Everything about Political Simulation totally explained
A
government simulation or
political simulation is a game that attempts to simulate the government and politics of all or part of a nation. These games may include geopolitical situations (involving the formation and execution of foreign policy), the creation of domestic political policies, or the simulation of political campaigns. They differ from the genre of classical
wargames due to their discouragement or abstraction of military or action elements.
Background
Before the emergence of personal computers and their ability to quickly process large amounts of statistical data, games based on geopolitics and elections had already existed for years. One of the earliest such games was
The Game of Politics, created by Oswald Lord in 1935 which remained in print until 1960. In 1954, the board game
Diplomacy was created, which differs from other wargames in that it features a "negotiation" phase during which players reach agreements with other players, and then execute military moves simultaneously. National politics has remained a vital area of board gaming, with products such as the 1986 board game
Die Macher featuring elections in Germany, and
Wreck the Nation which satirizes the politics of the United States under the
Bush administration.
After enjoying years as a
play-by-mail game,
Diplomacy was one of the first games to move to take advantage of
e-mail, and continues to be a popular email game as of 2007.
Computer gaming
Balance of Power, designed by
Chris Crawford and published in 1985. This game features conflict at the height of the
Cold War, using political and policy decisions to shape outcomes rather than warfare. In
Balance of Power, any armed conflict between the player and the opponent superpower results in a nuclear war, which is considered a loss condition.
Other Cold War era games included created by
Virgin Interactive, and
Spectrum Holobyte's Crisis in the Kremlin.
Conflict simulated a hypothetical situation in 1997 in which the player assumed the role of the Israeli Prime Minister and was obligated to employ various diplomatic and covert directives to defeat its rival nations. Surrounded by hostile nations, the player was restrained by a very limited military force and was thereby encouraged to employ peaceful means to remain in power until he acquired more advanced weapons systems and power.
In
Crisis in the Kremlin, the user could play as any of the three Soviet politicians
Mikhail Gorbachev representing the
reform party,
Yegor Ligachev, the leader of the hard line party and
Boris Yeltsin who was the prevalent figure of the
nationalist party. The player could use the simulation to test certain strategies to lead the failing
Soviet Union into a new era of prosperity or force its dissolution and integration into the new world order. This game introduced the concept of budget management, citizen and faction satisfaction as well as multiple economic values and political spectrum.
Early political simulation games were intended more for education than entertainment. In 1987,
On the Campaign Trail was developed as a tool at
Kent State University's political campaign management program, and engaged students in decision-making regarding the campaigns for
United States Senate elections between 1970 and 1986. Subsequently, a commercial market developed for packaged games involving elections and campaigns.
The 1992 game
Power Politics (and, before it, 1988's
President Elect) focused on domestic United States political campaigns (but not the running of the country upon election). In 1996, this was adapted to the
Doonesbury Election Game, designed by Randy Chase (who also did Power Politics) and published by
Mindscape, in which players conducted a campaign with the assistance of a pool of advisors selected from characters in the
Doonesbury comic strip, a successor entitled
Power Politics III was released in 2005. In 2004,
Stardock published
Political Machine, in which the player steers a candidate through a 41-week election cycle for United States President, developing policies and tailoring talk show appearances and speech content. The game is heavily tied to modern polling methods, using real-time feedback for how campaign strategy impacts polling numbers. In
2006,
TheorySpark released
President Forever 2008 + Primaries, an election simulation game that allows the player to realistically control an entire election campaign through both the Primaries and General Election.
Some games in the genre involve enacting policies and budget decisions to sway voters. One such game is
Democracy, published in 2005 by
Positech Games. In
Democracy, players make decisions during each turn regarding which policies to support. As turns progress, the player views how their favorability rating changes amongst certain types of voters. Candidates make promises before each election, and failure to follow-through can result in lower support during the player's reelection campaign.
There are also forum-based roleplaying games of government simulation and nation simulation like
Ars Regendi.
Related games
Other
construction and management simulations require government management. For example,
city-building games such as the
SimCity series of games published by
Maxis simulates the experience of being a mayor.
SimCity features a real-time environment in which the player can create zones for city development, build roads, power and water utilities, and watch as their city develops based on their decisions. The game was originally published in 1989 and as of 2003 was in its fourth major release.
Strategy games frequently make use of government management challenges.
4X games require the management of a government, be it
tribal or
interstellar. This includes tasks such as building infrastructure and conducting trade.
Galactic Civilizations II requires players to manage their approval rating to keep their political party in power. Domestic policy is sometimes abstracted with more emphasis on international conflict. For example, the
Civilization series gives players total control over resources, and radically restructuring an empire is a matter of clicking the "REVOLUTION!" button.
Other strategy games focus on government management to varying degrees. For instance, in the
Hearts of Iron games (set in
World War II) the civilian population is only a factor with
partisans and
manpower, whereas in a player must not only hobnob and conquer, but implement the
Second Industrial Revolution while warding off - or ushering in - the more literal
ones of 1848,
communism, etc.
Government and politics have also been incorporated into
adventure games.
A Mind Forever Voyaging, published by
Infocom in 1985, was an
interactive fiction game in which the player controlled a sentient computer capable of experimenting with potential future scenarios based on varying public policy decisions.
Newsweek said of the game, "It isn't '
1984,' but in some ways it's even scarier."
Training and education
Beyond entertainment, these games have practical applications in training and education of government personnel. Training simulations have been created for subjects such as managing law enforcement policies (such as racial profiling), the simulation of a military officer's career, and hospital responses to emergency situations.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Political Simulation'.
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