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Out of many games I’ve tried the ones that I enjoyed and stuck with me today are those with an essence of education. Most of them are simulations where the player becomes a figure such as a mayor who builds roads, zoning area, facilities and sets up the foundation to the city (Simcity 4). Another game lets you become an entrepreneur who builds countless rides and attractions at an amusement park all the while avoiding bankruptcy (Rollercoaster Tycoon 3).
Simcity and RCT3 were released a decade ago. 2 years ago a game released its third of a series of becoming the president of the desired country out of a few given countries with each having their own political issues. Democracy 3 brings the congress to your table and gives you the chance to run your country
At first it is rather difficult to take in all the information, comprehend it and decide what to do. I myself was overwhelmed and afraid to take the first step. But that’s the beauty of a simulation. Your choices and mistakes happen in fantasy without having an impact on the real world. Therefore the game encourages you to make mistakes and learn from them.
The way the game works is quite simple. There are 20 categories of people such as; Environmentalist, parent, farmer, poor, religious, etc, and can be in more than one category. The player’s job as a newly elected president is to attempt to keep everyone happy, avoid bankruptcy and become reelected at the end of the term.
At the start of the game you receive political capital which you can spend to change policies. As you can only do so much in a short amount of time the political capital replenishes to a certain amount after your turn ends. Each turn is about a quarter a year. The various amounts of policies and their effects make the game complex. There are taxes you can adjust; income tax, petrol tax, mansion tax. There are subsidies; rail and bus, agriculture,.
Problems like CO2 and traffic you cannot solve directly however increasing petrol tax and applying tax based on the carbon emissions released by factories you can be able to control it. Increasing the police force may reduce the crime rate but can also intimidate your people. As president of the United States I decreased America’s ridiculously high spending on military which lead to the patriots rioting. It was solved by decreasing illegal immigrants by applying strict borders leading into the US. That didn’t do well however for the ethnic minorities. Though GDP was very stable and so was education and technology.
One thumb rule is that you can’t keep everyone happy with the exception of the difficulty level on easy. And as a president you must sometimes make hard choices.