Screenshot Democracy 3, an LP: Serenes Forest flies the Commonwealth of Australia into the [heavens/ground]

[euklyd]

Climate > DEATH TO CREATIONISM >> weed

also,

cancel wiretapping and also allow internet tracking.

EDIT: I feel like I should be writing a more interesting post here but tbh I actually feel strongly about the first two things in this post.

also I can't think of anything funny to say

Edited December 14, 2014 by Euklyd

[Rehab]

We declined to ban anything, though we made sure to say some diplomatic bits about transparency and accountability, keeping in mind that the Liberals still haven't forgiven us for what we said the last time big collections of digital data were brought up.*

This was a relatively bloodless tiff- the Capitalists were happy, and the Liberals almost seemed to be expecting it. Our GDP also increased by 1%.

*In case I haven't said so before: the faction opinion boosts and hits we get from policy questions generally decrease over time. This is one of the exceptions I've noticed- the liberals have been exactly 13% angrier with us for ingame years now. (13% is a fair amount.)

Though the details are obviously worlds apart, I'm tempted to call this something like our administration's Citizens United. Or rather, our NSA clusterfuck.

[spoiler=TURNS 39 AND 40: SO, DID GOD SAVE AUS?]

For such a popular government, the last months of our final term were quite internally divisive. We spent a whole quarter (as in turn 39) without enacting a single new policy.* It was almost as though we were deciding not just what would be best for Australia, but what final changes we had earned the right to make.

[spoiler=*]For the record, this may actually be a decent way to learn how to play Democracy 3- when I first played, it was a bit overwhelming to look at the main screen and go around hovering over every icon and stat, trying to immediately figure out how they were all related. Enacting a policy and then waiting however many turns for it to kick in can be a good way to figure out what kinds of practical effects it ends up having. It's not exactly efficient, but (I should think) Democracy 3 on standard difficulty is less likely to impoverish or assassinate you before you can blink than it (feels like it) is on 200% difficulty, and definitely gives every country easier starting positions.

(I tend to not do that very often here for a bunch of reasons, but overall it's less because I'm MLG-pro enough at D3 to know that "Everything I Do Is Correct^TM." than it is because playing on 200% has made me not-a-bit paranoid that "If You Don't Build Yourself Up In Every Way That You Can At All Times Then 200% D3 Will Surely Knock You Down." ^TM)

On our fortieth quarter, though, we were finally ready for our sendoff.

It certainly started well.

In case there were any remaining doubts of our technological prowess. Quarks and neutrinos, bitches

"The phenomena has apparently subsided." What a quiet end to our most stubborn foe. Now I'm wishing I had waited to bust out the ruins theme.

The choices we made for our last policies were... compromises, of sorts.

(With apologies to the wise men who chimed in on IRC, advocating weed for the children)

The first one was our closest to unanimous.

Almost anathema to how much we initially trampled everything in our way to achieve and continue to build a surplus, we jumped off the precipice towards a $20+ billion deficit. To be sure, we were partially comfortable with this because our successors will almost certainly be our political heirs. Hopefully, our children will not think too poorly of us.

(for the record, I don't think it would be particularly difficult to overcome whatever deficit we left here, as least in Democracy 3's terms- I left some easy tax money unused, Technological Advantage at the very least guarantees Income yet has room to grow even without more GDP boosting policies enacted, and we burned away enough debt that we probably wouldn't have to worry about any immediate credit rating slashes.)

Our second choice was a particularly contentious one.

The majority of our legislators pushed that it was high time for our public education curriculum to recognize, in no uncertain terms, that the evidence behind (and current reliance on models of) evolution leaves it far-and-away incomparable to creationism. They charged that our schools would be doing our future citizens a disservice if they didn't teach evolution to be as fundamental to our understanding of biology as most modern science holds, and that teaching creationism alongside it in our science classrooms as anything like a competing theory would be reprehensible.

However, a bloc of impressively stalwart holdouts retorted that already, as our public education curriculum stands, not one student in our schools will ever be forced to hold creationism as true, whereas it's also already likely that many of them will find themselves tested on some knowledge of evolution before high school is out. They charged that this is a case of government attempting to solve a problem which doesn't exist, and trying to throw weight around in an area it neither has any business in, nor for which it could do any good no matter what it tried. They were also generally leery of setting any more precedent for allowing political point-scoring by way of mandating what's taught in public education.

