Political Sims

[cmp]

Just wondering what the best political sim out there is. I've been thinking of getting one but wanted to know what would be a good choice.

[cartman]

The only one I'm really aware of is President Forever. The interface takes some getting used to, but the game is pretty solid.

[WVUFAN]

The Political Machine wasn't a bad game.

[Barkeep49]

PF4E is decentish now that they have the primaries though very easy. There's also the Political Machine which is OK.

To be honest no game real has made me leap with joy in this category since Shadow President.

[Groundhog]

To be honest no game real has made me leap with joy in this category since Shadow President.

I definately hear that. That was a great game, shame it doesn't work for me anymore.

[Izulde]

There's another game.. Election Day I think it's called, by John.. Gastil? at the University of Washington that lets you do elections from City Council all the way up to President

[Raiders Army]

Arguing on FOFC is pretty close to a good MMO Political Sim. Just choose a side and disregard the other's arguments.

[JonInMiddleGA]

There's another game.. Election Day I think it's called, by John.. Gastil? at the University of Washington that lets you do elections from City Council all the way up to President

http://www.election-day.info/

(I don't remember seeing this one before, but figured I'd share my Google)

[twothree]

Democracy is another, but the demo would always crash on me so I never purchased it.

http://www.positech.co.uk/democracy/index.html

[twothree]

Arguing on FOFC is pretty close to a good MMO Political Sim. Just choose a side and disregard the other's arguments.

The older one gets, the less flexible one gets in both body and mind.

[larrymcg421]

Election Day is pretty ambitious and has some great ideas. The interface is much better than President Forever. Unfortunately, the game is way too buggy to be playable. There have been some updates to make it better, but I still have too many issues to enjoy it.

[bosshogg23]

Election Day is pretty ambitious and has some great ideas. The interface is much better than President Forever. Unfortunately, the game is way too buggy to be playable. There have been some updates to make it better, but I still have too many issues to enjoy it.

Agreed.

When I try to play Election Day I have to save the game every 5-10 minutes or it will crash. Always keep a backup if you trying to play. The saved game files can corrupt easily.

[GrantDawg]

The older one gets, the less flexible one gets in both body and mind.


I'm the inverse of that strangely enough. I have opened my mind up much more the older I get, and I'm in much better shape now than I have been in many years. Thread-jack ended.

[st.cronin]

I'm the inverse of that strangely enough. I have opened my mind up much more the older I get, and I'm in much better shape now than I have been in many years. Thread-jack ended.

My mind is more open, more flexible and generally stronger than ever, but my body really doesn't work very well. I can't jog more than a few feet without pain, and I'm susceptible to ulcers and back pain.

[Honolulu Blue]

I've always been a fan of President Elect myself, but that's a very old game.

The Political Machine was, um, interesting - it definitely had its good points. I might have to fire it up again now that people are throwing their hats into the ring.

I haven't tried the others mentioned here.

[Klinglerware]

I've always been a fan of President Elect myself, but that's a very old game.



Great game, I played it to death when I was a kid. The most fun ones were the really close elections--and the potential for getting the scenario where nobody wins enough electoral votes to win, or when someone wins the electoral vote but not the popular vote.

The first version of the game had a cheat where you could give yourself unlimited funds, good for "banana republic" scenarios...

[LloydLungs]

I've always been a fan of President Elect myself, but that's a very old game.

I LOVED President Elect, but unfortunately, I have reached the point where it no longer runs properly on my computer. At times, I was wearing that game out as recently as December 2005. I even figured out how to tool around with the state tendencies to update to more modern times (i.e. making the south a little more GOP-friendly, making California more Dem-friendly, etc).

My problem with all the newer games is that none of them seem to allow you to set the circumstances of the election like President Elect did, i.e. if a candidate was an incumbent, inflation rate, unemployment rate, mood of the country, etc. To me those are absolutely 100% necessary for me to enjoy an election game.

[Izulde]

Doonesbury's Election Game was a lot of fun, though you could never win as an independent even with an ultra-hardcore mainstream party candidate who sucked at everything and a maxed out indy candidate.

Though I did come darn close. Got something like 240 electoral votes.

[AlexB]

Doonesbury's Election Game was a lot of fun, though you could never win as an independent even with an ultra-hardcore mainstream party candidate who sucked at everything and a maxed out indy candidate.

Though I did come darn close. Got something like 240 electoral votes.

So it was pretty realistic then?

[cartman]

As Honolulu Blue mentioned, the first one I ever played was a game from SSI back in the Commodore 64 days called "President Elect". They released a version for the '84 election, then a sequel in '88. You might be able to find it on Underdogs or some other emulation site. For its time, it was a pretty solid game.

[albionmoonlight]

The only one I'm really aware of is President Forever. The interface takes some getting used to, but the game is pretty solid.

I tried the demo the other day. The interface was horrible, but the game looked solid.

For $20, I will probably give it a try.

I can already tell that the game will be a bit repetitive and probably not be a long term replayer, but it might be nice to try some different things and see how far I can push it.

(Though I will say that whoever edits the newspaper in the game needs to get their priorities straight. I was playing as Hillary Clinton and decided to drop out of the race and support Newt Gingrich. That ended up being a secondary headline the next day. The main headline was Kerry making a gaffe in a speech about energy policy. So, in President Forever world John Kerry making a gaffe in a speech is more newsworthy than Hillary Clinton deciding to support Newt Gingrich for president. In the real world, I am not sure whether John Kerry making a gaffe in a speech is even worth reporting any more. I kind of just assume that he does unless I hear otherwise).

