Third Party

from JoeUser Forums
I think a cool feature of the game would be to take a relatively unknown third party and eventually gain enough ground to eventually win the presidency.
10,548 views 8 replies
Reply #2 from JoeUser Forums Top

Well yes and no. You have to be a Democrat or a Republican. 

The main limitating factor on features is that we have to get this thing out by May. Eventually we hope to add all kinds of stuff.

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Reply #3 from JoeUser Forums Top
So Frogboy, will there be third parties that pop up to "steal" votes? I know in Oregon, Gore almost lost the state because of Nader supporters. It would add extra complexity, but it would make things interesting.
Reply #4 from JoeUser Forums Top
I'd like to offer some ideas on how to include third-party and independent candidates in the 1.2 or later version of the game.

Obviously such candidates need extra obstacles to overcome, but for game purposes they should have a legitimate, if longshot, chance to win.

They could start with fewer points to allocate than Democratic and Republican candidates, perhaps two-thirds as many. A third-party or independent candidate also could be blocked from spending any points in certain categories, such as:

* Fund raising. Sure, a Perot-type character could spend a lot of his own money, but minor-party candidates draw much less in donations.
* Philosophy. As I asked about in another thread, I'm unsure what spending points here constitutes to a Democrat or Republican, but perhaps this category could be used to simulate that even the Greens and Libertarians still have tiny bases comparatively.
* Comeliness. Yes, 0 points here would seem silly if a player used Jennifer Granholm or Arnold Schwarzenegger as an independent (which, of course, couldn't happen anyway because neither was born in the United States), but it would simulate the difficulty of gaining much popular support early in the race.
* Opposition. Though the 2 main parties have major differences, they share an interest in keeping other rivals out.

The other obstacle for these candidates would involve media. Local reporters might decline to interview them X percent of the time, and naturally they'd have a lower base probability of getting national media opportunities.

I think I see 1 less-obvious reason why having a 3rd candidate would be difficult in this game. From what I've read on this site, a lot of the data involves measuring what Democrats and Republicans separately think on a given issue, thus allowing appropriate responses from party members when a candidate takes a stand.

I doubt there's much polling data on what the nation's minor-party rank-and-file members think about a given issue, though for the few minor parties with full-fledged ideologies (such as the Greens and Libertarians) one probably could take a good guess. And true independent candidates wouldn't even have that small base to play to in the game.

Reply #5 from JoeUser Forums Top
I definitely look forward to seeing 3rd party candidates supported. It may be years or even decades before we dismantle the two party domination in real world politics but it would be nice if this libertarian could at least rule the world in a video game
Reply #6 from JoeUser Forums Top
Well the two party system is not dominate in all countries and there are many countries with a strong 3 parties or more. There are four strong parties in Canada as for example with some federal/provincial differences.
Reply #7 from JoeUser Forums Top
No third parties in the first version.  Sorry!
Reply #8 from PolMach Forums Top
I just read that you can play Dem, Rep or Ind. I know this an old post but I was curious about Ind. Does that mean you try to be Green, Liberatarian, Socialist or something like that. I expect victory for a minor party or independent would be ultra-hard, but Ross Perot might have made if he didn't drop out and re-enter the 1992 race.