In the end, the former had too much momentum to not gain ground. It has been clarified that as soon as logistics allow, every high school must both offer a biology class and require that every student pass an exam on its material to graduate. However, language specifically mandating that evolution be taught, and that "alternative explanations" including creationism be either omitted from the course materials or expressly taught to be false, was stricken from the mandate.

Phew. Most I've had to BS this entire LP.

The third was less contentious, if less universally-recognized as one of the most pressing matters at hand. However:

There was simply not enough time to cut through the tape fast enough. We couldn't quite end our Wire Tapping program before time ran out, despite that it is having literally no relevant positive effect and is popular with literally nobody. We settled for rejiggering the terms under which it could be used to such an extent that it would require the central government to order its use on a given occasion. Which, given our basically-crime-free Australia and a political climate such that nobody wants to be the one to give that order, leaves it just a hair's breadth from being practically canceled anyway.

(Apologies to Gyarados for not implementing more of his picks, and to Parrhesia and Euklyd for not actually cancelling the thing there- once we got C.C.A.F. and C. vs E. out of the way, we only had 11 PC left- 5 short of cancelling W.T. or enacting Childcare Provision, and 3 short of enacting Maternity Leave)

Funnily enough, the solution we reached because our preferred course of action took too long left us with a little bit of spare time. Our SBUP delegation was able to leave Australia one final gift:

(It just felt about right, given how massively our Liberal population has skyrocketed since we were first elected.) (Sorry conservatives bias, bias)

Wait, did I say final? Well, final "gift," maybe. Some early leaver tripped on something as they rose from their seat, the impatient jerk.

It was a printout of our Foreign Investor Tax Break policy! Which not even one soul in Parliament likes! Modified to cost us less money! Christmas did come early!

(To be completely, totally honest with you guys, I don't actually know for reals if literally 1% less in GDP is worth (literally) $4 billion less in Expenditures, but we had 1 PC left and not much else to spend it on. Also at this point we are in fact a strong, independent G20 nation which does not (routinely) need any huge foreign capitalist organizations to buy us dinner, thank you very much.)

Finally, there was nothing more to say, or at least no more time to say it. Our fine legislators filed out of the building for the last time before the election, praying that-

well. Perhaps most of them thought prayer would be unnecessary, actually.

Final affairs on the last quarter before the election:

Main:

I may have overestimated my ability to both listen to you guys, not fuck up, and please some of these factions, but I think we still turned out pretty good. Our Welfare minister, the one with the Trade Unionist sympathies, was still grumbling all the way to his ballot-in-the-box vote photo-op, though.

Finance:

Although it was entirely covered in those candylike buttons, I'm pretty sure the Global Economy was still at rock bottom on our last turn. Didn't manage to dampen our mood, though.

Security:

"Have you ever actually tried to kill a man who is 3 months from retirement? Buddy, it is not worth the trouble."

Finally, the last referendum on SBUP's Australia:

I was going to make a joke about "why did those other guys even bother to show up," but oh yeah, compulsory voting. I am tired and I know nothing

So utterly have we defeated the Economic Girly Maroon that they may never work in this town again. Maybe even this province. Heck, or country.

Australia's probably in good hands.

The vote breakdown going by "people influenced by each political faction:"

Oh look, we have Ethnic Minorities in our population again.

And the final evaluation among final evaluations:

Beats the end of our first term, anyway.

Democracy 3's final final evaluation of our politics:

Well, that's our Australia, and I guess we're sticking to it.

Next time: thoughts, and (for the purposes of comparison) literally every image of the Australia we started with juxtaposed with the one we finished with that Democracy 3 will allow me

Edited December 23, 2014 by Rehab

[Parrhesia]

hell yeah

[Klokinator]

Jesus christ, you WON AT POLITICS?! IT CAN'T BE. NO WAY. IMPOSSIBLE.

I like that 3% of the religious didn't vote for you.

[Rehab]

STRAYA: A DECADE'S JOURNEY

(with Serenes Forest, AKA the Sky Blue United Party, at the helm)

CONTENTS:

1. A HISTORY

2. VOTER FACTIONS

3. POLICIES BY POPULARITY (I'll wait until spoilers are fixed, I ain't postin those pages at you guys without em)

4. ECONOMY

5. MAIN

6. END

[spoiler=1. A HISTORY]

At some indeterminate point in the perpetually-near future, our government was somehow elected despite having a popularity rating of 2% immediately upon entering office.

