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, 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
Games based on geopolitics and elections existed long before the emergence of personal computers
and their ability to quickly process large amounts of statistical data.
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.
Nationstates is a website based simulation game that allows for the creation and customization
of a "nation", allowing players to shape their nations policies via issues which the player
receives on an adjustable basis.
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
As computers became more sophisticated, games in this genre moved beyond e-mail to more
complex simulations.
One of the earliest titles in this genre was 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 Conflict: Middle East Political Simulator created by
Virgin Interactive, Spectrum Holobyte's Crisis in the Kremlin and virtually unknown Hidden
Agenda.
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 the protege of any of the following Soviet
politicians: Mikhail Gorbachev of the reformist faction; Yegor Ligachev, leader of the hard-line
faction; and Boris Yeltsin, who was the prevalent figure of the nationalist faction.
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.
In Hidden Agenda the user takes the role of the president of Chimerica, a fictional post-revolutionary
Central American country, trying to juggle international relations and the needs of the
country's citizens.
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 focused on domestic United States political campaigns.
In 1996, this was adapted to the Doonesbury Election Game, designed by Randy Chase 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.
President Forever 2008 + Primaries itself a follow-up to the highly successful general
election sim President Forever, released in 2004
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 favourability 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 re-election campaign.
Another is Commander in Chief, produced by Eversim, boasting an array of choices for
domestic policy and decisions.
Another such game is Tropico.
There can also be found games that puts the player in the seat of a state leader, such
as SuperPower, and its sequel, SuperPower 2, whose goals are to produce economic stability
and prosperity, but the game mainly revolves around foreign policies, with the abilities
to interact with other countries in many ways.
The game includes a great number of real-life treaties that influence countries.
Online games Web-based games such as NationStates and CyberNations
allow players to manage the day-to-day decisions of individual governments, and compete against
rival nations.
Less formally structured games are also played out in internet forums, where players manage
governments and nations according to a set of agreed rules, such as the United States
Government Simulation, Virtual America, PolUK,Politics Down Under, Politics United or Rule Britannia.
These such forum-based simulation games - often known as "Polsims" - simulate the politics
of one specific nation throughout rounds set in differing time periods.
Players on such games play as fictional politicians and participate in debates, media activity,
and simulated elections.
Realism is highly stressed with key topics of the day often debated on and spun by the
players and admins.
In other web based games, players register, apply for an open nation, an avatar, and then
send news article actions which help shape their policies, and aspects such as realism
and cooperation are highly promoted.
Still some other web based games, such as those on eRegime, focus more on taking existing
game concepts and expanding them.
Patton's 1990 Balance of Power game famously predicted the end of all civilization.
Related games
Other construction and management simulations require government management.
For example, city-building games such as the SimCity series of games developed and 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 2013 was in its fifth 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 a "revolution!"
button.
Other strategy games focus on government management to varying degrees.
For instance, in the Hearts of Iron games the civilian population is only a factor with
partisans and manpower, whereas in Victoria a player must not only 'hobnob' and conquer,
but implement the Second Industrial Revolution while warding off real political revolutions
such as the upheavals of 1848 and communist revolt.
Another politically connected game is Tropico.
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 is even scarier."
The 2008 game Spore features a 'Civilization stage', where the player controls the vehicles,
and interact with other cities until s/he has control of all 12 cities.
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, the simulation of a military officer's career, and hospital responses to emergency
situations.
iCivics also features games such as Branches of Power, Executive Control, etc...
List of government simulation games
References