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Presidential Gaming - A Political Machine?

Thanks to Blue's News for pointing to a Stardock press release discussing the announcement of a new PC strategy game based on running a U.S. Presidential campaign. An official site for The Political Machine has already been launched, with info on the game "in which you are the campaign manager for a candidate for President of the United States. Choose a political party, put together the dream presidential ticket and go for it." The title, from the developers of the niche favorite Galactic Civilizations, will debut via public Beta on the Steam-like Drengin gaming network on April 8th, and is due in stores this June.

33 comments

  1. Civilization Required for Presidents... by MalaclypseTheYounger · · Score: 3, Funny

    I recently dusted off my copy of Civilization III and have been playing it day-in and day-out for the past couple weeks. While it does not cover every aspect of a kingdom, country, or government, it certainly teaches you a lot about handling your people, keeping people happy, HANDLING BUDGETS, and a teeny bit about war (and the effects thereof on your people).

    It would never happen, but I think it'd be great to require presidential candidates to be required to sit down for an extended CIV session (8-16 hours, maybe more?) and play against one another in a televised CIV game, with color commentary. You could see how each candidate chooses to run their kingdom, how 'happy' they keep their citizens, how easily they succumb to waging war to get what they want, etc.

    (offtopic? sorry...)

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    1. Re:Civilization Required for Presidents... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      www.kenzerco.com/periodicals/kodt/kodtonline040325 .php

    2. Re:Civilization Required for Presidents... by MMaestro · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Too bad each Civilization game turn takes between one to forty years.

      The year is 1795 and the people of New York are angry. Next turn, its now 1800 people are happy again with no damage whatsoever to the city over that five YEAR period.

      Reality sim Civilization isn't. Last time I checked Modern Tanks don't lose to Aztec Riflemen Concripts either, nor does the declaration of war cause an entire nation to grind to a halt due to widespread riots. For a 13 year old looking to learn basic managing skills, sure. For anyone over the age of 18, get a job and try handling taxes, job, school, and time. Far more difficult.

    3. Re:Civilization Required for Presidents... by MalaclypseTheYounger · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I agree with the time passing part. If you notice however, starting at year 1900 I believe each turn lasts only 1 year. I'm not so much interested in year-to-year handling of their nation, but HOW they handle it. And who cares about building Spearmen and stuff, let them start off with today's technology, and see where they take it.

      Declaration of war doesn't cause MY civilization to grind to a halt. But staying at war for 20 years does. Look at Vietnam, and the effect that had on the US in dragging that one out.

      And, I may point out, Modern Tanks (humvees?) in Iraq are being blown away by RPG grenades fired off the shoulder of insurgents. It CAN and DOES happen.

      I'm way over the age of 18, and I handle mortgage, job, kids, wife, time, just fine. I still get my butt kicked in Civilization at a medium-to-hard setting. :)

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    4. Re:Civilization Required for Presidents... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You could see how each candidate chooses to run their kingdom

      Excusing the reality/game differentiation issue, I think you're forgetting one critical fact here: politicians lie when in public.

      If you feel they would give you an honest reflection of their performance in a public game why not just accept what they say they'll do in a debate?

      Maybe this would work OK if you told them to play in private, but secretly recorded their performance. But then why not just bug them...

    5. Re:Civilization Required for Presidents... by KevinKnSC · · Score: 1
      It would never happen, but I think it'd be great to require presidential candidates to be required to sit down for an extended CIV session (8-16 hours, maybe more?) and play against one another in a televised CIV game, with color commentary. You could see how each candidate chooses to run their kingdom, how 'happy' they keep their citizens, how easily they succumb to waging war to get what they want, etc.

      This was actually suggested in the strategy guide for the first Civilization game. I would have liked to see it in the 2000 election, because then, in addition to inventing the Internet, Al Gore could have discovered bronze working, monotheism, flight, the railroad, rocketry and fusion power. Not to mention protecting our borders from Alexander and his damn chariots.

      (Disclaimer: I realize that Gore voted to support research on what would become the Internet, and that this is all he was taking credit for. I'm just making a joke here.)

    6. Re:Civilization Required for Presidents... by Strange+Ranger · · Score: 1

      > I think it'd be great to require presidential candidates...to sit down for an extended CIV session

      I'm sure they'll all need to download the newest mods first:

      -Quiet Backroom Handshake
      -Golfing with CEO's
      & the Old White Men with Old White Money Conversion Kit.

