Feature You'd Most Like to See

[dwkulcsar 1]

I am sure it has been mentioned.

But a concern I have is with the veep process. My first run of the 2000 P4E scenario resulted in the AI George Bush choosing Alan Keyes as his VP and likewise a lot of other elections took place where Lyndon LaRouche became Clinton's VP when he was Bill's only opponent in the 1996 Primary.

What I am trying to get at, is I would like to see the AI choose from the VP's that are assigned to them. It helps for some realism.

[Anthony_270 948]

@dwkulcsar

Thanks for the feedback - it's noted.

[Abe Lincoln 9]

I would like to see the convention playable, were you like offer people VP spots, or PIPs in exchange for endorsement.

[matvail2002 803]

I would like to see these four things (that were mentionned earlier):

-The possibility of having the option of having an electoral system based on the popular vote.

-The possibility of having a runoff election if a majority is not possible.

-That any candidate who drop from the primairies could be an independant candidate at the general election.

-The possiblity to ask for a judicial recount (in PM4E or P4E) if the score is within a certain margin. Also, please have the PM4E scores in popular votes and not in pourcentages and maybe have the results in real time for the PM4E version.

[Anthony_270 948]

@Abe Lincoln

Thanks for the feedback, noted!

@Matvail2002

If PR happens, it will be when we do a PR system.

Runoff election ditto.

The rest is noted. Thanks!

[mz452 20]

Here is what I am looking for in future games:

-Instant Runoff Voting

This would be fairly easy to implement because you could just use party relations.

-Leadership Elections

Just an idea for a future game, but I know there are quite a few leadership election games out there so I think it would be very interesting if you guys made something to that effect.

-Individual Riding/Constituency Results

This should be very easy to include. I know that sometimes a riding will be very close, for example, lets say its 43% to 42%. I would like to see the actual results so I know exactly how close it was. Again, I don't think this would be difficult. Also, I think you should be allowed to do a certain number of recounts, certainly not in every riding, but maybe you can choose 10% of all of the ridings, so if it is Canada you can recount elections in 31 of the 308 ridings.

[Kauai 0]

Here is what I am looking for in future games:

-Instant Runoff Voting

This would be fairly easy to implement because you could just use party relations.

-Leadership Elections

Just an idea for a future game, but I know there are quite a few leadership election games out there so I think it would be very interesting if you guys made something to that effect.

-Individual Riding/Constituency Results

This should be very easy to include. I know that sometimes a riding will be very close, for example, lets say its 43% to 42%. I would like to see the actual results so I know exactly how close it was. Again, I don't think this would be difficult. Also, I think you should be allowed to do a certain number of recounts, certainly not in every riding, but maybe you can choose 10% of all of the ridings, so if it is Canada you can recount elections in 31 of the 308 ridings.

Good ideas, I'd definitely support them.

I think IRV should be based on platform similarity rather than relations though.

[Anthony_270 948]

@Matty1019

"Leadership Elections"

What do you mean by this?

Anthony Burgoyne

http://www.TheorySpark.com

Games that spark the political imagination!

[suviel 0]

Has anyone has success reaching the customer service people for this website / president forever game. I've sent SEVERAL emails and no one ever responds. I paid for this software only to not have my emails returned by the administrator.

[Anthony_270 948]

Hi uclamister,

Where are you sending e-mails? This is the contact page:

http://www.theoryspark.com/interact/contact.htm

It is possible that your e-mails aren't getting through. Please let me know the name or part of the e-mail address, and I can look it up (I recommend you don't post your entire e-mail address here due to spambots).

If you have just sent the e-mails within the last few days, please note that it can take up to several business days to respond due to e-mail volume.

Sincerely,

Anthony Burgoyne

http://www.TheorySpark.com

Games that spark the political imagination!

Has anyone has success reaching the customer service people for this website / president forever game. I've sent SEVERAL emails and no one ever responds. I paid for this software only to not have my emails returned by the administrator.

[Loler 0]

Proportional rep in the actual elections, not just the primaries! Also, a popular-vote election option would be useful (although I think with PR you could simulate it).

[matvail2002 803]

You can also simulate runoff election (as in France) with the Australian version of the game.

[arsenal 2]

Some Ideas:

Create campaign slogans

Turn opponents gaffes into new attack ads

Be able to view a state county by county. When you visit a state you can visit a certain number of counties.

Have issue opinion polls e.g. who do you trust to run the economy?

In the 2000 scenario there needs to be more big issues

Keep states white if they are too close too call

How about if you could create a swiftboat style front group to smear your opponent

Pushpolls, with a chance of backfire

Make the computer focus on the battleground states, to ensure real drama on election night which is sometimes lacking

How about when creating an add you could determine the features of the add e.g. fear, imagery, metaphor, humour. Target adds at group who you are not polling well with via focus groups

Pick demographic groups to focus you campaign on

Hire a campaign manager, you will give you advice on what to do. The better their advice the greater the cost.

