White House Race
Every once in a while, I've considered and discussed the possibilities of creating a web-based version of my infamous White House Race series of computer games. (For those of you not in the know, they're mock political simulations about the presidential race in a fictional country. You are paired with a "celebrity" vice president like Ozzy Osbourne or Dark Helmet, then answer a long series of debate questions such as "People are asking for higher taxes. What do you do?" Yes, it's very silly.) I don't think the original format would work in a web environment, so I've been trying to think of alternatives that would be more friendly to an online game, yet still captures the spirit of White House Race.
I'm writing this post because I think I have a pretty good idea, and I wanted to do a brain dump before other circumstances (such as grad school) led me to forget about it. So, what do I have in mind? Turn-based strategy. You create a party, pick a president and vice president and maybe one or two other campaign people, deploy them on the map of the United States, and try to win over enough states and electoral votes for the presidency. Every turn, you move your candidates to an adjacent state. If the state is uncontrolled, your party takes it over, but if another party has control over it, you have to engage in a mini-debate against that party, like the old-school WHR games. The winner of the debate takes control of the state. The game goes on for 20 or so rounds, and at the end, each party's electoral votes are counted and the party with the most votes wins!
Getting more into specifics, I'd really like to include one of my favorite features from the last White House Race game, which was that each candidate had beliefs on several political spectra, including how much control the government should have and how important economic equality is. Each answer to each question was also ranked on these same spectra, meaning that candidates would choose answers that best fit their beliefs. I'd like to apply these beliefs to states as well, so that if you go to a debate in Alaska or Texas and start pontificating about how the government should have a lot of control, you're not going to win the debate. Similarly, don't go to Michigan and extol the virtues of corporate greed. I think it'd add some strategy to the game - you won't be able to win all the states with two liberal candidates, since more moderate candidates will destroy you in conservative states. The downside of this is that you cannot answer debates yourself since the candidates will debate automatically, but I'm thinking that you can "train" your candidates for debates by temporarily adjusting their beliefs. That way, you have some control over how your candidates go about debates, which might be the deciding factor in whether you win or lose. A "confusion" attribute that causes candidates to pick random answers would be fun too.
My previous plan for the White House Race series included lots of interactivity between candidates, such as attack ads and "challenges" from one candidate to another, and I'd like to include elements like that too. I think random news items would help too - for instance, an "economic crisis" event could adjust states' beliefs on the economy. I'm also considering if, like any good strategy game, there should be a way to obtain new units, perhaps by spending money earned from fundraisers in the states you control. Finally, I'd like to differentiate the president and vice president from your general campaign people, just so it makes a difference who you actually choose as president.
It'd be really nice if I could get this done by the actual US election, but with about a month to go, it's not happening. That's not ruling me out from doing something with this in the future, though.
Any thoughts?
I'm writing this post because I think I have a pretty good idea, and I wanted to do a brain dump before other circumstances (such as grad school) led me to forget about it. So, what do I have in mind? Turn-based strategy. You create a party, pick a president and vice president and maybe one or two other campaign people, deploy them on the map of the United States, and try to win over enough states and electoral votes for the presidency. Every turn, you move your candidates to an adjacent state. If the state is uncontrolled, your party takes it over, but if another party has control over it, you have to engage in a mini-debate against that party, like the old-school WHR games. The winner of the debate takes control of the state. The game goes on for 20 or so rounds, and at the end, each party's electoral votes are counted and the party with the most votes wins!
Getting more into specifics, I'd really like to include one of my favorite features from the last White House Race game, which was that each candidate had beliefs on several political spectra, including how much control the government should have and how important economic equality is. Each answer to each question was also ranked on these same spectra, meaning that candidates would choose answers that best fit their beliefs. I'd like to apply these beliefs to states as well, so that if you go to a debate in Alaska or Texas and start pontificating about how the government should have a lot of control, you're not going to win the debate. Similarly, don't go to Michigan and extol the virtues of corporate greed. I think it'd add some strategy to the game - you won't be able to win all the states with two liberal candidates, since more moderate candidates will destroy you in conservative states. The downside of this is that you cannot answer debates yourself since the candidates will debate automatically, but I'm thinking that you can "train" your candidates for debates by temporarily adjusting their beliefs. That way, you have some control over how your candidates go about debates, which might be the deciding factor in whether you win or lose. A "confusion" attribute that causes candidates to pick random answers would be fun too.
My previous plan for the White House Race series included lots of interactivity between candidates, such as attack ads and "challenges" from one candidate to another, and I'd like to include elements like that too. I think random news items would help too - for instance, an "economic crisis" event could adjust states' beliefs on the economy. I'm also considering if, like any good strategy game, there should be a way to obtain new units, perhaps by spending money earned from fundraisers in the states you control. Finally, I'd like to differentiate the president and vice president from your general campaign people, just so it makes a difference who you actually choose as president.
It'd be really nice if I could get this done by the actual US election, but with about a month to go, it's not happening. That's not ruling me out from doing something with this in the future, though.
Any thoughts?