Political Machine 2008: Election concluded, uninstall commencing!

RELATED SECTIONS : Game Diaries

The campaign is over and I'm happy to announce that Barack Obama is the next President of the United States of Tom's Game of Political Machine. It wasn't even close. Obama won every single state that was closely contested. Ohio was the only squeaker, going to Obama by a single point. Considering Obama spent the entirety of September and October campaigning in Texas to the neglect of every other state, this is a truly pathetic showing by John McCain.

The final tally in the Electoral College was 348 votes for Obama and 190 votes for McCain. McCain outspent me by a ratio of 3 to 2. He played through most of the game unhindered by a negative income (during the final week, his income was $390,000, with his weekly costs running at $772,000). He had more political capital and more political clout (most of which he didn't spend, finishing the election with only a single endorsement). McCain didn't even come close to winning despite these massive advantages, and despite being set to one of the harder difficulty levels.

It's a shame that the AI is apparently incapable of playing this game. It remains a fascinating perspective on the political process, but it's also hopelessly brain-dead, nearly unmanageable during the later stages of the game, and sadly broken. I will now uninstall it and devote space on my hard drive to something that works.

After the jump you can see the breakdown of how each state voted, along with which issues were of primary importance to which states.

Below are all the states listed alphabetically, along with the final issue of primary importance for that state. Note, however, that these issues aren't saved or loaded correctly. For instance, withdrawing from Iraq is listed as the primary issue in Texas, which was absolutely not the case after Obama's intense two-month Texas campaign. I call either shenanigans or just sloppy data management. It doesn't help that the interface is broken and you have to actually exit Political Machine before you can load a saved game.

Also listed are the percentage of votes for Obama, followed by the percentage of votes for McCain. Bolded states were won by Obama.

Alabama	Improving the economy	45	54
Alaska	The environment	47	52
Arizona	Tax cuts	47	52
Arkansas	Withdrawing from Iraq	52	47
California	Withdrawing from Iraq	57	42
Colorado	Withdrawing from Iraq	35	64
Connecticut	High gas prices	48	51
Delaware	Universal health care	46	53
Florida	Social Security	52	47
Georgia	High gas prices	47	52
Hawaii	The environment	47	52
Idaho	Withdrawing from Iraq	23	76
Illinois	Withdrawing from Iraq	64	35
Indiana	Improving the economy	47	52
Iowa	Expanding ethanol production	46	53
Kansas	Improving the economy	25	74
Kentucky	Withdrawing from Iraq	52	47
Lousiana	Katrina relief	53	46
Maine	Withdrawing from Iraq	47	52
Maryland	Universal health care	58	41
Massachusetts	High gas prices	59	40
Michigan	More jobs	53	46
Minnesota	Withdrawing from Iraq	38	61
Mississippi	Withdrawing from Iraq	42	57
Missouri	Withdrawing from Iraq	49	50
Montana	Improving the economy	27	72
Nebraska	Farm subsidies	35	64
Nevada	Withdrawing from Iraq	47	52
New Hampshire	Withdrawing from Iraq	45	54
New Jersey	Universal health care	55	44
New Mexico	Illegal immigration	41	58
New York	Withdrawing from Iraq	60	39
North Carolina	High gas prices	51	48
North Dakota	High gas prices	27	72
Ohio	High gas prices	50	49
Oklahoma	High gas prices	38	61
Oregon	Withdrawing from Iraq	52	47
Pennsylvania	Outsourcing of jobs	54	45
Rhode Island	Universal health care	38	61
South Carolina	Withdrawing from Iraq	40	59
South Dakota	Improving the economy	31	68
Tennessee	Withdrawing from Iraq	50	49
Texas	Withdrawing from Iraq	56	43
Utah	Withdrawing from Iraq	20	79
Vermont	Withdrawing from Iraq	43	56
Virginia	High gas prices	49	50
Washington	Addresing climate change	52	47
West Virginia	Withdrawing from Iraq	57	42
Wisconsin	Withdrawing from Iraq	66	33
Wyoming	High gas prices	27	72

By Tom Chick

4:36 PM ON 07/14/08
Send to a Friend
Permalink
(5) Comments

Latest by copeknight:

Heh, I'm originally from Minnesota.

... more »

Fidgit continues below:

Comments

By BobJustBob at 8:54 PM ON 07/14/08

Nice likeness. It really does resemble you.

By Jeff3F at 10:14 PM ON 07/14/08

Thank God--I was sick to death of skipping past these serial posts on this election game happy crappy. Just hope the next game you post to death more interesting.
:)

By somedude at 11:22 AM ON 07/15/08

Obama looks rather menacing in that screenshot. Did they just elect a Sith Lord?

By Benjamin Barker at 1:02 PM ON 07/15/08

I say thanks for this analysis. I did skip one or two posts, but your conclusions here might have saved me from buying this one in a moment of boredom. I can't stand it when a complex strategy game is broken like this, it's unplayable to me, and normal reviews never seem to figure out such things so clearly if at all (I know I read one or two for this and didn't see it). I'm not surprised though because as soon as I got GalCiv2 I noticed something badly misdesigned about the economy and never played it again. (I'll refrain from trying to explain it here, but it's in the official forums-- and not any of the glowing reviews!)

By copeknight at 6:43 PM ON 07/15/08

Heh, I'm originally from Minnesota. Although the political culture in the state has shifted a lot in the past decade (hi, ex-governor Jesse!), 61% of Minnesotans voting for any Republican candidate for anything would have to be one of the signs of the apocalypse.