YEAR ONE

Quarter 1: Maxed Race Discrimination Act funding, reorganized cabinet

Quarter 2: Raised Income Tax by 120% (to 51% total from 23%), funded Technology Colleges and Telecommuting Initiative. Declined to enact Debt Protection Law limiting collection agencies

Quarter 3: Organized Enterprise Investment Scheme, partially funded Technology Grants. ratified Climate Change Protocol

Quarter 4: Increased Petrol Tax by 400% (to 40% total from 8%). Superhero??? fights crime, Credit rating downgraded to AA

YEAR TWO

Quarter 1: Enacted 25% Punitive Tax On Superstores, funded Young Entrepreneur Scheme and Business Startup Campaign, appointed Kaytii-Lynn 'Kaitlyn' Morgan as UN Ambassador, subsequently kicked out of UN

Quarter 2: Funded Adult Education Subsidies and Car-Pooling Campaign, organized partially-funded National Business Council. Nobel Prize for chemistry awarded to an Australian, Genetically Modified food banned

Quarter 3: Funded Rural Development Grants. Uncompetitive Economy situation resolves

Quarter 4: Partially funded Small Business grants. Oil Drilling allowed on wildlife refuge

YEAR THREE

Quarter 1: Maxed Police Force funding, outlawed Prostitution. warned of The Moral Crusade plotting assassination, Smuggled People allowed to stay

Quarter 2: Maxed National Business Council and Small Business Grants funding, organized Community Policing, expanded Prisons funding (to "Extensive Rehabilitation" from "Basic Provision"), funded Trade Council. Stress Epidemic rages, Credit rating upgraded to AAA

Quarter 3: Expanded CCTV Cameras funding (to "Widespread" from "Town Centers”), fully funded Technology Grants. Vigilante Mobs situation resolves, Technological Advantage situation develops, The Moral Crusade fails assassination attempt, warned of Crusaders of The Lord plotting assassination

Quarter 4: Expanded Science Funding (to "Particle Accelerators" from "Microscopes"), reorganized cabinet (again). Blocked Corporate Manslaughter Bill

YEAR FOUR

Quarter 1: Raised Carbon Tax by 50% (to 45% total from 30%) and Alcohol Tax by 66% (to 50% from 30%), cut Community Policing funding. Antisocial Behavior situation resolves, suffered a Market Meltdown

Quarter 2: Canceled Tasers police program, raised Corporation Tax by 104% (to 25% from 12%). Credit rating downgraded to AA

Quarter 3: Reduced State Pensions funding by 6.25% (from $32 billion to $30 billion). Land mine production banned

Quarter 4: Maxed Clean Energy Subsidies funding, enacted max-strength Work Safety Law, funded Tourism Campaign. Scientific Discovery made by Australians, Credit rating upgraded to AAA

YEAR FIVE

Quarter 1: Maxed Science Funding, funded Subsidized School Buses and Keep The Country Tidy Campaign, enacted Consumer Rights policy (to "Cooling-Off Periods"). Rejected Freedom [of Information] Act

Quarter 2: Maxed Pollution Controls (to "Major Fines" from "Extensive Monitoring"), enacted Recycling program (to "Universal Doorstop Pickup"), funded Cycling Campaign. Water shortage situation develops, declined to loosen restrictions on Housing Expansion into green belt

Quarter 3: Increased restrictions on Gambling (to "Limited Stakes" from "No Restrictions"), maxed funding for Intelligence Services (to "Spy Satellite Network" from "High-tech Spy Agency"), funded Arts Subsidies (to "Opera Houses"), enacted Witness Protection Program. Nobel Prize for chemistry awarded to an Australian (again), Internet Crime situation develops, warned of Crusaders of The Lord plotting assassination attempt (again)

Quarter 4: Maxed Foreign Aid funding, funded Health Food Subsidies and Bicycle Subsidies and Smart Meter Program and Healthy Eating Campaign, formed Welfare Fraud Department (to "Undercover Investigators"). Obesity and Cyber Warfare situations develop, banned Human Cloning

We are then reelected, having built up our support base enough to achieve a massive 78% of the vote.

