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[Aquillion]

I've been thinking a lot about ways to make elections in LCS more involved for the player--it just feels wierd to have a political game with so little focus on them.  Now, all of what follows is a bit out there in terms of feasibility, but I thought it couldn't hurt to post it for discussion's sake.

One idea idea that I just had was to allow the LCS to field a Presidential candidate.  During primary season (a few months before the election), the player would be asked if they want to run.

If the player accepts, then they have to choose a candidate from among their liberals.  There's an important choice to be made right here:  You can choose either an active LCS member or a sleeper.  If you pick an active LCS member, then the candidate will be a known member of the LCS, and the public's opinions of the organization will influence how many votes they recieve.  If you choose a sleeper, the public image of the LCS will have no affect on the campaign.

(For simplicity's sake, even sleepers will probably have to be treated as Elite Liberal candidates in terms of how public opinion affects their ability to get votes; dealing with the game balance reprocussions of letting players get control of the presidency by running a "Manchurian Candidate" would be fun, but would probably require a lot more work.)

Trying to run someone who is actively wanted for any crimes will result in them being arrested automatically.  Additionally, any sort of previous criminal record will cost them votes in the final tally.  However, it is still possible to run a campaign from jail, and LCS members already in jail can be selected as your candidate if you want.  (Remember Eugene Debs?)

Naturally, charismatic, heart-filled candidates who are good at public speaking do better than stiff, two-dimensional ones, though this effect is limited for game balance reasons.  For once, wisdom actually helps slightly here; a candidate with high wisdom has a chance of attracting some conservative voters.

A candidate's social status also matters; veterans and judges have an advantage over gang members and drug junkies.  (Note that this is apparently the opposite of the real world.)  Some people--such as sweatshop workers, college students, and guard dogs--cannot run at all.

While on the campaign trail, the candidate is not availible for normal LCS work.

If the player's candidate successfully wins the election, then the player gains full control over all in-game presidential decisions (i.e. vetos and supreme court appointments) for the duration of their term.  Furthermore, an LCS president acts as a 'super-sleeper' in terms of influencing public opinion over time, even if they weren't a sleeper before--this represents, as Teddy Roosevelt once put it, the power of the "bully pulpet."  Naturally, the President is no longer available to work from day-to-day in the LCS; but you don't lose contact with people under them.

Former presidents automatically become sleepers with influence on public opinion, even if they weren't before, and their job changes to "former president."  After all, a former president can't run around helping the LCS shoot up newsrooms; and they have at least some place in society and public influence no matter how much Conservatives hate them.

Note that a sitting LCS president might still have crimes traced to them through the LCS hierarchy.  If this happens, there might be impeachment hearings or something like that; both the reputation of the LCS and the liberal mood of the nation as a whole would probably suffer.

Crimes traced to a former LCS president merely become tabloid stories, damaging the liberal agenda but having no other effect.

[ September 20, 2004: Message edited by: Aquillion ]

[Toady One]

Yeah, that would be good stuff.  And there's really a lot a president can do.  Just look at the last several...

[Ramidel]

I love this, but for one thing.

It'd be -pathetically- easy for a seasoned Socialite to run, get elected, rock the house, and poof, you've got a super-sleeper on all issues and complete control of government policy. (If you've been doing anything right, by the time the first election comes up, the Senate will be at least moderate, the House will be Elite Liberal, and the public will adore you.)

Just propose the Liberal Justice Amendment and we've got a liberal nation.

[Toady One]

I don't know.  In real life (not that it applies much) it wouldn't work that way, at least not to the point where you could get everything to go your way.  Coupled with some of the suggestions that would make winning harder in general, I think this would work.  If it turns out to be too easy, it can be made harder.  After all, there are plenty of seasoned socialites to go around (eg the current election) -- you wouldn't be running unopposed, and it's hard to win elections without having more money than you currently have at your disposal, etc. etc.

[Aquillion]

Yeah.  Like I said, the influence of personal attributes like charisma and heart would have to be restricted for game-balance reasons if nothing else.

But on the other hand, it could also provide an alternate way to win--grooming a candidate for the white house, then sending them in and taking over the government.  Creating your seasoned socialite might not be as easy as it seems.

First, you probably couldn't use your leader; or if you did, you'd have to make preperations to deal with their absence.  Anyone who runs in an election will be out of the LCS for quite a while; few people could afford to lose their leader for an extended period of time.

Second, while grooming your candidate, you'd have to ensure that they don't do anything that could come back to haunt them in an election.  I thought of a relatively simple way to keep track of this in game mechanics terms--give all Liberals a sort of hidden 'electability' score, which measures their public profile and general approval rating.  Things like being accused of a crime could wipe out your electability then and there; different characters would start with different amounts.  Also note that every step in the criminal process (being accused of a crime, getting arrested, appearing in court, and getting convicted) would damage your reputation individually.  Even if you're found innocent, you'd still suffer a reputation loss from the first two hits; every time your name appears in a newspaper story like that, your image is damaged a little more.

Some things could help your electability, too, and you'd need to get it up to a certain point before you'd have any chance at all in a race.  These things would include giving interviews during a siege, being in an LCS studio-takeover broadcast, or arguing a high-profile case in court (profile is rated by the number and type of charges--treason charges or multiple murders are big news, vandalism isn't.)  Of course, if you do any of this badly, it could hurt your public image instead of helping it.  What I'm getting at here is that you'd probably have to do a few of these risky things before you'd have any chance at all of winning an election

(Maybe there could be some way for the player to learn the electability of one of their liberals via online polling, like we do now for public opinion?  Or perhaps the existing public opinion polls could just have a page listing the "top three most electable LCS members/sleepers", if any are significently electable at all.)

Even once you're in office, your electability could still be a factor, since it would effectively be your 'approval rating.'  Making decisions that match public opinion would increase it; making decisions that don't match public opinion would damage it.  If it gets too low and you're facing a hostile congress, you could risk impeachment; and if you're aiming for a second term, you'd have to rein in your raging liberalism from time to time.  This would effectively serve as another balancing factor, since getting a liberal president in without building up some liberal public opinion wouldn't just let you get away with anything you want.

Finally, if you're "grooming" a candidate, that means they're not a sleeper.  People will see them as an LCS candidate, so you'll have to get the reputation and profile of the LCS up reasonably high or they'll be laughed out of the polls.

[ September 26, 2004: Message edited by: Aquillion ]

[calebgrant]

I'd love to see that in this game. I think that you should be able to get your members to run for governor/senate/house, first though, and their experience would affect their electability.
 It would also be interesting to see individual states with different statuses on the Liberal Agenda, and you could travel between them. If one of your members got elected governor, they could control the state's positions.
You could run your candidate as a republican/conservative, and flip-flop once you get elected, but you would never get a second term, and if Congress is very hostile, you could get impeached.
It would be nice to be able to nominate your members for Supreme Court positions as well, but of course it would need to pass the senate.
It would take a lot of work, and I'm not a programmer, so I don't know if it's possible, but that's my wishlist.