My Gamesblog column in this week's Technology section deals with the simmering genre of political games. Usually distributed via the internet or virally through emails, these typically short, sharp titles present real-world situations in interactive form, providing users with a unique means of engaging with contemporary issues. Some of them are pretty good fun, too.

As an accompaniment to the piece, I got together with serious games specialists Ian Bogost and Gonzalo Frasca to gather 10 of the most important and/or influential titles for you to check out. There's a real diversity here taking in hawkish shooters, cynical anti-corporate jokes and heart-rending charity sims.

Oct 26, 2006  Balance of Power 'A game that took geopolitics seriously,' says Frasca of Chris Crawford's 1985 strategy sim, originally released for the Apple Mac but later converted to the PC, Amiga and Atari. Rate and report any bugs or tell us your suggestions. EVERSIM release first trailer for its new PC simulation game RULERS OF NATIONS Geopolitical Simulator 2. Website: www.rulers-of-nations.com. EVERSIM participates in Eurosatory 2010 from 14 to 18 June in Paris, France. Website: www.eurosatory.com. Opening of Eversim corporate's new website.

Importantly, two strands seem to be developing: titles that seek to objectively inform players about a specific situation, and titles with a definite agenda. Most play with accepted videogame genres, using elements of stealth, FPS and strategy simulation. The simplest - thrown together in days by lone programmers using Flash or Java - go right back to arcade archetypes like Space Invaders and Whack-a-Mole - not just because these are the simplest to code, but also because they're familiar to a wider base of users. The message is more important than the medium...

Anyway, have a look through and give one or two a go...

Discover the industry standard for geopolitical simulation of today’s world!In Masters of the World, the third incarnation of Geopolitical Simulator, play as the head of state of one or more countries and expand your influence across the globe. Rulers of Nations is a geopolitical simulator of the current world. Players play heads of state or governments (presidents, kings, prime ministers. ) of the countries that they choose at the beginning of the game. They can take initiatives in several areas—economic, social, military, domestic and foreign policy, environment, culture, etc.

Balance of Power 'A game that took geopolitics seriously,' says Frasca of Chris Crawford's 1985 strategy sim, originally released for the Apple Mac but later converted to the PC, Amiga and Atari ST. Here, the player had to choose a superpower then guide the country through eight years of cold war conflict, attempting to avoid nuclear apocalypse. This and Theatre Europe were the spiritual predecessors of Introversion's recent Defcon. Availability: It looks like the game is now considered abandonware and several unofficial sites are offering it for download. It would be legally ambiguous to provide a link here, though...

A totally unique simulation engine The game engine, Geopolitical Simulator 3, includes over 600 data elements for each of the 175 playable countries and calculates their changes in real time throughout the game based on players’ actions. Some examples include popularity ratings, political relations, and economic exchanges between countries. BLOC is an MMO nation simulation game. Create and lead your own nation during the height of the Cold War. Rule as an oppressive dictatorship or benevolent democracy. Ally or conspire against hundreds of other nations, each lead by a player like you, in a sandbox political world driven by the players.

The McDonald's Game Created by Italian studio, Molleindustria, this famed satire on the burger business puts you in control of a familiar fast food chain, encouraging you to exhaust the environment, exploit workers and endanger customers in the pursuit of profit. One of the finest examples of an 'anti-advergame', which like an interactive version of Adbusters, uses the conventions of advergames against their corporate creators. Availability: you can play online hereSee also: Persuasive Games' Disaffected!, an amusing anti-advergame, based around the American copy store chain, Kinkos.

Vigilance 1.0 Developed by graphic designer and artist Martin Le Chevallier, Vigilance 1.0 is a CCTV operator sim in which the player views a bank of video feeds attempting to spot crimes in progress around an urban area. Apart from testing your reflexes it questions the effectiveness of our surveillance culture and also the complicity of CCTV viewers. Availability: PC and Mac versions of the game can be downloaded here.

Food Force This slickly produced game, made up of six disparate mini-challenges, was commissioned by the United Nation's World Food Programme to increase awareness of global hunger. Accompanied by an excellent educational website, it's one of the most-high profile attempts by a charitable organisation to reach a wider audience through videogames. Availability:PC and Mac versions can be downloaded here. See also: Christian Aid has a range of games on its Global Gang site. Also, Darfur is Dying is not strictly a charity game but was the winner in an MTVu competition to raise awareness about the Darfur crisis.

