Political Games Forever

Then look no further.

I have just finished playing President Forever 2008 + Primaries Multiplayer. It changes everything.

Playing a game against computer players in P4E8 is fun, but it isn’t exactly the most challenging experience anymore for me. It was like trying to rack up yet another really high high-score on Civilization II … “What, only 300% this time? Let’s try for 350% …”

We have recently completed 2-human-player multiplayer games for President Forever 2008 + Primaries Multiplayer (soon to be unlimited human players), and now everything has changed. Just adding 1 human opponent makes everything much more difficult. Your opponents are no longer predictable. Thought you could bank on dominating New Hampshire? Think again, as your human opponent maneuvers to slip in and steal it from you. You strain to determine your opponents’ strategies, trying to figure out what they’re focusing on and what they’re ignoring. Endorsements suddenly become an exercise in nerve-calming. “Okay, I’m almost there … almost have the endorsement … What? They plowed 5 PIPs at the last moment! Ugh!” And so on.

Probably the nicest new feature that comes in handy for multiplayer is the timing feature. Now the game host can decide how long each turn lasts. This makes for adrenalin-pounding turns, as you frenetically attempt to make those ads, get a good read on the latest polls and momentum numbers, create strategic footsoldiers, get in barnstorming, AND … What?! Next turn. Much more like the heat of a real campaign, where your decisions almost always are in the context of limited time.

Next up is seeing what it’s like playing with more than 2 human players … Will report back soon.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 18th, 2007 at 8:02 pm and is filed under Game Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.