      --

      Operator, give me the number for 911!
    7. Re:Civilization Required for Presidents... by MMaestro · · Score: 1
      And who cares about building Spearmen and stuff, let them start off with today's technology, and see where they take it.

      Actually I tried that before. I built up my empire and then waited an extra 50 turns, insulted them so they would form an alliance (coalition?) against me, and then had them declare war on me. After breaking through their main force of Infantry (the best defender before Mech. Infantry) I demolished their Modern Tanks with Cruise Missles and rolled into Rome facing... over a dozen outdated units because the AI never upgraded them.. Whoopie..

  2. Well I'll be! by Pamplemousse · · Score: 1

    Wont Nader like this? Finaly! His moment of triumph!

  3. Nah.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Let's have Kerry play this and win, so he won't bother the country with his ill-conceived campaign and plans to make the country a lot worse.

  4. games like these should be banned! by sofar · · Score: 3, Funny

    I think this a repulsive idea, I hope people will see that making these games is anti-socal, demoralizing and would severely degrade the public moral for supporting democracy.

    Please don't expose our children to these games as they will be filled with lies, mudthrowing and other subhuman activities. Last they will promote fraud and abuse of power. We cannot let this ruin our society!!!

    Please let our kids not play games in which they have to wage wars to win the next elections, lie to their own people, abuse their money and meanwhile take their jobs away. This is a slap in the face of democracy!

    1. Re:games like these should be banned! by b0r0din · · Score: 1

      "Furthermore, this is the most arrogant, inept, reckless, most ideological foreign gaming idea in the history of our country, and I for one will not stand for it!"

      Here's the back cover of a game like this:

      1) Simple Sounds. Just repeat the same phrase over and over (see above) about 3,000 times.
      2) Simple People. Woo idiots over with your stupid ideas and boring rhetoric as you talk about how the other side is responsible for all the problems of the world.
      3) Or play a third party candidate, and watch your hopes dwindle after you are rejected from debate after debate.
      4) Appear on televised debates, where people and moderators will ask the same unintelligent questions about health care and affirmative action that have been asked for the last fifty years. Use your multiple choice listing to A) not answer their question, B) not answer their question, C) not answer their question but make a joke, or D) not answer their question and use that time to ridicule the opposition.

    2. Re:games like these should be banned! by Goldsmith · · Score: 1

      Wow, and here I was thinking the game was a little soft to really be grounded in reality!

  5. Cheat codes? by SansTinfoilHat · · Score: 4, Funny

    Is there a cheat code that lets you win Florida? ::ducks::

    1. Re:Cheat codes? by shadowcabbit · · Score: 2, Funny

      Ctrl-Alt-Shift-Jeb.

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  6. Ooh, look, it's President Elect by Mukaikubo · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Fun old DOS game, it's over on The Underdogs. What's extremely fun is making both major candidates utter incompetents without a shred of charisma (compared to the guys I'd make, Al Gore was a suave sophisticate) and making myself a godlike 3rd party candidate. And still, well, losing.

    1. Re:Ooh, look, it's President Elect by great+throwdini · · Score: 1
      [President Elect is a] fun old DOS game, it's over on The Underdogs.

      Released in 1988 by SSI. Oh, how I miss the old SSI titles.

      I guess the old ColecoVision game, Campaign '84 (Sunrise, 1984), still beats *that* by one term, and The Political Machine by a few more... can anyone think of a presidential game released before 1984, though?

  7. Is this a MMORPG? by WormholeFiend · · Score: 2, Funny

    Can I play one of the Bush twins?

  8. If its anything like GalCiv... by dtolman · · Score: 2, Insightful
    ...then the gameplay should be responsive to what fans request. Not sure how much fun the game will be, but they have a great track report with interacting with users, and responding to their requests.

    Assuming of course, it actually is them. They spend so much time responding, I'm not sure how they get any real work done on the software. Maybe they've got the AI from galciv answering?

  9. Where are the Iraqis by superpulpsicle · · Score: 3, Funny

    Heard there was a secret code where you can control Bush and his political party to randomly start wars with other countries over WMD. That tops GTA.

    Republican Bush lovers will certainly mod me down flamebait troll -100.

  10. Re:The real reason Bush won in florida by schmink182 · · Score: 1
    No, it's not shocking at all really. Since Jeb decided to refuse the right to vote to a lot of African American and Hispanic Democrats. From Wikipedia:

    57,700 voters were incorrectly listed as felons on a "scrub list" and thus their votes were not counted. (In some cases, the alleged felonies were dated several years after the election and the vast majority of the listed were not felons.) These persons were disproportionately Democrats of African-American and Hispanic descent. While the story was widely reported from November in countries such as the UK, the US media refused to publish it until many months after the elections.