Antiwargame A stylised attempt to analyse the policies of post-9/11 America, from programmer Josh On and design agency Futurefarmers. Given control of the country after a terrorist attack players must decide on how to spend the budget, spreading it between military/business, social spending and foreign aid. More an interactive pie chart than a game, but makes its point nonetheless. Availability: Play online here.

Super Columbine Massacre RPG Hugely controversial exploration of the Columbine massacre in the form of an RPG. Creator Danny Ledonne set-out to create 'something that mattered' - a game that studied and even sought to explain the motives of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. It certainly succeeded in polarising opinion - while rightwing commentators were sickened, Columbine survivor Richard Castaldo spoke out in favour of the game. Availability: The PC-only title is no longer available from the official site, but you can follow a link to a P2P download site. See also:Waco Resurrection, a third-person shooter in which the player controls a resurrected David Koresh. 'Re-examines the clash of worldviews inherent in the 1993 conflict,' says developer, C-Level.

America's Army Originally developed by the MOVES Institute, this notorious tactical FPS was commissioned by the US army as a recruitment tool. It has been available as a free PC download for several years, and has since been converted to the PS2 and Xbox consoles. 'What Triumph of the Will did in terms of propaganda for the Third Reich, America's Army has done it from the US,' says Frasca. 'An ideological masterpiece, probably the most successful propaganda game ever.' Availability: The PC version can be downloaded from the official site. The Xbox and PS2 conversions, entitled America's Army: Rise of a Soldier, are available from the usual game retailers.

Tatha al-Hisar (Under Siege) 'The fact that the press usually mistakes this Palestinian Intifada game for a different game made by Hezbollah shows how little we know or care about Middle East politics,' argues Frasca. Developed by Syrian studio Afkar Media, a specialist in political games, this first-person shooter follows a Palestinian family through the second Intifada of 1999-2002, aiming to show the conflict from an Arab perspective. A vital cultural, political and military counterbalance to the likes of America's Army, Full Spectrum Warrior, et al. Availability: Under Siege is not currently available in its full retail form in the West. However, a demo of the game can be downloaded hereSee also:PeaceMaker, a turn-based strategy simulation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, was originally developed by students at Carnegie Mellon University who have now set up a company, ImpactGames, to distribute the title. It's due for release early next year. Also, Global Conflicts: Palestine by Serious Games Interactive puts the player in control of a young journalist covering the conflict from key hotspots. It's out in March 2007.

JFK Reloaded Interesting but perhaps insensitively handled attempt to examine the Kennedy assassination. Players took on the role of Lee Harvey Oswald and were tasked with re-enacting his attempt on the president's life. The aim, according to developer Traffic Management Limited, was to validate the lone gunman theory put forward by the Warren Commission. 'A flawed business model destroyed a very interesting approach to documentary games,' comments Frasca. 'Still, it was worth trying'. Availability: Difficult to get hold of now as the official website is no longer selling the game (a fact which has attracted its own conspiracy theories - especially after it was criticised by Edward Kennedy). However, feed 'JFK Reloaded download' into google and you'll find sites offering both the demo and full version of the game. See also:KumaWar, a series of downloadable FPS missions based around key current conflicts - from an American perspective.

Oil God This is the latest project from leading political game specialist Persuasive Games, and forms part of the company's Arcade Wire series of news games. Your role is to take control of an oil-producing regime and then double the consumer prices of your product by engineering wars and natural disasters. It's an attempt to examine the links between oil prices and geopolitics and couldn't really come at a better time. Availability: Can be played online here. See also: Persuasive Games' Airport Security satire. Also, a recently released Iranian Counter Strike mod allows players to sink a tanker and block the Strait of Hormuz, thereby severing one of the world's key oil routes (more info here).

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 (involving the formation and execution of foreign policy), the creation of domestic political policies, or the simulation of political campaigns.^[1] They differ from the genre of classical wargames due to their discouragement or abstraction of military or action elements.

