Dearie me, Positech Games have been lucky. While the UK’s political situation stumbles into chaos on all sides, like a Three Stooges skit full of pratfalls and kicks up the jacksy, Positech have launched the Electioneering expansion for political strategy game Democracy 3 [official site]. What convenient timing! The expansion lets players campaign to win elections and maybe I’m getting ahead of myself with this ha-ha-hilarious satire given that you need candidates before anyone can go electioneering.

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Ha ha hooo elections, eh? In that there politics. With the votes. And those things they say. With those ideas they have. Hitting the ole campaign trail. Kissing all that baby. Shaking a hand. Posing with them famous folks. And the things they say! Did you hear what that one said? And then the other one…? Putting papers through your door. Love it. Knocking on my door. Sitting inside my TV. Electioneering. Love ‘em all. Happy times. Big japes. Shaky hands. Kissy face. Good jokes. Good jokes. Proper fun.

So yeah, the next Democracy 3 [official site] expansion will add electoneering. Topical.

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Positech Games have released Democracy 3: Africa [official site], a standalone expansion to their political strategy game. It’s the same basic ‘try to run society through decisions and a billion buttons and charts and statistics’ idea as regular Democracy 3 (see Wot Graham Thinks of that) but hopped on over to Africa. This means a makeover and a few changes to the policies and societies it simulators, but at heart it’s pretty similar. It’s an expandalone, yeah?

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Welcome class. Take your seats and take out your note paper.

We’ve all struggled through a game with a bad interface, one where none of the icons are clear, the screen is cluttered, and elements are unresponsive. Those problems still rear their heads in every genre, but I think we’ve more examples than ever of how to do an interface well. Let’s look at a few of them.

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“If you want to play a deep, balanced politics simulator, and prove your ideals correct, then Democracy probably won’t satisfy past a couple of hours of play,” our Graham said in his Wot I Think of Democracy 3. “But if you want to teach someone about the basic connections that form society, Democracy 3 is the perfect way to do it.”

Come next year, you’ll be able to poke at the underpinnings of other, perhaps less familiar societies, as the political simulator’s developers Positech have announced a standalone expansion named Democracy 3: Africa [official site].

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For a game about the inner workings of government, Democracy 3 [official site] is surprisingly violent. I don’t think I’ve played a game of it – whether I built a land of hugs ‘n’ kisses or a brutal police state – which didn’t end up with me being violently turfed out of office by explosions in Westminster. Maybe the new Democracy 3 update will help: it doesn’t reduce the number of security threats, but it does make it easier to track how ready you are to deal with them.

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Have You Played? is an endless stream of game recommendations. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.>

That there are so few detailed modern political simulators has always surprised me. It seems like such fertile territory, given internet presence seems to go hand-in-hand with an outspoken political stance. But I suppose it is one thing to loudly object to something and another to bury yourself deeply in putting your beliefs into practice. Importantly, Democracy 3 [official site] isn’t about the sound and fury of getting yourself elected, and instead is concerned with how to keep the ship afloat once you are in power.

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