The Mayoral Campaign

I must say, I’m a fan of the random variables. Even on my first playthrough, it adds an element of risk and discovery. Sort of like digging on the X mark on a treasure map. You have a good idea what is beneath, but won’t know unless you dig… or in this case, click! And I have to mention that the name “Dewey McDewerson” is f*cking hilarious.

The variety of options presented forced me to sit and think how best to campaign, which I’m guessing was the author’s goal. So, mission accomplished. The storygame had an element of ownership that drew me in. It wasn’t like I was playing as a predetermined character, I was playing as myself. And my competitive self, really wanted to win that damn election. I lost the primary my first time around, but that didn’t stop me from trying again… with a vengeance.

This is definitely one of the more game-focused storygames I’ve played and it was a nice change of pace. The writing quality was perfect for the type of storygame this was. It’s nothing life-changing, but it’s not supposed to be. As this is different from the typically “more story than game” storygames I play, it’s good to see how diverse a storygame can be. My favorite element was the results at the end. It would have been disappointing to see a simple end to a long, well thought-out campaign (at least mine was). Seeing the actual numbers from the election made it seem real, made progression easy to track, and added an element of suspense. Overall, quality game.

This was a very interesting simulation of an electorial campaign but while it is grammar-perfect and employs an impressive amount of variable reasoning there are two suggestions I would make:

- I was never sure how much money I had to support my choices throughout the campaigns. I think a Variable score of Money would be easy to implement and invaluable throughout the story.

- I was never entirely sure what issues and policies I was running on and what exatly my opponent's position was in opposition to these, to present a counter-argument all I could do was endorse an oppositional propoganda campaign.

I would also suggest that the way the districts voted was not especially noticable between the different elections as if the different districts had different preferences (like Conservative, Liberal, etc) it was not very clear.

This is a strong game from an excellent author employing some exceptional talent with variables but I think it needs a little more development. A story with this amount of potential can have a strong plot line behind it (the film "Milk" springs to mind as does 'Lincoln", though the latter is a different sort of concept) and I think this could be extended further into something much stronger.

As this grammar-perfect and strong piece of rationale now stands I would rate it a 5/8 but with more work to refine these difficult variables it could be near-perfect :)

It's a fun little time-waster that I could see myself coming back to when bored. And since it's random there's a decent amount of replay value.

As for my first few attempts at it I managed to win the primary election and only lost by a sliver of votes in the second election. I will have to replay a few more times to see if I can eke out a complete victory over the simulation.

I do not have ANY complaints.

This game style was awesome and unique. I loved this.

No one likes this at all.

yes

It was kind of hard at first, then I realised how to play, and then I really liked it.

Really good game mate!

Better than most story games Ive played on here. I ended up being defeated a few times before I finally hung my head and ended the game

7/10