The Political Process

The Political Process

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The Results of My Experiment: Making this Game a Crazy mess
By Totalstgamer
As you may or may not know, this game has advanced options, and these can be used to twist and turn the game in ways one cannot completely predict, but can undoubtedly enjoy.
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Explanation
To those recently interested in the political process or not aware, the creator of the game, Verminluo, has recently introduced new advanced options (found in the "Advanced Options" Menu. These can be used to change the country's ethnicity, Voter registration, Turnout And even electoral system. In light of this, i have decided to experiment with one important part of the game: Voter Registration, which dictates how many people are democrats, how many republicans and how many independent\unaffiliated.

The experiment Goes as follows:
I run four games, in all four, i am an observer. each game takes place from week 1, 2015 to week 1, 2105.
in the first one, i change registration numbers to 33.4% independent.
in the second, i change them to 50% independent
in the third, i change them to 75% independent
in the fourth, i make them 100% independent (in reality the advanced options to not allow this, so its actually 98%)

I pay attention to three main locations: the Presidency, House, and Senate.
For each of these, i relay the following:
A Senate Chart
A House Chart
A Tally of the Number of times each party won a presidential election.
I will reach a conclusion using this information, and perhaps understand how the game works as a result.
Experiment No.1: 33.4% Independent
In this first one, i made the country 33.4% Independent. My assumptions ahead of time was that the game would become more unpredictable, more elections would result in landslides, and there would be more house and senate volatility.

Now, let's see the result:
Starting With the House:

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/ugc/1050974564362401550/84A2E33B912D48BA1DBC826C049300A40BB1CE93/?imw=256&&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false
The House, 2015-2101

Looking at the Senate:

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/ugc/1050974564362404798/FCCC4EE258210A3A5BDBD6D70DBE784DFFABC21F/?imw=256&&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false

Now, the Presidential Tally:
Republicans Won 12 Elections
Democrats Won 10 Elections

Now, Drawing our initial Conclusions: I was mostly right. the actual elections were more landslide-like than the usual elections, with republicans often winning NH and CT in their landslides (as well as washington, and even maryland and oregon once), while democrats win usually red states such as west virginia and indiana during their seasons.

I also missed several things, such as Democrats always winning the bigger landslides in the house and the Senate overwhelmingly being republican for much longer periods of time, these can probably be attributed to the advantages held by each party, republicans holding small states (with more power in the senate) and democrats big ones (with more house power)
Experiment No. 2: 50% Independent
In this one, my initial belief was that i would see an exaggeration of the 33% Experiment, republicans and democrats winning more sweeping victories in the house and senate, and the presidency being won by bigger and bigger landslides.

Now, for the Results:

House:

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/ugc/1050974564362429629/1CC6FCA39F5AE09EC60038A4ACE02AA0597EF6B6/?imw=256&&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false

Senate:

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/ugc/1050974564362432178/3360B6952790FEFA0451E8BA4661541335910952/?imw=256&&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false

Presidential Tally:

Democrats Won 14 Elections

Republicans 8

My Conclusions were far more interesting than the first experiment, Republicans Always got elected to only one term, while this only happened once to a democrat, showing that the democrats have a tendency to win presidential elections. meanwhile, the Republicans ability to win in the Senate is fairly exaggerated.
I believe this may be an outliar, but Republicans seem to hold the house more often than democrats do, while democrats seem to win bigger landslides.

Final note, notice that small dent in the house's landslides, it becomes important in the next two experiments
Experiment No. 3: 75% Independent
My predictions for this one were once again exaggerated landslides, the House going more Democrat and the Senate More Republican

Now for the Results:

House:

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/ugc/1050974564362514053/C14F2A3BD1BF567C3A3DE8814FB1906769CB4A7B/?imw=256&&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false

Senate:

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/ugc/1186083602257041938/E1B23B44ADE40B525C75A55D51A0B56910734964/?imw=256&&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false

Presidential Tally:
Democrats won 16 Presidential Elections
Republicans won 6

As you can see, trends get stronger, and at a certain point between 2060 and 2080. elections become more narrow, and return to being landslides near the end of the game (which is a peculiar, unexplainable find)
This one had the only electoral college tie, and presidential elections leaned more blue, Becoming very slightly bigger blue landslides, while Republicans very rarely won landslides of their own
Experiment No. 4: 100% Independent (actually 98%)
This one i hardly even need to elaborate on. i'll probably add some pictures, this adds back past trends.

The Presidential tally Is identical to the previous one, and almost all house elections end with every single seat going to one party, with the senate usually having over 70 seats go in a random direction, every single state has had both parties have senators there at at least some point
Oh, Btw
For those wondering why this got updated in 2022, i fixed a typo and added a category for english.
I might make a sequel, someday...
5 Comments
Dousing 16 Oct, 2023 @ 1:54pm 
> 98% of the voters are independents
> Still end up with a two-party system

America moment
Totalstgamer  [author] 5 May, 2023 @ 2:32pm 
It could be. This is from 2020, when elections were a lot less nuanced, so i don't know whether Approval ratings were part of the calculation and to what extent. Its possible population growth messed with certain metrics creating flexibility, but that begs asking why things re-stabilized near the end of these experiments.
Kay of Sauvage 30 Mar, 2023 @ 7:13am 
I would guess having more independents means that you'd have a greater effect from the government approval rating on the majority party.

When government approval is low, below 75%, the majority party has a disadvantage in the election, as people want to vote them out for doing a bad job. They can still win if their district/state has a big party advantage. But if you replace those party loyalists with independents, they'll be heavily swayed by government approval ratings.

Perhaps the closer election results you mention from 2060 to 2080 were due to the government achieving a better, more neutral approval rating during that period.
Totalstgamer  [author] 11 Jul, 2020 @ 10:34am 
I honestly didnt have the time for a sample size, but i can tell you that a sample size has Democrats and Republicans with nearly equal strength on the presidential level, and that in the house and senate, republicans tend to win more, but democrats win bigger landslides
The Minister of Silly Walks 27 Jun, 2020 @ 1:22pm 
You should add a control with just the normal settings. That would make it even more scientific. Overall though I like it. It's interesting how Democrats just are not able to take back control of the Senate for long periods of time, even with 75% independents. It was also interesting how Democrats would have larger swings in the House, but Republicans would hold onto it longer.