YEAR SIX

Quarter 1: enacted Public Tax Returns (to "All Details"), raised Punitive Tax on Superstores by 100%. rejected Software Patents

Quarter 2: Maxed Toll Roads funding. Corporate Exodus and Rare earth crisis and High Productivity situations develop, Transhumanism becomes reality

Quarter 3: Raised Income Tax by 18% (to 60%from 51%), decreased Corporation Tax by 20%(to 20% from 25%), loosened Work Safety Law. Technological Advantage situation ends (too young), left Child Labor Law unchanged

Quarter 4: Organized (revised version of) Compulsory Work For The Unemployed (to "Volunteer Preferred"). Pollution and Cyber Warfare and Water shortage situations resolve, order construction of Power Lines

YEAR SEVEN

Quarter 1: Partially funded Food Stamps, Funded Free School Lunches and Hybrid Car Initiative. Biohazard Outbreak rages

Quarter 2: Enacted (light version of) Antibiotics Ban. Criticized the monarch during a Royal Scandal

Quarter 3: Funded (light version of) Rare Earth Metal Mining (to "Research Grants"). Organized Crime and Homelessness situations resolve, Egalitarian Society situation develops, DNA Database rejected

Quarter 4: Funded Free Parenting Classes and Youth Politics Council and Alcohol Awareness Campaign, maxed funding for Food Stamps, organized Tax Shelters. Internet Economy takes off

YEAR EIGHT

Quarter 1: Enacted 38% Internet Tax. Obesity situation resolves, Whistleblower triggers reform of secret service. Holly Elli-

[REDACTED. FUCKSAKE, ZAC]

Quarter 2: Funded Youth Club Subsidies, enacted Car Emission Limits. Whaling ban renewed

Quarter 3: Funded New Car Subsidies, reorganized cabinet (again). Oil Price Shock rages

Quarter 4: Funded Green Electronics Initiative, enacted Fuel Efficiency Standards. Internet Crime situation subsides, refused to sign shitty Trade Agreement

YEAR NINE

Quarter 1: Rolled back Internet Tax and Tax Shelters. Corporate Exodus situation subsides, allowed construction of Toxic Waste Dump

Quarter 2: Maxed Legal Aid funding, funded Disability Benefit and Electric Car Initiative (to "Taxis"). Asthma Epidemic situation subsides, Ministerial Scandal scandalizes

Quarter 3: Funded Mortgage Tax Relief modestly. refused to Extradite terror Suspect

Quarter 4: Funded Space Station Program (to "Space Station"). Rare earth crisis situation subsides, legalized Euthanasia in certain circumstances

YEAR TEN

Quarter 1: Maxed University Grants funding (to "Generous Grants" from "Partial Grants," and past "Grants for All"), funded Micro-Generation Grants, raised Alcohol Tax by 50% (to 75% from 50%). Suffered (another) Market Meltdown (thanks Obama), Technological Advantage situation makes its triumphant return

Quarter 2: Funded Free Bus Passes and Vertical Farm Subsidies, organized Compulsory Foreign Language Classes. declined to send troops to Safeguard Oil Supplies

Quarter 3: Declined to ban Internet Tracking by corporations. also, twiddled our thumbs a bit

Quarter 4: Partially funded Climate Changed Adaptation Fund (to "Warning System"), changed Creationism vs. Evolution curriculum (to "Emphasis on Evolution" from revised version of "Both systems taught"), shrunk Wire Tapping program (to "With Government Decree" from "Police Chief Order") and Foreign Investor Tax Breaks, funded Social Justice Foundation. Scientific Discovery made by Australians, Alcohol Abuse situation resolves

Our party then won reelection, with 99.8% of the vote. We, however, kept to our promise to retire from office.