On the election night you could scroll between different networks. They might call states at different times, and have different results.

[mahaadoxyz 9]

I agree with the (somewhat implicit) call for demographic breakdowns from the last post. For my tastes, the one real problem with these games is that each constituency's political leanings are determined simply by a couple of numbers inputted at the beginning. Those numbers are the result of demographic realities, which mean that while Arkansas, which Bush won by about 9.7% in 2004, was never really in play for Obama, Virginia, which went for Bush by 8.2%, ended up being out of play for McCain. On this simulator, Obama would have had equally good chances in both of those states, and that's just not realistic.

On the other hand, I'm perfectly well aware that trying to create any sort of convincing demographic voting simulation would be a bloody nightmare, so if it's ultimately impossible to do I can live with that.

[Anthony_270 948]

Hi mahaadoxyz,

This is an important point, but I'll also point out that Virginia and Arkansas would presumably have different issue centers [update: in the 2008 scenario, they are the same, in the 2008 Wonk Edition they are different], and the two candidates would have different issue positions. So, even though the states might start with similar percentages, the two states would probably not be equally easy to win over for a typical Democratic contender in 2008. The scenario designer can also customize state bonuses for different candidates.

The problem with most demographics (summarized by you as a "bloody nightmare" ) is that it's just not clear what sort of effect they have on a campaign in real life. We could simply make up cause and effect relationships that seem plausible, and perhaps that would be the route to take to add more seeming realism to the game - as obviously, demographic analyses along the lines of age, religion, sex, ethnicity, and so on, do play a huge part in how campaigns are fought. Typically, though, when you read analyses in the media, they are after the fact and ad hoc - i.e., they take whatever happened and put that into a story that seems plausible. You read similar sorts of things about why the stock market went up or down all the time - but try to get accurate predictions before they happen, and you'll see that there really isn't much of a consensus about what is sufficient to cause what.

Thanks,

Anthony Burgoyne

http://www.TheorySpark.com

Games that spark the political imagination!

I agree with the (somewhat implicit) call for demographic breakdowns from the last post. For my tastes, the one real problem with these games is that each constituency's political leanings are determined simply by a couple of numbers inputted at the beginning. Those numbers are the result of demographic realities, which mean that while Arkansas, which Bush won by about 9.7% in 2004, was never really in play for Obama, Virginia, which went for Bush by 8.2%, ended up being out of play for McCain. On this simulator, Obama would have had equally good chances in both of those states, and that's just not realistic.

On the other hand, I'm perfectly well aware that trying to create any sort of convincing demographic voting simulation would be a bloody nightmare, so if it's ultimately impossible to do I can live with that.

[Anthony_270 948]

@Arsenal,

Thanks for the ... ideas arsenal - a few notes:

A scenario designer can currently create a "push-poll" ad type, and customize it as they see fit, which is basically what push-polls are (ads). (We were going to have push-polls as an ad type in the default 2008 scenario, but dropped it to keep things more simple.)

"Swift-boat" style groups are currently abstracted as groups that run ads for or against candidates in the game under the name "PAC".

[gopprogressive 1,063]

I'd like to see a game that allows proportional representation, to save people the effort of having to do all the exhaustive ridings work.

[matvail2002 803]

Create slogans will be a good thing and maybe divide the map into more regions by state.

[dwkulcsar 1]

How about making recharching energy easier, not like 5% at a time, more like 30-40% recharge.

[Anthony_270 948]

Thanks guys for the ideas - noted.

[kenDC 0]

I'd like to see a game that allows proportional representation, to save people the effort of having to do all the exhaustive ridings work.

I'd especially like to be able to use PR in the Electoral College.

For another idea, if we can't have PR nation-wide, I'd like a direct popular vote option. This would allow us to have more realistic portrayals of elections for Governor or Senator.

[kenDC 0]

Pick demographic groups to focus you campaign on.

The challenge to one scenario idea I've had is that the primaries really involve a different demographic focus than the general. (The party is concerned with voter blocs like labor unions or fraternal associations instead of regional delegations.) So do I create a separate scenario that changes the regions into demos? Seems like it.

Demo groups would make the game even more complicated than it already is, though. I think much of this can be achieve through endorsers or crafting your regions and issue centers to accomodate them (i.e., through gerrymandering).

Just my thoughts.

[Patine 512]

I don't know if this has been brought up or not, but what about super delegates and the unique 'courting' of them? Could that be done somehow in the future?

[Anthony_270 948]

@KenDC,

Thanks for the feedback - PR (outside of the primaries PR already implemented) will probably happen if we do a country that actually uses PR.

[arsenal 2]

One issue i have is the transistion from primaries to general election. For example in the 2004 scenario, while the democratic primaries are going on bush takes a massive lead so that once the dems have a candidate in place he is massively ahead. He even is comptetieve in vermont.

Also once someone has secured the nomination everyone else should pull out