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Presidential Gaming - A Political Machine?

Posted by simoniker on from the tanner-88 dept.

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.

12 of 33 comments (clear)

  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 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.

    2. 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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  2. 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!

  3. 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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  4. 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.

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

    Can I play one of the Bush twins?

  6. 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?

  7. 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.

  8. 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.

  9. 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!