Feature You'd Most Like to See

[Kauai 0]

For the love of god. A hot key for creating foot soldiers. When you have 35-42 stamina points, it's a pain to click every state and create foot soldiers every single turn. If we could just click on the state and press the "F" key ...

Or better yet, if you could just press a certain key, hold it down and then click a state.

[VoteGOP 490]

Or better yet, if you could just press a certain key, hold it down and then click a state.

I thought you'd been banned

And that is a good idea.

[Kauai 0]

I thought you'd been banned

And that is a good idea.

Nope.

[VoteGOP 490]

Nope.

WTF did you say?

[Kauai 0]

I was making a post ranting about Prop eight.

[VoteGOP 490]

Haven't you learned by now theoryspark really frowns upon people expressing their views.

[Kauai 0]

Haven't you learned by now theoryspark really frowns upon people expressing their views.

Yeh. We're like the underground rebels of theoryspark.

It would be best to take stuff like that somewhere else, but I don't have many political forums. D:

[NYCDEMS 1]

What about a recount feature. If at the end of counting votes for a state, on election night, and the difference is less than 0.5% there should be a recount button.

[CCA 4]

An editor for the PM Forever scenarios...

[Bishar 1]

Instead of electoral votes, there should be a option for popular vote like for Gov. or Mayoral races.

[mahaadoxyz 9]

What I want is a runoff feature. I'm working on a world scenario, and it has five or six viable parties (depending on whether you count the Greens.) Problem is, it's almost impossible for any one of them to get an absolute majority of EVs; when no one does so, the game seems either to randomly choose the winner or choose the winner on the basic of congressional majorities. Either way, it's no fun just to either win or lose by fiat. There should be an option, when creating a scenario, to set the win-determining mechanism if no one gets a majority: either some sort of convention-style multiple ballot process, or the current U.S.-based system, or a runoff, in which all but the top two EV-getters (or maybe even top two vote-getters) are eliminated and the top two keep playing for another whatever, time to be determined by the scenario creator. In my opinion, this option would make multi-party scenarios much more workable.

Also, there should be a way to turn off abbreviations. With them, Europe just gets way too visually crowded.

And I love that the quote about expression of views being frowned upon comes from the guy whose handle is "VoteGOP"!

[TruthisthatAAOT 11]

6. Have commentary, even if it's in text, on Election Night that discusses the performance of the candidates. Something like "McCain needs to win Iowa and New Mexico" or "Obama is doing better than expected in Ohio".

I really like this idea. You could even have a blogs feature where there are blogs in the game that you can follow on election nights. Then the blog updates could be what this poster suggested with updates as to how each candidate is doing.

[ElectricMonk 3]

I really like this idea. You could even have a blogs feature where there are blogs in the game that you can follow on election nights. Then the blog updates could be what this poster suggested with updates as to how each candidate is doing.

I like it, but the blog posts would be kinda boring since they'd either be super-short auto-generated ones… or require quite a lot of writing for all possibilities (though you could swap names in and out, to help).

Also, how about a "remaining paths to victory" type screen for the projected on last poll of the election losing candidate?

i.e. once McCain has lost PA, his options narrow. Conversely winning PA, sees his options expand. Have a little map flicking through the possibilities, magic holographic technology of CNN style.

[TruthisthatAAOT 11]

I like it, but the blog posts would be kinda boring since they'd either be super-short auto-generated ones… or require quite a lot of writing for all possibilities (though you could swap names in and out, to help).

Also, how about a "remaining paths to victory" type screen for the projected on last poll of the election losing candidate?

i.e. once McCain has lost PA, his options narrow. Conversely winning PA, sees his options expand. Have a little map flicking through the possibilities, magic holographic technology of CNN style.

I think the blogs sticking to short generated ones could work. I think more along the lines of updates you would see on Twitter would work better then full blog posts. Like the one poster said who I quoted, just things about if candidates are doing better then expected or so forth.

