Disappointing

from JoeUser Forums
This game model is very disappointing, as a politician (http://www.parker2004.com), and public policy analyst (http://www.gparkerconsulting.com), and game player, I was eagerly awaiting a model that was not only fun, but accurate, and could be used in political science classes.

1) “The Political Machine has an issue-driven model rather than a poll-driven model. Depending on what issues matters at the time of the snapshot, different candidates have different advantages.”; It should be both, because the political advantage that a candidate has can erode over time, and new issues can arise giving way to changing advantages for candidates. Also populations and social norms change which gear up certain political bases or interest groups.
2) “The model has an error factor of around +/- 3% and it cannot take into account with great precision the effect of advertisements, endorsements, speeches, TV interviews.” What! This is the base of a political campaign. Politics is perception. How the public perceives your candidate is everything in a campaign, not to mention, the media plays a very large part in shaping issues.

I have more, but in the interest of time and the fact that I am not here to teach political theory, or public administration, I will save it. The game is a good first try, but I will buy when it has all the good stuff.
8,592 views 8 replies
Reply #1 from JoeUser Forums Top

1) If it was poll driven it would quickly become out of date. By contrast, issues remain relevant much longer and we are finding them to be quite accurate.

2) Have you PLAYED the game? What we're saying is that the TV ads and such we are taking our "best guess" on how they affect things.  They work bymodifying the perception people have of the candidates's positions.

Reply #2 from JoeUser Forums Top
A poll and Issue driven dynamic model would not be out of date if you allow for downloading of data from polling and news sources and giving them modifiers or assigning them to mathematic variables in your models calculations. You could also download new issue and census data as well. This would make the game more dynamic and ever changing like real-world politics. You then would get better playability and scalability and people like me willing to pay more for a game like that. "That is good, but there is more. Ads also work also to modify the perception people have of the candidate, especially for independent candidates. It is said of President Bush that the media love is personality but hate his policy. Also, with your model an independent candidate can never win, although Jessie “The Body” Venture and other independent congressional candidates have proven that wrong. While I agree, that was a governor’s race and not a Presidential one; most political professional will agree they are closely similar in effort and dynamics.
Ashes of the Singularity II
Reply #3 from JoeUser Forums Top
Someone forgot about Fun! I think you must be Santorum
Reply #4 from JoeUser Forums Top

You can only run as a Democrat or Republican in The Political machine. There are no independents. So that's not an issue.

At the end of the day, it's about making a fun game. And we believe we've created a pretty fun game that is also quite realistic.

Reply #5 from JoeUser Forums Top
Welllll...

I think that also assumes playing at "Normal" level; I've won with Clark taking Texas and Ohio, but not California and Illinois. While I could see this potentially happening, it would be _very rare_ for a Republican to piss off those two states enough while also not losing California and Illinois. Part of the reason why if an election is a landslide, it's a _landslide_.

I don't think the game is disappointing; it _is_ fun. In its current iteration, though, I'm not completely sure about realistic.
Reply #6 from JoeUser Forums Top

The model is flexible but reasonably realistic. If your opponent is bad enough (or good enough) lots of other states will go your way that wouldn't normally go your way.

Consider 1988:

Electoral College 1988

 

Michael Dukakis (red) only won a couple of states and Bush won both California and Illinois. But if you get two compotent players playing, things become much more "Realistic".

Reply #7 from JoeUser Forums Top
I guess my point is that while I can see Florida, Illinois, Texas, and California all going for Bush I, it'd be some amazing set of circumstances to split *all* of Illinois, New York, California, and Illinois for Republicans if Florida, Texas, and, say, Ohio went for Democrats.

I see your point; New York went for Dukakis, while California and Illinois went for Bush I; thing is, looking at Dukakis's performance, it was remarkable that he even got New York!
Reply #8 from JoeUser Forums Top
I think you must be Santorum


That sounds like a good custom issue. "President Bush opposes santorum." What would the graphic look like?