Looking back through this in pure date: event form, devoid of context about why we made what decision and who we were trying to please etc, I think we might come off as just a little bit schizophrenic, but then most good governments probably do if you examine them closely enough

Or, in visual/political compass form:

That jump disconnect between turn 11 and 12... I wonder if The Moral Crusade's attack might have done more to liberalize Australia than they bargained for. I was going to say "more than we ever did," but ha, nah, that shit was us, baby

2. VOTER FACTIONS

Speaking of liberalizing Australia, breakdowns of our voter faction demographics and our popularity among them, from both the start of our time in office:

and at the end of our time in office:

Somehow, almost 60% of our population is now employed by the state, which is a relative increase of almost 85% in ten years. Of the remaining ~40%, almost 36% is self-employed, a relative increase of over 140%. The number of farmers and people who identified as capitalist (as opposed to socialist, at least, whose total number in turn dropped by almost 30%) more than doubled, the number of motorists was six percent short of being halved, and the number of people who identified as religious (or at least to the extent that it affected the way they voted) shrunk by nearly 6 times, as did the number of "patriots" of... a certain kind. Funny enough, the socialists ended up loving us more than ever before despite their share of the population falling, and the people who ended up identifying as capitalists were about as (un)happy with us as were the originals, then a minority. And despite that they're in the majority, our government still enjoys overwhelming popular support overall.

We started with such low immigration that (some-fucking-how?) the number of ethnic minorities dropped down to none before our reelection (does that mean they all left, Democracy 3? or that, within 5 years, they were all "assimilated" or something?), and then by the end it (both their number and our level of immigration) surged to such a degree than they made up about 11% of the total population, 2% more total than they had at the beginning.

And the liberals. They went from a bit over 4/10 to almost 8/10 of the population, which means the number of conservatives dropped from almost 6/10 to just over 2/10. Yet the latter ended up almost as happy with our government as the former!

And to top everything off, every single voter faction liked our government at least a bit more in the end than they did in the beginning.

Our Australia's a funny old place.

[spoiler=SOME PROBABLY-INCOMPLETE GAMEPLAY EXPLANATIONS FOR WHY THOSE THINGS HAPPENED]

-The number of State Employees increased largely because we maxed funding for Science Funding, Police Force, Technology Colleges, and Prisons. Friggin 60% still seems a bit high, but that's Democracy 3 for you, I guess.

-Self Employed numbers increased because of our Business Startup Campaign, Small Business Grants, Enterprise Investment Scheme and Punitive Tax on Superstores policies.

-Farmers increased because of our Rural Development Grants and Vertical Farming Subsidies policies, though our Antibiotics Ban decreased em.

-Capitalists increased and Socialists decreased because of the aforementioned pro-Self-Employed policies, and because of our Young Entrepreneurs Scheme, Technology Colleges and National Business Council policies. Also, because we didn't expand/cut our State Schools, State Health Care, State Pensions, and Child Benefits policies.

-Motorists decreased because of our fucking zillion policies that decreased Car Usage directly, like the Petrol Tax increase and Tele-Commuting Initiative, and because of our other transportation subsidies, like Free Bus Passes and Bike Subsidies.

-Religious shrunk mostly because of our Technology Grants policy and the Transhumanism event, and the Space Program and Creationism etc look set to completely depopulate them (years after we leave, probably).

-Patriots shrunk because our Racial Tension has zeroed and International Relations have soared, though Space Program looks like it'll boost them again after we leave.

-The Liberals grew and Conservatives decreased because of our Arts Subsidies, Racial Discrimination Act and especially our Community Policing policies, and also because our Violent Crime is basically gone.

Gametalk: Those policies and things that affect a faction's membership numbers do indeed add up over a couple of terms in Democracy 3, but in my experience it still tends to take a little longer than that to drive one of them out of the country completely.

(A concerted effort helps, of course- we mostly just wanted to solve our problems and stay financially afloat, though I wouldn't deny our policy choices were still inevitably influenced by my political biases to some degree, conscious or not) (But then, it's also probably inevitable that the ingame effects of the game's policies are in turn a bit influenced by the conscious-or-not biases of its creators and all that, so.)

(Some of you astute observers may have noticed that the numbers of Poor, Middle Income, and Wealthy are all exactly the same in both graphs. This has me convinced that, despite how Low, Middle and High Earnings are all stats that can go up or down during one's ingame time in office, "what factors actually result in people being in one of those broad income groups" is another issue which Democracy 3 does not wish to touch with a 39.5' pole.)

3. POLICIES BY POPULARITY

What those changing groups affected in terms of policies:

[spoiler=OUR POLICIES LISTED BY POPULARITY THEN]

[spoiler=AND NOW]

We got shit done. (random observation, of many possible: how the mighty State Housing has fallen)

Something to note is that 0% popularity doesn't necessarily mean "oh god why do we still have this, it's total poison for our constituents, cancel it like a comcast subscription." Although it can, certainly. I believe 0% can also just mean it doesn't please any faction. Like, no faction is directly made happier because of our Witness Protection Program, but it's not like we'd please anybody by ending it. Which I guess I can kinda see making sense in a way, personally- I'm not sure my opinion of my government would change all that much one way or another if I heard it funded some advertising for bikes.

