# Political Sims?



## chilango (Feb 19, 2013)

...inspired by a comment on the Sim City thread.

Any games out there that focus on political simulation? Y'know building a party, winning elections etcetera.?


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## The39thStep (Feb 19, 2013)

There was Republic-The Revolution set in Russia but when I played it years ago it was slow and a bit boring really. Probably a bit outdated now.


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## Epona (Feb 19, 2013)

The39thStep said:


> There was Republic-The Revolution set in Russia but when I played it years ago it was slow and a bit boring really. Probably a bit outdated now.


 
For me, that came in the category of 'so bad, it's good' - I found it very entertaining for short bursts but don't think I could manage to get through an entire game of it.


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## Citizen66 (Feb 19, 2013)

For pure party politics there's Democracy 2. Haven't played it myself so can't say whether crap/not crap it just came onto my radar through endlessly reading about what simulators are out there.

Trailer:



Review:



Keep meaning to try it out myself although I suspect it has limited replayability.


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## tommers (Feb 19, 2013)

republia times http://pope.jeffsys.net/play.php?g=trt

Edit a paper to present the party in a good light (or your family get killed.)

Quite fun for a bit.


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## Citizen66 (Feb 19, 2013)

Just happened upon this rather shit looking The Sims-esque offering:


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## Citizen66 (Feb 19, 2013)

All the other ones out there are basically war games with varying amount of politics involved. East vs West which is being released this year looks interesting if you're into Paradox strategy type stuff. Not party politics though.


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## chilango (Feb 19, 2013)

Anyone tried this one?

http://270soft.com/commonwealth-election-games/uk-election-game/


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## Citizen66 (Feb 19, 2013)

Where did you find that? 

Doesn't even have an entry on metacritic. Has a demo on that page.


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## chilango (Feb 20, 2013)

Citizen66 said:


> Where did you find that?
> 
> Doesn't even have an entry on metacritic. Has a demo on that page.



Tried the demo. Didn't seem very good after a quick play...


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## Citizen66 (Feb 20, 2013)

Yeah I tried the demo. Was quite uninspiring but funny that you can play as Nick Griffin if you get the paid version.


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## mk12 (Feb 22, 2013)

There are some online, browser based games like Patricracy but there's hardly any users. Democracy 2 is OK but it gets a bit samey.

The Tropico series is pretty good - run a caribbean island, hold elections, appoint your cabinet etc.


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## mk12 (Feb 22, 2013)

Citizen66 said:


> For pure party politics there's Democracy 2. Haven't played it myself so can't say whether crap/not crap it just came onto my radar through endlessly reading about what simulators are out there.
> 
> Trailer:
> 
> ...




It has _very_ limited replayability. Once you learn how to "win" (social democracy, deficit spending) that's it.


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## chilango (Feb 22, 2013)

Might give Tropico a go...


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## Citizen66 (Feb 22, 2013)

Tropico is more nation builder than political sim. You're better off playing a Paradox title than that.


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## chilango (Feb 22, 2013)

I've DLed the demos for Tropico 4, Crusader Kings2 and Europa Universalis3. Will give them all a play. I do like the idea of the Paradox ones they look really good, the question is whether I can spare the time required!


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## Citizen66 (Feb 22, 2013)

Well Tropico isn't a particularly quick game. A lot less steep learning curve though if that's what you mean.


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## Epona (Feb 22, 2013)

I like the Tropico series, but as C66 points out, it's more of a 'city/empire management' game, there's not much political simulation involved.

It is still worth giving it a whirl if you like the city/empire management genre though!  Not quite up there with the old classics of the genre IMO, but still a nice timewaster.


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## chilango (Feb 23, 2013)

I had little play with Tropico last night. It was okay, but as pointed out above, not really what I'm looking for,


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## Epona (Feb 23, 2013)

I've thought long and hard about this since the thread was started, and although I might have partially dissed it earlier in this thread, I actually think Republic: The Revolution is probably the only game that could be called a political sim that I'd give more than a few minutes to. (Although back in the day, there was a rather good one on the Spectrum called Yes Prime Minister, obviously based on the TV show Yes Minister).

It's a rather threadbare genre tbh!


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## Citizen66 (Feb 23, 2013)

Yeah because the paradox ones are more (alternate) history simulators with a bit of politics in there than actual political sims too.


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## Epona (Feb 23, 2013)

Citizen66 said:


> Yeah because the paradox ones are more (alternate) history simulators with a bit of politics in there than actual political sims too.


 
Not that there's anything wrong with that, everyone knows that history buffs like a good 'what if'.


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## Stigmata (Feb 23, 2013)

Crusader Kings is a very political game, but it's medieval politics which might not be what the OP is after!


