't support big government) and you get start going to the national caucuses. Oh the fun of promising even bigger pork projects, kick backs and under handed political back stabbing. Debate over issues and sound the same every year.
Then after elected, you appoint Judges that agree with your "wink" personal views. Make powerful political and business contacts that help family and friends make billions. Purchase some banks maybe. After your term, you quit, and collect a check yearly for the rest of your life. Of course, you have to build a library, and do lots of 1000 dollar a plate dinners. Everyone wants to throw money at you.
My god this game sounds fun, and it pays well too!
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
President Elect was an excellent game, with (for a game) a realistic grasp of electoral politics based on a database of actual state-by-state results from 1964 to 1988.
One could run as various historical candidates, or make one's own candidate by selecting the candidate's position on various issues.
It's mostly a resource management game: you spent money and time on different states or regions to sway the voters in those places. The trick was knowing which states were swing states, and spending your time and money there.
The game ended on election night, with each state reporting in and showing percentages and the color of the candidate who won it. The states reported in on a staggered schedule based on local poll-closing time, and once or twice I even saw one candidate declared the winner, only to see it change when all votes in swing states had reported in.
If I were not watching the webcast of Don Knuth's 10th Annual Christmas Tree lecture at 4:15 pm PST,
at http://scpd.stanford.edu/knuth/, I'd tip my hat to Strom Thurmond's illegitimate mixed-race daughter by playing Strom against Goldwater in 1964 tonight.
If they made a copy updated with electoral data and demographics through 2004, I'd buy it in a minute.
Opinions on the Twiddler2 hand-held keyboard?
Who wants to play a game in which the only way to win is to cheat.