There's also stuff that doesn't make that much sense to me, though, like why is our Creationism vs. Evolutionism position at 0% popularity? The game's Liberal faction loves our position on it, and they influence almost 80% of the population, while the Religious faction that hates it makes up not even 2% of the population. Do people just not "care" about some policies even when they boost a faction's happiness? Dunno.

This was especially far in the realm of "shit even I don't care about," (especially because its impact on gameplay is nebulous to me at best), but it's a thing, so. Posted just in case somebody might get a giggle out of it.

I'll avoid reposting all the images of the stat changes that happened during our terms, since you guys can just scroll up for those, but I will repost the:

Positive stats we maxed out:

-Education

-Energy Efficiency

-Foreign Relations

-Health

-Productivity

-Technology (nearly. so damn nearly)

and Negative stats we bottomed out:

-Crime

-CO2 Emissions (very nearly)

-Racial Tension

-Violent Crime

I still don't know whether I think it's a good thing or a bad thing for the game overall that you can "[max/bottom] out" both these aspects of your country and indeed all the others in Democracy 3, particularly when it comes to what effect having the metrics be like that does for Democracy 3's replay value, but it does admittedly make for a nice (and sometimes funny) sounding laurel to hang up. "I can run a mile in six minutes!" "That's nothing, I eliminated crime in Australia while downsizing the police budget"/"We have all the technology. ALL OF IT"

4. OUR ECONOMY

Moving on, our economy then:

and now:

Our total debt wasn't quite as diminished as I was hoping it would be by the end of the playthrough, but the first phase of our playthrough was spent trying to slow its rise into the danger zone. We had to spend a lot of time with surpluses of, generally speaking, not much higher than $20 billion to get it actually lower than it was at the start. Misc: based on some skimming around wikipedia and one tradingeconomics, it appears that, compared to the actual Australia, our:

-total debt would have been a mere just-under-$0.4-billion lower... last year

-deficit is $7.1 billion lower

-debt/GDP ratio is just short of 0.5% higher

[spoiler=ALSO, MORE SHIT NOT EVEN I LOOKED AT TURN-TO-TURN: GOVERNMENT EXPENDITURES AND INCOME THEN]

[spoiler=AND NOW]

Anyway. In D3's terms we are much, much farther from even encountering the possibility of getting screwed than we were to begin with.

5. MAIN

And finally, the main screen then:

and now:

(for the record, I think that screen was shot just before I spent our last PC on reducing Foreign Investor Tax Breaks)

Things that popped out at me: Roughly 5 of the administrative spheres got way more crowded (transportation phwoar), and only law&order actually got less busy. Also I've already harped on this a bunch but just look at our fucking Popularity lmao

I think it's safe to say we did good work.

6. END

Reflections, etc:

…I realized a bit late (as in, as I type this now) that maybe showing you guys a 200% difficulty playthrough was kind of a bad idea, because it tends to have players start out with such a tremendous deficit that not just unrealistic, but cartoonishly large tax increases become necessary to achieve a surplus. (Would you believe I was actually holding back when I raised our Income Tax to 60%?) Playing on the default 100% difficulty might’ve allowed us to have tax numbers that make something vaguely like sense in a reality comparable to ours, and also given a less drastic depiction of the game’s difficulty/margin for error. (Democracy 3 on 100% is probably a lot better in this sense as a political sandbox game, whereas Democracy 3 on 200% is a more cathartic “YOU THINK YOU’RE A BAD ENOUGH DUDE TO BALANCE THESE SPREADSHEETS?” simulator to achieve victory over.

I'm not exactly sure I could tell you which aspect made me both decide to start and enjoy making this LP.) (Which I hope was/is at least somewhat fun to read, in spite of the. fuckin. numbing load of material about very dry literally-real-life-politics subject matter.)