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## chilango (Feb 23, 2013)

Stigmata said:


> Crusader Kings is a very political game, but it's medieval politics which might not be what the OP is after!



The little I played it I liked, a lot. But yeah, not what I was looking for in this thread.

Something like that but modern day and focused on party politics etc.


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## Citizen66 (Feb 23, 2013)

Yeah I was going to say CK2 is probably the most political out of them, but I think the op was after a party/parliamentary sim.


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## Stigmata (Feb 23, 2013)

For some reason economic simulations are a lot more popular than political ones


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## Citizen66 (Feb 23, 2013)

How do we know though, if nobody has made any?


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## elbows (Feb 23, 2013)

The classic, Dictator for the ZX Spectrum!


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## mk12 (Feb 23, 2013)

Liberal Crime Squad is pretty fun.

I have long searched for just the game Chilango is looking for, but there isn't one! I guess because it would only appeal to small handful of people.


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## ska invita (Oct 9, 2013)

Kimble Justice is my favourite youtuber -im not even that into games (i dont play them, but like them from a distance) - and he's just done a mini three part review series on cold war games - a great watch as ever - really recommend his videos:

Balance of Power


Floor 13


Papers, Please

^^^which looks like its really worth playing, and is from this year


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## Mungy (Oct 11, 2013)

papers please is depressing. soul destroying. it's probably a good game if you can get past the soul destroying, or you already have no soul.


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## tommers (Oct 11, 2013)

Mungy said:


> papers please is depressing. soul destroying. it's probably a good game if you can get past the soul destroying, or you already have no soul.



I've heard lots of people saying it's good.  Definitely on the list.


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## Mungy (Oct 11, 2013)

tommers said:


> I've heard lots of people saying it's good.  Definitely on the list.


it is depressing when your kids need medication food and heating and the rent needs paying and you fucked up your job. i can see the appeal of the game, but it is depressing. too much like real life for me.

eta: it could be called atos sim, or dwp sim, or hardworking families


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## Epona (Oct 11, 2013)

Papers Please! is not a political sim - it's a 'civil servant working in a bureaucratic nightmare whilst trying to earn a wage' sim.


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## Jon-of-arc (Oct 11, 2013)

Epona said:


> Papers Please! is not a political sim - it's a 'civil servant working in a bureaucratic nightmare whilst trying to earn a wage' sim.



I can get close enough to that in my day to day.  Who the fuck would play that for escapism?


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## Epona (Oct 11, 2013)

Jon-of-arc said:


> I can get close enough to that in my day to day.  Who the fuck would play that for escapism?



Yeah exactly


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## classicdish (Oct 11, 2013)

Democracy 3 is coming out soon. Here's some early "hand's on" articles from Rock Paper Shotgun: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/tag/democracy-3/

You can buy the beta version here: http://www.positech.co.uk/democracy3/


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## Silva (Oct 12, 2013)

I used to play Shadow President a lot, although it's more of a US foreign policy sandbox than an actual political sim.


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## Moronik (Oct 14, 2013)

Epona said:


> Papers Please! is not a political sim - it's a 'civil servant working in a bureaucratic nightmare whilst trying to earn a wage' sim.



I really like the idea of this game, it sounds excellent. 
The only problem is that it is too similer to my real job, so I dont know if it would be particularly fun.


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## Citizen66 (Oct 14, 2013)

There's 40% off Papers Please for the next 20-odd hours on Steam. Snap it up for a whopping £4.19.


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## tommers (Oct 14, 2013)

I thought the game looked familiar, the guy also did Republia Times.. which is free..

http://thebaneofqueequeg.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/indie-review-molyjam.html

http://pope.jeffsys.net/

Edit:  Ah, turns out I've already linked to that.


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## Mungy (Oct 15, 2013)

classicdish said:


> Democracy 3 is coming out soon. Here's some early "hand's on" articles from Rock Paper Shotgun: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/tag/democracy-3/
> 
> You can buy the beta version here: http://www.positech.co.uk/democracy3/


bought it and just lost 3 hours. on the plus side i have eradicated crime, poverty, homelessness, and established a one party state. this was on easy setting, mind


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## Mungy (Oct 15, 2013)

make that 4 hours


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## Silva (Oct 16, 2013)

Oh, there's also SimHealth, which is about the exciting world of US healthcare reform. In 1992.


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## snadge (Oct 16, 2013)

Eve Online is all about politics, the meta game is crazy.

But it isn't a 'sim' you have to deal with real people with real consequences.


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## BigTom (Oct 19, 2013)

Just stumbled across this on steam - currently on sale for 74p: The Political Machine 2012 US presidential race political sim.


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