Government simulation

A government simulation or political simulation is an Internet-based nation-simulation game that attempts to simulate the government and politics of all or part of a single nation. Government simulations differ from micronations in that they deal with existing nations (such as the modern day United States, United Kingdom or Canada), whereas micronations normally deal with fantasy countries or even historical nations (i.e., The Roman Empire). They differ from Geo-Political web-based simulator in that they simulate a single nation rather than a group of nations or the entire world. Government simulations may also simulate an international organization such as the United Nations or one or more domestic organizations such as political parties. They are normally conducted over Internet forums, but have also been played over electronic mailing lists.

Attempts at online simulations can be traced back to a U.S. senate simulation on Prodigy in the mid-1990 s, but sim history is usually traced back to the AOL Senate Sim, which was conducted purely on AOL-based message boards. It was started in 1998 by Peter N. Krembs, a college student. However, several Internet-based simulations popped up not long afterwards including the [http://www.usgovsim.com United States Government Simulation], the [http://pub176.ezboard.com/brepnet National Government Simulation], and the Online Senate Simulation. Of these sims, USGS is the only one still in operation today.

=History - U.S. Simulations=

The history of U.S. government simulations can perhaps be best divided into four eras. The first began with the founding of the AOL Senate Simulation (which lasted from July of 1998 till July of 2003, the longest of any) and other Internet-based simulations such as USGS and NGS1. NGS1 was unique in that it simulated the House of Representatives, whereas most other simulations had chosen to simulate the United States Senate. USGS is a hybrid sim that incorporates both Congressional chambers as well as State Governors and takes a more relaxed approach to rules and procedures.

The second era began with the second incarnation of National Government Simulation, with Senate Sim developing later. NGS2 operated for over two years. NGS2 was often contrasted with the Senate Sim in terms of style and the sort of behavior that was viewed as acceptable. Where NGS2 was, especially after the first year, often characterized by extreme disagreements and extended flame wars, Senate Sim was significantly more collegial. Strangely enough, these stylistic differences often resembled the real life differences between the Senate and House of Representatives, even though both simulations shared many members. NGS2 began to wind down toward the end of 2002, due in part to its large divergence from the real world political landscape. (For more, see Problems in government simulations section)

The third era began with the collapse of Senate Sim and NGS2. The Senate Sim collapsed abruptly in 2003 when Chief Administrator . The United States Senate Simulation was founded shortly after the collapse of Rotunda s Senate Sim, and after a hiatus in late 2004/early 2005 has returned with a new website and design.

A fourth era began with the introduction of various new sims such as the American Government Simulation and [http://www.govsim.com Govsim.com] (Govsim.com is now defunct and its rights were purchased by USGS).

US Government Simulator is the most complete of all the current US Government games, but is widely regarded as the least realistic. USGS features a full Congress including committees, active Executive and Judicial branches, as well as the simulation of state government. USGS has been active, with the exception of some down-time, since 1999.

The USGS election system determines demographic turnout in every race and creates an popular vote in all races. This system differs from the point-based and admin-decided electoral systems used in other US Government simulations. A panel of players, the Electoral Reform Committee, has oversight on rule changes affecting elections and works with the administrators to this end.

USGS differs from AGS and other games by establishing a rapidly-advancing timeline. Each calendar month equates to one full year in USGS, meaning that as of September 2005 the year in USGS is 2018. The game resets every 16-18 months and is slated to move back to 2008 in April 2006. Notable events that have occurred in USGS are:

- 2010 - A communist uprising in Panama leads to American military intervention and the subsequent defeat of the Panamanian regime. - 2012 - A Constitutional Convention was called by 2/3rds of the Governors of the United States, but failed to make any changes to the Constitution when several Governors changed their positions and dropped out of the proceedings. The Convention was unable to hold onto its 2/3rds attendance requirement. - 2017 - North Korea detonates a test nuke outside of Japanese territorial waters, drawing the ire of Congress and most of Southeast Asia. - Current Status 2018 - President: Hugh Kissling (R-IL); Vice-President: Dan Ballentyne (R-PA); Senate - Even Split, controlled by the Republicans due to the Vice-Presidential tie-breaker; House - Controlled by the Democrats, Speaker: Michael Rubenstein (D-CA)

AGS, founded in the summer of 2004, already has achieved a membership numbering in the hundreds. It is unique in that it features a simulated game world whereby the results of player actions are simulated by the game s Administrative Board. However, many complaints have been made about the slow nature in which the Administrative Board operates, taking months to perform actions. (For more, see Problems in government simulations section)

As of May of 2005 the world of AGS differs significantly from the real world. Most notably:

-Iran s nuclear program was successfully destroyed by a US Air Strike. -After the US launched a limited air strike against Sudan in response to ongoing genocide in Darfur, a number of US citizens were taken hostage, leading to a Congressional declaration of war against Sudan and a subsequent (successful) American invasion of that country. -The United States has passed and implemented a Flat Tax. -The Supreme Court has overturned previous rulings with regard to Separation of Church and State, ruling as Constitutional an Executive Order mandating the public display of the 10 Commandments at government buildings.