    Since Bush won by 537 votes in Florida, a mere 1% of these voters would likely have swung the vote into Gore's favor.

  11. Dark Horse by Joe+U · · Score: 2, Informative

    Does anyone remember the old MSNBC web game Dark Horse, where you ran a presidential campaign?

    Granted, this will be more complex. Either way, it's good to see Pol/Econ turn based games becoming more popular again.

  12. Re:The real reason Bush won in florida by deanj · · Score: 1

    Myth.

  13. President Forever by viware · · Score: 3, Informative

    Theres already a good game out like this, called President Forever.
    It's super fun and complicated. Pretty much pure strategy. There's a demo to try it out on the website!

  14. Mod him up! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    and Democrat Saddam-lovers will mod you through the roof!

  15. Myth, indeed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    "No, it's not shocking at all really. Since Jeb decided to refuse the right to vote to a lot of African American and Hispanic Democrats"

    No, he did not. The list to remove felons from the voting lists was:

    set up and adminstered by Democrats (not Jeb Bush)

    removed felons without any regard at all for race (including African-American or hispanic)

    "While the story was widely reported from November in countries such as the UK, the US media refused to publish it until many months after the elections"

    That is another "media censorship" myth. This story was all over the US media right when it broke. It died quickly when the truth was found out about it.

    "Since Bush won by 537 votes in Florida, a mere 1% of these voters would likely have swung the vote into Gore's favor."

    Of course Bush won by 537 votes, and if you make up votes and voters out of thin air and add them only to the Gore side, Gore wins! Not very profound.

  16. My campaign by clambake · · Score: 1

    Very simple... Choose a single platform, and stick to it... such as the following platform: "Should I win, all of the money in the treasury will go to the people who create electronic voting machines, and thier families" ...and you are bound to win. People admire such focused ideals, and will vote for you. In fact, with such a platform, when the polls were tallied up, I can't imagine even a single person in the universe who would vote against you.

  17. Presidential Debate Time by AtariAmarok · · Score: 1

    ) not answer their question, B) not answer their question, C) not answer their question but make a joke, or D) not answer their question and use that time to ridicule the opposition.

    Brit Hume: Senator Kerry, what do you have to say about accusations that you have taken both sides in the war issue?

    Kerry: As the American people are divided on the Iraq war, my votes for it and against it clearly reflect the public view.

    Brit Hume: Mr. Buchanan, what do you think of the gay marriage issue?

    Buchanan: Brit, the reason for this problem is that there are millions of illegal Mexicans coming into America and stealing our jobs.

    Brit Hume: President Bush, what is your vision of the legacy you will have when you leave office?

    Bush: America are a place where families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream.

    Brit Hume: Vice President Gore, what new technology is needed to drive America into the future?

    Gore: Lock box.

    Brit Hume: Governor Dean, do you have anything to add?

    Dean: YEAAAARGGGHHHHH !!!!

    --
    Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
  18. Precidence by realdddave · · Score: 1

    In an old (old old old) issue of Nintendo Power, in a feature on Japanese games, an NES/Famicom game was featured that simulated the presidential campaign and election processes. The candidates were obvious clones of current political figures (I seem to remember "George Push" (Senior)), but also included at least one female candidate and I believe some minorities. I think everyone who saw the blurb, myself included, must have marveled that the Japanese public would be so interested in the US political process when most Americans seem like they couldn't care less.

    From games like the Civ series, Nation States, and many others, it's apparent that people are interested in some aspects of the role of national leader, but I have yet to see a game that really hit "being the president of the US" right on the head...maybe because that game wouldn't be worth playing?

    Jennifer Government - Nation States - kind of an intro level presidential sim. Although it's really interesting, it's hard to spend more than 5 minutes a day once you have it set up.
    If George Bush played Civ 3 - a little presidential gaming humor

  19. Finally! by Doches · · Score: 1

    A game about real politics! I've wanted office porn in a game for years!

  20. Entrepeneur by ckessel · · Score: 1

    I'd guess this is a mod (perhaps heavy mod) on top of Stardocks hit from a few years ago called Entrepeneur. Reading the description, many of the facets are similar. This isn't a knock on the upcoming game in any fashion. In some ways, it's a plus, as the underlying design has been proven.