Here's another idea, what about multiple polling companies. For instance, each game, you could have the polling companies accuracy randomized. Some companies have a higher chance of being more accurate then others, but the player wouldn't know which ones are more accurate. Then when it comes to the general election, they could perhaps look back at the polls for the primaries and try and figure out which polls seem more accurate then others. Something like this might take a lot of time to add into the game though.

[ElectricMonk 3]

Here's another idea, what about multiple polling companies. For instance, each game, you could have the polling companies accuracy randomized. Some companies have a higher chance of being more accurate then others, but the player wouldn't know which ones are more accurate. Then when it comes to the general election, they could perhaps look back at the polls for the primaries and try and figure out which polls seem more accurate then others. Something like this might take a lot of time to add into the game though.

It would be nice to have something broadly similar along those lines.

[RFK/JFKfan 11]

I'd like to see Fox News and MSNBC in the game where each day they talk about the campaign and maybe interview politicians on Hardball and The O' Rielly Factor. Also, you should decide what you say at the debates.

[KingUffindell 0]

This is a really small thing, but I'd simply like to see the likelihood of a candidate accepting an offer decrease once they have declined it.

I have to discipline myself not to spam other candidates with offers every turn that have a 25% chance, so that maybe, one turn, they will accept it.

[Abe Lincoln 9]

What I want is a runoff feature. I'm working on a world scenario, and it has five or six viable parties (depending on whether you count the Greens.) Problem is, it's almost impossible for any one of them to get an absolute majority of EVs; when no one does so, the game seems either to randomly choose the winner or choose the winner on the basic of congressional majorities. Either way, it's no fun just to either win or lose by fiat. There should be an option, when creating a scenario, to set the win-determining mechanism if no one gets a majority: either some sort of convention-style multiple ballot process, or the current U.S.-based system, or a runoff, in which all but the top two EV-getters (or maybe even top two vote-getters) are eliminated and the top two keep playing for another whatever, time to be determined by the scenario creator. In my opinion, this option would make multi-party scenarios much more workable.

That is an awesome idea

[RFK/JFKfan 11]

Just before the Election Night starts, there should be detailed exit polls like you see in real life.

[pilight 252]

I'd like a percentage cutoff for interviewers and either a date range or a way to designate them as General Election only. There are many programs that had McCain and Obama on in the fall but never would have had a smaller party candidate on or had candidates on before the conventions. For example, Mike & Mike on ESPN2 had McCain and Obama on. I'd be tempted to add them as an interview in the scenario I'm working on, but there's too much chance that they'd end up talking to Duncan Hunter during Super Bowl week or some other such nonsense.

[arsenal 2]

I think that during the campaign you should be able to run focus groups and set the questions. You should be able to conduct registration drives of your sides voters. During the 2008 scenario you should be able to have the wall street crash and in 2004 the osama bin laden video. In 2004 you should have the terror warnings. You should be able to plan the convention

On the election day you should have exit poll information dribbling thorugh, that gives you some idea of how well you have done. I agree that some states should be too close to call.

After the election you should be able to request recounts and see a full exit poll

[graemp 9]

I think that it should be possible on Election Night to view the campaign goals of all parties so as to see how everyone faired.

[Treasurer 28]

For the British version, typical election night terms like "gain" or "hold" could be used, as in actual election broadcasts. However, the computer would need to know how the constituencies/wards stood according to the ridings file originally, rather than what appears at the beginning of the game, which can appear as a little random.

[RFK/JFKfan 11]

After all the votes are counted there should be an option to delay your concession until all the absentee/provisional ballots are counted.

[arsenal 2]

How about if certain states were next to impossible for one side to win. Republicans would never win in vermont and the rest of new england. democrats would be very unlikely to win texas, kansas, wyoming, utah, louisana, alabama, missipi, south carolina. It should be set so the computer does not focus on those states, and they do not become competitive