You Run the Smear Campaign

Zordak writes "I came across this amusing story on CNN about a new PC game published by UbiSoft that's hitting store shelves this week called 'Political Machine.' It's a strategy game in which you run a presidential campaign through speeches, ads, campaign stops, and good old-fashioned mud slinging. You can choose to be one of the current candidates, one of several contemporary political figures (like Hillary Clinton or Condoleeza Rice) or you can make your own candidate. The game attempts to be extremely realistic, including using statistical data from the various states."

Comments

Sigh

[FriedTurkey]

I think the purpose of this slashdot story is to start a flame war.

To reply to this story just insert into the blanks:

Can we {insert political dirty trick} like {politician}?

Re:Sigh

[Anonymous Coward]

I think the result of this slashdot story is a flame war.. and a few bad jokes.

Beowulf cluster of this game = Real world..

In Sovjet Russia, politicians rule you! ..

Re:Sigh

[richie2000]

What, you think there's a purpose behind Slashdot stories? *gasp*

Re:Sigh

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, this story is MUCH more important than the one that has been sitting in the queue for several days now discussing how BugMeNot.com seems to have been shutdown by the big-wig media producers.

Re:Sigh

[XnR'rn]

That Soviet Russia joke is one of the bigger oxymorons I ever saw! :D

Insert into blanks?

[tod_miller]

CanErmweI{insertDon'tpoliticalThinkdirtyItrick}Und erstandlike {politician}?

Topical gaming

[tod_miller]

Is this game going to be updated every election? New dirty tricks?

I don't know who would buy such a game, but whoever does, shouldn't be allowed to run a campaign!

I just know that both sides will buy a copy and even 'playfully' see what tactics might influence the voters.

It is so stupid and unlikely that you just have that feeling it *will* happen.

Graphics look quirky.

Re:Topical gaming

[FriedTurkey]

Yeah games like this usually don't work because they are bound to a few determining factors. Consequently the game isn't very deep and not worth playing for more than a day. The game won't be like a real election which is determined by a million different variables.

Re:Topical gaming

[tod_miller]

"The game won't be like a real election which is determined by a million different variables."

Heh, the election is either determined by one variable (which sways the most voters to one or the other side, thus negating all other variables), or by each voter, and I hope more than one million of the 300 million actually go and vote :-)

But, yeah, fair point!

Re:Topical gaming

[EddieBurkett]

Maybe I'm just simple minded, but I've played a few sims like this, and they are downright addictive. The final election will probably come down to one or two specific incidents, but the appeal of the game isn't the election - its the campaign. Depending on how long before the election you start out, I think the most addictive aspect will be unleashing smear or making a speech and then watching the subsequent effect on the poll numbers. Again, depending on the speed of this game, I could see it being a "let me just play through one more day before I go to bed" type game.

Plus, the political satire looks amusing enough to at least make it worth one run through, if not two (one on each side of the aisle).

NOT ubisoft.

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm pretty sure this is NOT from Ubisoft. This game has been in development at Stardock (the company that makes Galactic Civilizations and all the little windows interface replacements like WindowBlinds).

The Political Machine - (scroll down).

Re:NOT ubisoft.

[Dehumanizer]

You may not be aware, but there are 'developers', and then there are 'publishers'... :)

Re:NOT ubisoft.

[Anonymous Coward]

And you may also be aware that in this case its not 'developers' but 'developer' :P

The game was done by a single guy, hes been releasing shareware titles for awhile now, this is the third game in his political series, the first was also released to retail back almost a decade ago....

TotalGaming.net

[Anonymous Coward]

If you are at all interested in buying the game or crashing some servers check out http://totalgaming.stardock.com/.

Could be fun

[FuzzyDustBall]

Im glad that games like this still come out... It reminds me of the old industry sims like detroit or ports of call. They arnt real exciting but fun to waste a few hours with. And if the game would be 2 player it would make it alot better.

Re:Could be fun

[Anonymous Coward]

"And if the game would be 2 player it would make it alot better."

You should do your research...

From politicalmachine.com

"The game is both a single player game (against the computer) as well as a multiplayer game. "

the multiplayer component supports online play...

Re:Could be fun

[schmu_20mol]

yep those were the days.... err hours

Re:Could be fun

[johnkoer]

Thats funny, the first thing I thought of when I saw this was Wall Street Kid for the nintendo. I thought it was a fun game, but once you figured out the AI, it was pretty easy to master every time you played it.

I have it

[Mukaikubo]

And it appears I'm the first poster to actually have played the game. Well, here goes, any questions about it ask me...

Overall, it's a fun game to play a few times, but it gets old with astonishing speed.

Bush has it

[dtfinch]

It'll be his secret weapon in the campaign. He's not gonna put down the controller until he figures out how to beat the end guy.

