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Elwar
06-28-2010, 12:06 PM
I was thinking that it might be fun to have an online strategy game where you test out various political ideas and policies such as implementing Ron Paul's ideas or come up with your own or choose a candidate and put into place their promises and see how things go.

I was thinking of a dynamic, online game that gets better the more people play it. Like you might want to impliment an end to the drug war, so if nobody's ever done that yet, you go through the relevant laws and X them out, then save that piece as "End the Drug War". Then that piece gets saved for anyone else who wants to try it out. You'd have to have a database with amount of people convicted of that law and show the affect on crime and the economy as everyone is let out and people start living their lives without laws against drug use. Or you create a new law and put in the parameters for how it affects people, like adding a law against owning a dog. You'd add a pet subset for each household and populate a certain percentage of people with dogs and watch the resulting wave of people who break the law or give up their dogs, etc.

The key would be creating a population with human nature that guides them in their lives and factoring in how laws interfere or support them.

The game would be set up for either a generalized top down of clicking on a few buttons to implement something, maybe playing some canned scenarios, or getting down into the finest of details if you're really into it, even creating scenarios of your own.

BuddyRey
06-28-2010, 12:44 PM
Nationstates.net is sort of like this, but some of the questions do tend to be very biased toward state intervention.

Elwar
06-28-2010, 01:06 PM
Nationstates.net is sort of like this, but some of the questions do tend to be very biased toward state intervention.

Ya, a lot of the strategy games tend to require you to have an oppressive/controlling governing style to "win". Though Alpha Centauri, if you can survive the initial rogue attacks, you can have 0 taxes and become non-interventionist and win with rich and happy citizens.

Elwar
06-28-2010, 01:46 PM
Looked into that game. It looks more like an interactive game like http://www.erepublic.com where you make up your own country and deal with other people.

I was thinking more along the lines of a political simulation of the US. Where you play through it on your own time.

BuddyRey
06-28-2010, 03:35 PM
Hey, Elwar, this one looks like it might fit the bill.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyber_Nations

Mahkato
06-28-2010, 03:37 PM
I'm pretty sure a libertarian-focused strategy game wouldn't be all that fun.

Step 1) Mind your own business.
Step 2) Go to Step 1.

Standing Like A Rock
06-28-2010, 06:31 PM
Hey, Elwar, this one looks like it might fit the bill.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyber_Nations

NO!

Whatever life you have right now, this game kills it. I wasted a year of my life playing this game for nothing. As far "ruling a nation" the game is already solved -- there is one way that works best no matter what. Really the only reason people play it is for the international alliances and politics which is what takes up so much time. Plus, basically every single alliance taxes its member nations, forces them to go to war and requires them to participate in certain "programs." The way the game is set up, it is NOT what you are looking for.

Nate-ForLiberty
06-28-2010, 06:35 PM
I'm still waiting for my Sim City that is a step up from #4. All the designing detail, but with more of a political bent.

Or a game based off of...

"If you were America's first president, what would you have done."

Elwar
06-29-2010, 06:18 AM
Or a game based off of...

"If you were America's first president, what would you have done."

That's kinda what I was thinking...being able to choose a time in US history. Or even have a setup where you can choose the leanings of your House and Senate.

I think it'd actually be better as an analytical tool as it got more detailed.

AtomiC
06-29-2010, 03:36 PM
Elwar that's a great idea. I've seen plenty of totalitarian-esque games like mentioned, but never a libertarian type of simulator.