From Slate: http://slate.msn.com/id/2092688/
SimCandidateVideo games simulate sports, business, and war. Why not politics?By Steven JohnsonPosted Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2003, at 10:58 AM PT
If you browse through the titles and descriptions of the "simulation" games at any software store, you might think you were looking at the syllabus of a sociology lecture. Beyond the ever-popular SimCity franchise are games such as Tropico that let you run a virtual banana republic, or ones like Civilization and Age of Empires that reconstruct historical epochs with astonishing levels of detail. A recent game called Republic allows players to simulate the overthrow of an authoritarian Eastern bloc regime: You can build an insurgent military force, or you can win converts through old-fashioned ideological persuasion. Now, the Tate Gallery in London has funded an ambitious project to simulate an alternate political system using the conventions of multiplayer online gaming.
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The Doonesbury Election Game lets you manage a 1996 presidential campaign. Maybe something more up-to-date might be more popular, though.
This has possibilities far beyond gaming. All candidates are more or less formulated by a large support group that displays characteristics which they think have possibilities for election. Those characteristics which the candidate possesses which may appear negative are suppressed.Why not run a simulated candidate in a real election. The candidate will never have physical disabilities or a past which migh be revealed to the embarrassment of the sponsors. And the candidate will never age. Hollywood can produce realistic dinosaurs, why not political candidates?
This is a great idea! I would love to play it. Would you then play on your own or a multi-player game over the Internet?
A SimCandidacy would be a very appealing game.
For it to be realistic, it would have to revolve around the money element: e.g. does a candidate try to buy votes directly through electoral fraud, or just indirectly through the media? And for fundraising: is a candidate better off appealing to special interests for easy dollars thus losing credibility, or does he or she take the high road and appeal directly to the populace who may contribute less?
The game would also need the capacity to build and destroy coalitions around policy preferences, demagoguery and PR deception.
Lastly, a realistic version would allow players to sling mud effectively, circulate unsubstantiated rumors, and spin similar attacks back on opposing candidates.
This is an excellent example of computer games combining fun with education. Any of these "real-life" simulation games have great potential (run a campaign, a company, a hospital, a city, etc.). Games can even be educational just by using a real map.