Ultimate Strategy

[SightlessMind]

This game should be easy, just build your candidate around honesty and fairness and the political machine will bow down to you, right? ...right?

StarForce copy protection?

[thelexx]

Someone posted a list of games that use the StarForce copy protection scheme when it was discussed yesterday. Ubisoft was the only publisher name on that list that I recognized. Wonder if they are using it in this title?

Re:StarForce copy protection?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's published by Ubisoft, but developed by Stardock. Stardock has a history of giving such things as CD protection the finger.

http://elf-inside.livejournal.com/116304.html

http://totalgaming.stardock.com/Articles.asp?MID=5 &AID=21876

Re:StarForce copy protection?

[Anonymous Coward]

Cool! I hope I can easily pirate it.

It's 1984 Again!

[Quarters]

COMPUTE!'S Gazette, a magazine dealing with the Commodore 64, published a program called "Campaign Manager" in their August 1984 (Issue 14, Vol 2, No 8) edition.

And for you youngsters in the crowd the word "published" can be taken literally there. There were pages of machine code you had to enter into an editor called "MLX" to compile and run the game.

I remember this because I had a broken leg in 1984 and had to spend most of the summer laid out on the couch. I typed that whole game in and played it incessently.

You can get a .D64 file of the game (along with the other software in that particular issue of the magazine) for use in C64 emulators here.

Re:It's 1984 Again!

[Yeechang Lee]

In addition to the disk image mentioned above, the article itself is available at the invaluable Classic Computer Magazine Archive.

Re:It's 1984 Again!

[Scorchio]

Reminds me of the hours I wasted playing GB Ltd, although this dealt with running the country after the election.

I always seemed to end up with riots across the country, somehow.

Re:It's 1984 Again!

[MilenCent]

My god! I thought of that very program when I saw the election game at Wal-Mart! It was in the very first issue of Compute's! Gazette I ever bought, unfortunately getting burned with the trash during the great father-sponsored Closet Clean-Out of the early 90's.

I rarely had the patience to type in those programs, so I have to admit I never played the game. I remember from the screen shots that it made excellent use of the C64's built-in, general-purpose graphics set. I'm definitely going to check that game out.

On another level: Does this program's mention on Slashdot mean that old magazine programs are getting more respect now? If that's the case, I am so ready. Fifteen minutes of fame starting.... now!

Republic: The Revolution

[Anonymous Coward]

I can't help it, but the description reminds me of the title "Republic: The Revolution", which also dealt with political premises. The settings were in an unnamed Eastern European country in mid-to-late Nineties and it involved choosing and motivating your campaign staff, campaigning for influence and support in city districts (rallies, posters, grafittis, door to door campaigns), smear campaigns against oponent parties and other dirty tricks.

The game itself was a huge flop, due to its 'super detailed' 3d ambitions, but the idea was nice.

It would be grand to see more games that deal with political settings.

Re:Republic: The Revolution

[joFFeman]

i played 'political machine' for 20 minutes today. it's no fun, there's not enough selection in regards to political beliefs and you have to be a member of one of the two major US parties [ie republican or democrat]. the graphics are lacklustre, the entire thing seems as if macromedia flash could have done the job just as well [and that is not a good thing]. it's really nothing compared to republic: the revolution, where you had so much control and could create a leader based on your own belief system.

the gameplay is boring, the cast is far too limited, and the issues are obviously thrown together from a list of things people in the USA get polled about, like the iraq war, healthcare, stuff like that. nothing radical. you run ads and bribe corporate interests, give speeches and whatnot, but none of that seems to be of much consequence because you never really feel in control of the character. perhaps that's the underlying message, but it doesn't make for an entertaining game.

bottom line: 'political machine' is shovelware along the lines of 'who wants to beat up a millionaire'. pick up republic instead.

but that's just my opinion, your results may vary.

Re:Republic: The Revolution

[Anonymous Coward]

there's not enough selection in regards to political beliefs and you have to be a member of one of the two major US parties [ie republican or democrat].

Seems like an accurate portrayal of the American political system to me.

This has been done...I think?

[Tom Courtenay]

There was a PC game a while back (maybe 10 years ago?) that I think was similar to this. You ran smear campaigns on people and tried to infliltrate their organizations through corporate sabatoge etc. I think it was a British game...does this sound familiar to anybody?

Floor 13

[Anonymous Coward]

You're probably thinking of Floor 13, in which you ran a kind of MI-5 without moral or legal restraints.

Re:Floor 13

[Tom Courtenay]

That's the one, thanks! Wow, it's been 13 years since I played that. NOW I'm feeling close to thirty ;)

Slander or Satire?

[chia_monkey]

And in today's litigation-happy society, I'm sure they'll get sued for slander and libel and whatever else is possible and they'll have to fight their way in court. Sad...but probably true. I would like to see how "true to life" it is though.