=History - Simulations of other nations=

See also Geo-Political web-based simulator.

In mid-2002, [http://politicsuk.net Politics UK] was born. Politics UK is currently playing in the 1990s, winning government in a 1999 election in which the Conservative Party secured a small majority. The biggest issues in the game at the time are renewal of public services after cuts in public spending, privatisation of state services, livable employment, re-energising the National Health Service and reforming the education system. It is currently the largest of any UK Parliament simulation. The 1999 new election has sent Labour back into opposition and is now beginning the process of electing a new leader. Tyler King is Prime Minister for the Conservative Party once again.

Similarly, there exists [http://www.politicscanada.net Politics Canada], the largest of the Canadian simulations, associated with the aforementioned Politics UK, currently set in the early 1990s and undergoing a 1992 federal election. It has existed non-stop since June of 2004, and allows players to roleplay politicians from five different time period-accurate parties - the Liberal Party of Canada, the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, the New Democratic Party of Canada, the Reform Party of Canada, and the Bloc Quebecois.

A recent game on the scene is [http://www.particracy.net Particracy], which offers an original twist to the genre: it places players in control of political parties, instead of single politicians or entire countries.

= Problems in government simulations =

Online government simulations face some of the same problems as any online forums, such as Flame War, Internet troll and Spam (Electronic), but they also face unique problems related to their structure and goals. Some of these include:

Inactive players - In many sims the number of players in a party directly affects which parties control the simulated legislative body. Some players recruit friends and others to join games to inflate the size of their party, a strategy called droning. However, since the drones are not in the game to participate, scenarios can arise in which the majority party loses major votes. In election sims, players often stop participating if their campaigns don t succeed, making it difficult to realistically simulate important events such as endorsements.

Cloning - Also known as Internet sock puppet or multies, cloning is an attempt by a player to use multiple accounts to inflate party size or swing a vote toward a preferred position. Cloning is considered a major breach of fairness in most sims, but the nature of an online-only forum makes clones difficult to catch and expel.

Divergence from reality - Many players come to government simulations to test out ideas that have not taken effect in real life, but find that longer-running sims have already diverged significantly from the real world. NGS2 suffered from several major divergence-related problems by the fall of 2002. First, legislation in many important areas (including the legalisation of gay marriage, the abolition of the death penalty, and the establishment of a universal health care system) had been passed very early in the history of the simulation (when membership was quite low) resulting in a political climate significantly different from that of the United States. Additionally, the simulation suffered from a proliferation of political parties (at one point the parties included the Republicans, Democrats, Social Democrats, Libertarians, Whigs, Greens, and White Panthers). As a result, a movement emerged to reset the simulation. Legislation to this effect passed the House, but was later overturned by the Supreme Court after a protracted battle. As a result, activity in the simulation virtually ceased.

Lack of consequences - Many sims exist in a virtual bubble in which players are able to take any position, no matter how unrealistic or unpopular, without any consequences. Nor do they simulate the results of in-game actions that differ from real life. Of those that do, results are often generated slowly (the AGS Administrative Board is famous for delivering slower-than-promised results) and the realism and integrity of the simulated results are often in question.

=See Also=

*Simulation *Simulation game *Nation-simulation game *micronation *Geo-Political web-based simulator *Grand strategy *Wargaming *Role-playing game *Live action role-playing game *Tabletop game *Computer and video games *Computer-assisted gaming *American Government Simulation *Nomic *SimCity

=External links=

*[http://www.americangovernmentsimulation.com American Government Simulation] *[http://www.nations.littlespelk.co.uk Nations - Geopolitical Nation Simulation Game] *[http://www.particracy.net Particracy] *[http://www.politicscanada.net Politics Canada] *[http://www.politicsisrael.tk Politics Israel] *[http://www.politicsuk.net Politics UK] *[http://rtp4.kernscorp.com/ Road to the Presidency] *[http://calego.cc/superpower SuperPower Classic] *[http://www.mockparliament.com/forum/index.php Terra Politicus] Australian Mock Parliament *[http://s11.invisionfree.com/New_Nation The New Nation] *[http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TNPSenate/ The Next President Senate Simulation] *[http://www.senateseeker.com Senate Seeker] *[http://www.trueworldsim.com True World Simulator] *[http://www.usgovsim.com United States Government Simulation] *[http://www.ussenatesim.com United States Senate Simulation]