[Izulde]

So it was pretty realistic then?

Yeah pretty much. In a lot of ways I still consider it the best Presidential election simulation ever made.

It was realistic, was fantastic graphically for its time, and a lot of fun to play.

One of the things I loved seeing was when you selected David Duke as a presidential candidate for the Republicans, the Democratic candidate started off with like 80% of the vote in the opening polls, no matter who it was, with Duke getting something like 12%.

[SFL Cat]

Are these games simply the race between the parties for the presidency or does it include primaries as well? (Frankly, I usually find the party primary races a lot more interesting than the actual presidential election).

[albionmoonlight]

Are these games simply the race between the parties for the presidency or does it include primaries as well? (Frankly, I usually find the party primary races a lot more interesting than the actual presidential election).

President Forever includes primaries.

[johnd2442]

thank you for this thread, guys. i'm going to try one or more of these games. they look really interesting.

[Galaril]

It is almost election season and Democracy 2 has been released for 22.95 I might grab it if I find the time.

http://www.positech.co.uk/democracy2/

[Radii]

i'd be curious to see reviews of that if some people pick it up.

[stevew]

Power Politics.

Basically the same thing as the doonesbury game, but 4 years younger. Played the shit out of it when I was in college.

[Flasch186]

anyone play this yet....Im tempted and may try it out today if I can peel myself away from FM.

[path12]

I downloaded the demo last night but probably won't get to it today.

[DaddyTorgo]

I downloaded the demo last night but probably won't get to it today.

+1

[Barkeep49]

I end up getting all of positec's games it seems so I'll likely be getting this sometime soon. The first democracy was enjoyable in that it actually let you run a country rather than just run for office.

[cartman]

Quite the overwhelming interface for Democracy 2. It's gonna take a bit to get the feel of it.

[Greyroofoo]

I just played the Democracy 2 demo and it completely sucked me in until I hit the time limit.

I was well loved by the alcoholics.

[Peregrine]

I bought Democracy 2 recently and have been really enjoying it. The interface isn't really that overwhelming, it just looks that way at first. Though there are a few issues with the game overall it does a good job of simulating how hard it is to keep a country running and continue to get elected.

[Barkeep49]

I enjoyed Democracy 2 however found it to be a bit too easy to "beat" and that the various countries required only a slight differences to a standard success formula. Still a very enjoyable game considering it's the only one that's relatively recent that allows you to rule the country instead of just running for election.

[Toddzilla]

To be honest no game real has made me leap with joy in this category since President Elect.Fixed.

[Barkeep49]

Fixed.
I don't think I ever played President Elect.

Not to mention that post was from so long ago I'd forgotten I'd written it :)

[Peregrine]

Has anyone played a lot with President Forever 2008 + Primaries? I tried the demo, the primary system was very interesting, but the game seemed pretty complex to me. I did like what you could do with ads though, you could set up an ad package with different kinds of ads, framing yourself through integrity, experience, or whatever.

[bob]

I didn't see this anywhere - a new version of the Political Machine is coming out soon. I played the original once at a friends house prior to the 2004 election using Bush v. Gore, and the electoral map ended up exactly the same as the real life one.

http://pc.ign.com/articles/875/875784p1.html

[Izulde]

Election Day apparently released version 4 back in February or Marach (www.election-day.info)

I'm putting it through its paces now to see if the career mode is working properly yet.

[Apathetic Lurker]

Our friends across the pond have come up with a political/military type sim too. Seems a bit RTS-ish ( combat) for me but still waiting for a demo.... But I might jump in since I am officially bored till school starts up again

http://www.geo-political-simulator.com/

[Schmidty]

I like Political Machine 2008, but then again, I'm very lazy.

[RainMaker]

Power Politics.

Basically the same thing as the doonesbury game, but 4 years younger. Played the shit out of it when I was in college.

That brings back some memories. The game was a blast. Never was able to get a 3rd party candidate even close to being elected.

[bhlloy]

Our friends across the pond have come up with a political/military type sim too. Seems a bit RTS-ish ( combat) for me but still waiting for a demo.... But I might jump in since I am officially bored till school starts up again

http://www.geo-political-simulator.com/

This looks a very ambitious game, however at over 60 bucks and no demo I'm not going to be the guinea pig that figures out that it sucks :D

Do you know if a demo is on the way?

[Cringer]

This looks a very ambitious game, however at over 60 bucks and no demo I'm not going to be the guinea pig that figures out that it sucks :D

Do you know if a demo is on the way?

I wonder there was a guy named Daivd on the design team?

[Apathetic Lurker]

This looks a very ambitious game, however at over 60 bucks and no demo I'm not going to be the guinea pig that figures out that it sucks :D

Do you know if a demo is on the way?

Somewhere i remember seeing that it should be published over here in NA around the 3rd Q.. I would assume it would mean the inevitable demo.But you know how that is..... If I hear anything I will be over here with a linkie.

[Barkeep49]

GPS seems closer to Supreme Ruler than most of the other games we've discussed in this thread.

[Apathetic Lurker]

GPS seems closer to Supreme Ruler than most of the other games we've discussed in this thread.

I believe it, unlike Supreme Ruler, is playable

[Barkeep49]

I believe it, unlike Supreme Ruler, is playable
I liked the first SR and haven't had time to really play through the demo of the sequel.