The Political Machine, anyone?

[Stefu]

The presidential simulator at http://www.politicalmachine.com , coming out soon.

Did anyone play the beta version while the public beta was still available?

[General Ludd]

I heard about this awhile ago... it sounds interesting, but I'm concerned that it will just be democracts vs. republicans.

That'd be like Street Fighter only having Ryu and Ken.

[Kuciwalker]

No one else really has a chance, though

[vovan]

Originally posted by General Ludd
but I'm concerned that it will just be democracts vs. republicans.

I think the following screenie justifies your concern:

http://www.politicalmachine.com/game.a1.jpg

[Stefu]

They *do* have space for three candidates under the "State Approval", though.

[lord of the mark]

back in ancient times i played a card game called, I think, Mr. President. There were only the two parties. You picked two candidates, who were identified with certain issues, and whose home states were important. You got cards that represented votes - on each card was one state from each of four regions, with a certain number of votes in that state. On any given turn you could fund raise, advertise, or campaign. If you campaigned you placed one of the cards in a slot for a given region - your opponent knew which region you were campaigning in, but not which state. If you advertized, you got to specifically get votes in a particular state. A couple of cards said only pres candidate home state, vp home state, making it more likely youd win your homestate. You could call a debate and spun a die to see who would win - the challenger got to decide the topic - if it was an issue his candidate was identified with, he had an advantage.

In toting up the votes, the party that traditionally was strong in a given state (based on elections in the 50's and 60's) had an edge. This meant the map tended to follow traditional US patterns.

It was lots of fun, my friends and I played it over and over, and even recorded the final "maps". It was not particularly realistic however, though it gave the illusion.

[VetLegion]

I'll be getting it. I want to try a good political simulation, and this looks promising. Even more so if you know that it is from the authors of GalCiv and Corporate Machine, neither of which is crap.

[Dauphin]

Originally posted by General Ludd
I heard about this awhile ago... it sounds interesting, but I'm concerned that it will just be democracts vs. republicans.

That'd be like Street Fighter only having Ryu and Ken.

That tickled me just right. Thanks for that.

[Boris Godunov]

Could be interesting, but looking at it, it seems like a souped-up rehash of the Doonesbury Election Game in many regards. I'd rather have a game where you play a candidate and guide his political career, starting with local offices and working your way up to POTUS. That would mean having primary battles, too, though.

[CapTVK]

I thought it looked familiar and now I know. This is just a remake of Stardock's "Entrepreneur" (later recycled as "the Corporate Machine") with some new graphics/sounds and a political background.

[Kuciwalker]