Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Chancellor Forever Released!

Friday, September 25th, 2009

Chancellor Forever 2009 has been released in time for the German election is Sep. 27th, 2009.

Try the demo and get Chancellor Forever 2009 here:

http://theoryspark.com/political_games/chancellor_forever/2009/info/index.htm

Until September 26th, Chancellor Forever 2009 is available at a discount $9.95, instead of the regular $14.95.

Angela Merkel is a popular Chancellor, but her CDU party does not fair as well. With the Grand Coalition between the CDU and the SPD ending, polls show no party has a majority. Who will become next Chancellor, and chart Germany’s future?

Includes:

- 2009, 2005, and 2002 scenarios, designed by Dr. Marco Althaus, including all 5 major parties
- all 299 constituencies with local candidates included
- toggle between viewing First-Past-the-Post and Germany’s system of electing candidates, to see how your party would fair under different rules
- and more

Kanzler Forever 2009 (in Deutsch) also available from the above page.

Congress Forever 2010 Pre-Release

Tuesday, September 1st, 2009

Sign up for Congress Forever 2010 Pre-Release version now available. See here.

Congress Forever 2010 Pre-Release Signup

Monday, August 24th, 2009

Info here.

Where Do You Get Your Political News From?

Thursday, June 11th, 2009

Here’s how you can influence the political news we’re reading here at TS. Where are the main places that you get wonkish political news from? Politico? WP? RCP?

(I’m curious about not just the U.S., but also other countries (in Europe, Canada, Australia, NZ, … you name it).)

New Scenarios Page and … Ocia – 2009 for Chancellor Forever!

Friday, May 8th, 2009

We have launched a new scenarios site:

scenarios.theoryspark.com

This new site will have scenarios for all the games, listed and categorized, and allow you to comment on the page. This will unify a few different places for scenario info we have been using up until now.

To get your scenario posted, send your scenarios here!
http://www.theoryspark.com/interact/contact.htm

Right now we have all the President Forever 2008 + Primaries scenarios at scenarios.theoryspark.com, plus Ocia – 2009 for Chancellor Forever. We will continue to add scenarios to the page.

Version 1.6.0.8 of Campaigns Forever Released!

Saturday, February 14th, 2009

A new version of Campaigns Forever has been released:

1.6.0.8

Go here to view information and download.

Go here for Campaigns Forever’s purchase page.

The TheorySpark Team

United States – 2008 with 1960’s Candidates Scenario for Election Game

Saturday, September 27th, 2008

United States – 2008 with 1960’s Candidates, by Mathieu Urbaniak, has now been added to the scenarios page for our election game simulation.

From the scenario designer: “What if the thrilling presidential election of 1960 were held in 2008? President Eisenhower never sent troops to Iraq. Would Kennedy be able to qualify for the general election and win the Presidency?”

President Forever 2008 + Primaries Major Update Released – v. 1.6.x

Monday, August 18th, 2008

Version 1.6.x of President Forever 2008 + Primaries, a major update, has been released.

You can view version information and download the update here.

President Forever 2008 + Primaries Beta

Sunday, July 13th, 2008

The latest Beta version of President Forever 2008 + Primaries has been released, here. (The non-Beta version is available here.)

This version includes Electability, a new fundraising model, adds the 1980 scenario (bringing the total number of official scenarios to 5, including 2008, 2004, 2000, 1992, and 1980), makes a large number of changes to the existing official scenarios (including 2008), enhances the AI, adds online Help, and includes an experimental multiplayer feature.

Once we’ve Beta tested these features for a bit, they will be added to the latest release version.

Update – Fundraising Details

Saturday, June 28th, 2008

In the game, there are several ways to fundraise. (Note: this describes the upcoming version of President Forever 2008 + Primaries’ fundraising model.) 1. Background fundraising. 2. Fundraisers. 3. Footsoldiers. 4. Unused CPs. (Note: all the equations given below are for illustrative purposes only. The actual equations are more complex and involve additional factors. The values 1, 2, and 3 in the equations are meant to illustrate the relative weighting of the components.)

1. Background fundraising. We wanted to capture several components of fundraising. In order of importance for background fundraising, first, momentum. The higher the momentum, the higher the fundraising. Second, national percentages. The higher the national percentages, the higher the fundraising. Third, the Established value for a candidate. The higher Established, the higher the fundraising. A simplified equation is

Amount = (momentum * 3) + (percentages * 2) + (Established * 1).

2. Fundraisers. Fundraisers are a little different from background fundraising, because they tend to focus on small groups of people who donate large amounts of money. These typically involve an event with the candidate, such as a dinner, where the donators get to be closer to the candidate. A candidate can still pack a fundraiser, even if their national percentages aren’t stratospheric. The emphasis for the purposes of the game is on Established first, percentages second, momentum third.

Amount = (momentum * 1) + (percentages * 2) + (Established * 3).

3. Footsoldiers. When Footsoldiers are set to fundraising, they do so in a regional (by state) way. The emphasis for the purposes of the game here is on percentages first, momentum second, and Established third.

Amount = (momentum * 2) + (percentages * 3) + (Established * 1).

4. Unused CPs. If your candidate’s campaign has CPs left over at the end of the turn, they are used for fundraising. This is effectively like having a fundraiser, but without the candidate’s own EPs being used. Similar to 2., then, the emphasis for the purposes of the game is on Established first, percentages second, momentum third. Unused CPs are simply Fundraisers, at a quarter the effectiveness per CP.

Amount = ( (momentum * 1) + (percentages * 2) + (Established * 3) )/4.

For any of these cases, the value is then multiplied by the party’s fundraising coefficient. In the upcoming version, in 2008 the Republicans have a coefficient of 1.0, and the Democrats have a coefficient of 1.5. For example, if Barack Obama and John McCain had identical percentages, momentum, and Established values, Obama would still out-raise McCain by 3:2. This applies in both the general and primaries phases of a campaign, and reflects (in the case of 2008) voter disenchantment with the Republican party.

Feedback welcome as always!