The Political Machine 2016
By John Sooja,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Easy-to-play, fun-to-learn presidential campaign sim.
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The Political Machine 2016
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What’s It About?
In THE POLITICAL MACHINE 2016, players begin by choosing their candidates and opponents, real or fake, and choose a 21-, 26-, 41-, or 52-week-long campaign, where each week is one turn. After choosing their candidate's positions on various issues such as gay marriage or drone warfare, players take turns deciding how best to spend their action points (stamina). The main screen is a map of the United States, with some states already colored blue, others red. In a turn, you can build campaign headquarters, an outreach center, or consulting offices. You can give a speech, put out an advertisement, or try to win endorsements. You can even do television interviews, such as on 60 Minutes, recruit activists, or hold a fundraiser. Candidates will need to do these various actions to increase states' awareness of them, sway undecideds, and raise funds to maintain and expand existing campaign infrastructures.
Is It Any Good?
This political simulation is very easy to pick up, especially as a family title. It's colorful, cartoonish, and playful, despite some of the sensitive issues covered. Campaigns don't take very long, and it's fun to experiment with running vastly different campaigns against vastly different opponents. Surprisingly customizable character creation and game creation also up the replay value. The game's interface is intuitive and clean, and anywhere you click, useful information pops up. As a wonderful primer for this year's presidential election and the polemics dominating the debates, the game encourages learning about all the issues, from big government to the Keystone XL Pipeline proposal. For some, the lighthearted tone may seem to trivialize sensitive topics, but each issue is fairly and equally presented from both sides of the aisle. Players can also play against their peers or against their parents. It's easy to set up a private match or join public matches, although the latter does open up players to offensive language, and it's not uncommon to encounter public matches with inappropriate titles. Hopefully, the next iteration of the game in 2020 will add debates and the option to run as an Independent, but for kids interested in the mechanics of government, The Political Machine 2016 provides a fun entry into the world of politics.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the difficulties of managing a presidential campaign. What are the hardest aspects? Did you run a dirty campaign? How did that feel? If not, when did you feel tempted to smear your opponent?
What issues do you care about? Was it difficult prioritizing some issues over others?
What did you learn about the political process? The electoral college? Are you let down by any of it? Excited by any of it?
Game Details
- Platform: Windows
- Subjects: Social Studies : citizenship, government, power structures, the economy
- Skills: Thinking & Reasoning : applying information, collecting data, decision-making, strategy, Responsibility & Ethics : fiscal responsibility, integrity, learning from consequences
- Pricing structure: Paid
- Available online?: Available online
- Publisher: Stardock
- Release date: February 4, 2016
- Genre: Strategy
- Topics: Activism
- ESRB rating: E10+ for Drug Reference, Mild Suggestive Themes, Violent References.
- Last updated: August 24, 2016
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