Monday, November 01, 2004
I've Got It!
I think I have it. I think I know what the election needs.
Age of Empires. The computer game.
In the game, you control a civilization. You take it from the Dark Ages to shortly before that culture’s equivalent of the Renaissance. You make choices. You build an economy. You build a military. You decide what technologies to develop that will best advance your civilization. You plan expansion, build infrastructure, conduct “international� trade. Housing for your population, insuring that necessities are provided for (food, etc.), education and properly utilizing natural resources are key factors in the game.
You can win three ways: military conquest of the other civilization(s) in the game, collect all of the relics on the map, and hold them, safely, for a specified amount of time, or build a “wonder� and keep it safe for a similar space of time.
It’s a perfect microcosm of what a President has to do. It doesn’t matter which path to winning you choose, you have to build a strong economy to be successful in any of them. There are multiple options in how you deal with the nations around you. Any one of those options can be successful, if you follow it up properly with the right “domestic policy�. If you ignore, or don’t pay enough attention to any facet of your civilization, then you will not be successful.
And, it takes about an hour and a half , or so, to play.
In a head to head situation, you could see, in miniature, the two candidates pursue what they think are appropriate policies, and see which is more successful. Which is, in all likelihood, exactly why you will never see anything like this done. Something, potentially, objective, and quantifiable that would say one candidate’s policies and behavior might be best in furthering our country? Neither political party would agree to it. You know why, of course. Neither party is confident enough of their own policies to think that they would actually win, and a test of their platforms of this nature is not something either side could afford to lose.
Age of Empires. The computer game.
In the game, you control a civilization. You take it from the Dark Ages to shortly before that culture’s equivalent of the Renaissance. You make choices. You build an economy. You build a military. You decide what technologies to develop that will best advance your civilization. You plan expansion, build infrastructure, conduct “international� trade. Housing for your population, insuring that necessities are provided for (food, etc.), education and properly utilizing natural resources are key factors in the game.
You can win three ways: military conquest of the other civilization(s) in the game, collect all of the relics on the map, and hold them, safely, for a specified amount of time, or build a “wonder� and keep it safe for a similar space of time.
It’s a perfect microcosm of what a President has to do. It doesn’t matter which path to winning you choose, you have to build a strong economy to be successful in any of them. There are multiple options in how you deal with the nations around you. Any one of those options can be successful, if you follow it up properly with the right “domestic policy�. If you ignore, or don’t pay enough attention to any facet of your civilization, then you will not be successful.
And, it takes about an hour and a half , or so, to play.
In a head to head situation, you could see, in miniature, the two candidates pursue what they think are appropriate policies, and see which is more successful. Which is, in all likelihood, exactly why you will never see anything like this done. Something, potentially, objective, and quantifiable that would say one candidate’s policies and behavior might be best in furthering our country? Neither political party would agree to it. You know why, of course. Neither party is confident enough of their own policies to think that they would actually win, and a test of their platforms of this nature is not something either side could afford to lose.
