The Political Machine 2008

Introduction

The Political Machine is a PC strategy game in which players run for President. Players can choose an existing candidate or can design their own from scratch, then choose a map/scenario to campaign in. From there, players must tackle the issues and battle against their ideological opponent for victory on election day.

Playing the game

Each scenario divides out the map into states (or provinces depending on the scenario). Each state is worth a certain number of electoral votes in which the player must win a majority of them on election day to win the game.

A player has two major political resources, capital and money. What they do with these two resources depends on the strategy employed. Each candidate has a number of traits that provide them with strengths and weaknesses such as charisma, stamina, integrity, intelligence, and position on the issues.

As the player travels the country, they can raise money, build campaign head quarters, do policy research, make speeches, take out advertisements, or hire political consultants with various abilities.

Meanwhile, your opponent will be doing the same thing. As the game progresses, the map will begin to turn either red or blue depending on who is winning (or purple of it's a tossup).

Spend too much time raising money and you won't have built up an effective grassroots movement. Spend too much time giving speeches or building political capital with local politicians and you won't have the money to take out advertisements, or conduct policy research that gives you access to better consultants and more effective campaign techniques.

Source: The Game Website.