Background[edit]

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^[2] 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.^[3] National politics has remained a vital area of board gaming, with products such as the 1986 board game Die Macher featuring elections in Germany,^[4] and Wreck the Nation which satirizes the politics of the United States under the Bush administration.^[5]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 continued to be a popular email game into the 2000s.^[6]

Computer gaming[edit]

As computers became more sophisticated, games in this genre moved beyond e-mail to more complex simulations. For most users in Europe, the first well known politics game was Dictator [ru], released in 1983 by DK'Tronics and running on Sinclair's ZX Spectrum. 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.^[7][8] 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'sCrisis in the Kremlin and virtually unknown Hidden Agenda.

Conflict simulated a hypothetical situation in 1997 in which the player assumes the role of the Israeli Prime Minister and is obligated to employ various diplomatic and covert directives to defeat its rival nations. Surrounded by hostile nations, the player is restrained by a very limited military force and thereby encouraged to employ peaceful means to remain in power until he acquired more advanced weapons systems and power.^[9]

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.^[10]

In Hidden Agenda the user takes the role of the president of Chimerica, a post-revolutionary Central American country, trying to juggle international relations and the needs of the country's citizens.

Geopolitical Simulation Games For Kids

Virtonomics has a political simulation module where players can participate in election on three levels: city elections to become a mayor, government's election and president's election. Players-politicians can change taxes, custom dues, rent rates, transportation fees and regulate budget which affecting macroeconomics of the game world.^[11]

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.^[12] Subsequently, a commercial market developed for packaged games involving elections and campaigns.

The 1992 game Power Politics (and, before it, 1981's President Elect)^[13] focused on domestic United States political campaigns (but not the running of the country upon election). In 1996, this was adapted to the Doonesbury Election Game, designed by Randy Chase (who also did Power Politics) 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.^[14] A successor entitled Power Politics III was released in 2005.^[15] 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.^[16] 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.^[17] Candidates make promises before each election, and failure to follow through can result in lower support during the player's re-election campaign.^[18] Another is the Geopolitical Simulator series, produced by Eversim, boasting an array of choices for domestic policy and decisions based around current geopolitical issues.^[19] 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[edit]

Web-based games such as NationStates allow players to manage the day-to-day decisions of individual governments, and compete against rival nations.^[20][21] Less formally structured games are also played out in internet forums, where players manage governments and nations according to a set of agreed rules. These such forum-based simulation games - often known as 'Polsims' - simulate the politics of one specific nation throughout rounds set in differing time periods. Not all 'Polsims' take place on a national level. Some Polsims take place internationally, whereas others take place on the state or local levels. 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 (who are able to shape the game world in any way that they choose).^{[citation needed]}

In other web based games players register, apply for an open position (either a country or person inside a country such as a politician or army general) and carry out game activities either through newspapers or other activities or (more commonly) through gamemasters. Realism and cooperation tend to be highly promoted in such games.^{[citation needed]}

Related games[edit]

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.^[22]

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.^{[citation needed]}

Other strategy games focus on government management to varying degrees. For instance, in the Hearts of Iron games (set in World War II) 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 (or ushering in) real political revolutions such as the upheavals of 1848 and communist revolt.^{[citation needed]}

Geopolitical Strategy Games

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.'^[23]

Political Simulation Games

The 2008 game Spore features a 'Civilization' stage where the player controls vehicles and interacts with other cities until he or she has control of all 12 cities.

Training and education[edit]

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 (such as racial profiling), the simulation of a military officer's career, and hospital responses to emergency situations.^[24]iCivics also features games such as Branches of Power, Executive Control, etc...