On Democracy 3 itself: I gave the game some crap during the course of the playthrough, but to be sure I did and do have fun playing it. It's sort of in a weird area where it feels to me like it's not trying to be so painstakingly true to life as to be something in "the capital-s Simulator genre," but... actually, maybe it is comparable to some sandboxy strategy games I've played, but it still feels a bit different, a bit more in that vague Simulator direction.

I'm not quite sure how to relate what grabbed me about the game, or who/whether I'd try to sell anybody on it, but. I guess it kinda feels to me like a (highly abstracted) "build the society you want" with, like. LEGOs. Except the LEGOs are candylike buttons representing voter faction demographics and private healthcare and how much you trade internationally and the drinking age you set.

Or, if you put it on 200% difficulty, it's a white-knuckle spreadsheet simulator about how the surest way to success is indeed to eat the middle class

Also, on the Clones&Drones DLC: I definitely think it makes the game more interesting and challenging, but I'm not totally sure if I should wholeheartedly recommend spending money on it, should you ever decide to pick up the game, when there's already so much in mod content available on the steam workshop. Which I kinda have yet to try out, but have gotten interested in after seeing some stuff I thought seemed close enough in quality to material that actually came from the developer.

Anyway, though. Thanks for reading! Or clicking on this last page of the topic, if that's how you got here. That's cool too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoblmThcPK0

Edited December 23, 2014 by Rehab

[Rehab]

Sorry about your eyes. again

[Excellen Browning]

To me, Democracy 3 feels like an expansion on that online nation building game. It doesn't bother to simulate or emulate an actual society and its government in any way, it lets you do what you want within the bounds of what your PC allows you and what doesn't get you shot. It doesn't bother dealing with the realities of (general) strikes and riots, which are much more common reactions government policy, it assumes at all times that your government will push any and all legislation it wants to, while dissent in the party and the coalition, as well as personal refusal from ministers to implement certain policies will in reality restrict. Also the implementation speed of new laws, as well as their effects, is just unrealistically fast.

Having seen this LP, I agree with Rehab D3 is a build your own society game.

I'm also very happy the idiotic parts of our coalition didn't have too much of a negative impact on our fine society.

[Rehab]

God, that's exactly what I was thinking of. NationStates. Yes. If at any point during NationStates you thought to yourself "I would buy this if it were an actual game game," Democracy 3 is for you, mostly.

I might recommend waiting until it went on sale like I did, but hey, Christmas sales are upon us anyway. And I did have enough fun with it to be happy with that money spent, probably

Oh, and there are some situations that are at least, uh, named like those in the game, but in my experience they're generally as avoidable as any of the other negative situations if you're not an idiot, like I am aware of what causes them. (Which of course you aren't, until they either happen or you look them up.) (Uh. Spoilers and shit. But then what is this thread if not one giant D3 spoiler) (Your point stands, basically.)

(As it happens, I heard from some poor guy's review that one of the things that makes Geopolitical Simulator 3 such a motherfucker, on the other hand, is that basically anything he did seemed to cause riots.)

Edited December 19, 2014 by Rehab

[Rehab]

Speaking of sales! Despite that I once read a blog entry from a year or so ago by the game's main creator that he thinks it lends a certain credence to some games to not go on sales that are too huge, because, reasons, I forget, Democracy 3 and its first 2 content packs appear to be on a "fuck you, buy me" discount for the entire steam holiday sale. Just so you know.

I mean, I'd buy it, if I were you. Personally speaking. But I made an LP of it, so, yeah, obviously.

Edited December 23, 2014 by Rehab

[Tryhard]

man how come I took a break to come back to this to start parsing all these words and you've already won

though why you got a "With Apologies To Tryhard" tag, huh, huh, huh? (e: i see now)

Oh well, I might take a look at the game myself. And to read this, to attempt to understand it better.

Edited December 24, 2014 by Tryhard

[Rehab]

"Hey, you know what would be fun? A moderately forum-driven LP, where the spectators decide what order problems are tackled in!"

9.25 INGAME YEARS AND OVER AN ACTUAL MONTH LATER: *the problem chosen first by spectators is finally resolved, 3rd-to-last of 14*

It might not have been the best idea to pick a game I still had a lot to learn about for my first LP ever, and the way I involved users was kind of uneven. At least it was something of a learning experience, though.

[Shin]

This was pretty cool to follow. I actually let my friend's dog make all my choices in one run. Unfortunately he only got 12% of the vote, which isn't all that bad considering he was like a dog.