Examples[edit]

• American Government Simulation (2018)
• Aveneia (2019)
• Balance of Power (1985)
• Bandit Kings of Ancient China (1989)
• Clans to Kingdoms (2019)
• Commander in Chief (2008)
• Conflict: Middle East Political Simulator (1990)
• Crisis in the Kremlin (1991)
• Crisis in the Kremlin (2017)
• Ostalgie: The Berlin Wall (2018)
• China: Mao's Legacy (2019)
• Crusader Kings (2004)
  • II (2012)
• CyberJudas (1996)
• Destiny of an Emperor (1989)
• Diplomacy (1954)
• Democracy (2005)
  • 2 (2007)
  • 3 (2013)
• eRepublik (2008)
• Floor 13 (1991)
• Hidden Agenda (1988)
• Jennifer Government: NationStates (2002)
• Lawgivers (2019)
• Masters of the World (2013)
• Particracy Classic (2005)
• President Elect (1981)
• President Forever 2008 + Primaries (2006)
• Republic: The Revolution (2003)
• Republic of Rome (1990)
• Romance of the Three Kingdoms (1985-2016)
• Rulers of Nations (2010)
• Shadow President (1993)
• SuperPower (2002)
  • SuperPower 2 (2004)
• Supreme Ruler series
  • 1936 (2014)
  • 2010 (2005)
  • 2020 (2008)
  • Cold War (2010)
  • Ultimate (2014)
  • The Great War (2017)
• The Political Machine (2004)
  • 2008 (2008)
  • 2012 (2012)
  • 2016 (2016)
• Twilight Struggle (2005)

References[edit]

1. ^Tom Leupold (2004-08-12). 'Spot On: Games get political'. GameSpot. Archived from the original on March 13, 2007. Retrieved 2007-01-07.
2. ^Time Magazine, February 3, 1936, 'Monopoly & Politics'
3. ^Allan B. Calhamer, Europa Express #10, 'The Roots of Diplomacy'
4. ^Erik Arneson, 'Playing Politics'
5. ^'BuzzFlash Reviews'. Buzzflash.com. Retrieved 2011-01-17.
6. ^Jim Burgess, 'Play-by-Mail Diplomacy vs Play-by-Email Diplomacy'
7. ^Chris Crawford (2003), Chris Crawford on Game Design, ISBN0-13-146099-4
8. ^Robert Mandel, The Journal of Conflict Resolution, Vol. 31, No. 2 (Jun., 1987), 'An Evaluation of the 'Balance of Power' Simulation', pp. 333-345,
9. ^Zzap! Issue 70, February 1991, p.48, 'Conflict: the Middle East Political Simulator'
10. ^Social Science Computer Review, Vol. 12, No. 3, 447-448 (1994), 'Software Reviews: Crisis in the Kremlin'
11. ^'Virtonomics: Play to become a virtuoso entrepreneur'. On Serious Games. 2015-08-20. Retrieved 2016-02-23.
12. ^Nadine S. Koch, 'Winning Is Not the Only Thing 'On the Campaign Trail': An Evaluation of a Micro-Computer Campaign Simulation' PS: Political Science and Politics, Vol. 24, No. 4 (Dec., 1991), pp. 694-698,
13. ^'President Elect.' Moby Games (retrieved on January 25th, 2009).
14. ^'IGN: The Doonesbury Election Game'. Pc.ign.com. 1995-12-30. Retrieved 2011-01-17.
15. ^'Power Politics III (PC)'. GameSpy. Archived from the original on February 5, 2008. Retrieved 2007-12-22.
16. ^Jason Silverman (2004-08-19). 'Campaign Game Mimics Real Life'. Wired. Archived from the original on September 18, 2008. Retrieved 2007-12-22.
17. ^Jess Nickelsen. 'Democracy (PC)'. NZGamer.com. Retrieved 2007-12-06.
18. ^'Positech Democracy'. Retrieved 2007-12-06.
19. ^Jackson, Stephen (2018-04-04). 'Best Political Games To Play On PC in 2018'. Gaming Respawn. Retrieved 2019-01-12.
20. ^'NationStates - Walkthrough, Tips, Review'. Jay is games. Retrieved 2019-01-12.
21. ^News, A. B. C. (2006-01-07). 'A Web Site of Virtual Nations'. ABC News. Retrieved 2019-01-12.
22. ^Tal Blevins (2003-01-14). 'Sim City 4 Review'. IGN. Retrieved 2007-12-22.
23. ^'Ad-Blurbs for A Mind Forever Voyaging'. MobyGames. Retrieved 2007-12-22.
24. ^Dave Carey (2007-01-06). 'Simulation games help prepare government, unite local businesses'. The Washington Examiner. Archived from the original on 2012-07-20. Retrieved 2011-03-18.

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