Power of Politics
| Power of Politics | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Studio | TPM Games |
| Senior Developer | Peter Merschitz Tim Preuster |
| Erstveröffent- lichung |
November 2005 |
| platform | Web browser |
| genre | Browser game , politics simulation |
| control | Keyboard & mouse |
| language | German |
According to the developers, Power of Politics was the most successful Austrian browser game in which the player slipped into the role of a virtual politician . The game last had around 700 players (as of May 2017). The game has been offline since the beginning of February 2018 after the server could no longer be started.
Origin and background
The game, a private project, was developed by Peter Merschitz and Tim Preuster in 2004/2005 and went online in November 2005. The costs for planning and development amounted to around 200,000 to 250,000 euros. One of the main goals of game designers was to reduce youth disenchantment with politics . The game idea is based on a board game developed by Peter Merschitz .
Description of the game
Each player took on the role of a virtual politician. You could (most recently) compete in Austria , Germany , Liechtenstein or Switzerland . The political districts in the game roughly corresponded to the real districts of the respective countries. All politicians started their careers at the district level and tried to increase their popularity. In addition, they were able to complete a wide variety of appointments in order to increase their level of awareness, increase their knowledge in certain areas or increase their self-confidence. How successful the politicians were and whether an action earned a lot or a few points also depended, among other things, on real events: news was extracted from over 100 German-language electronic newspapers and used to determine which topics are currently important for the virtual electorate and which Not. In addition, the popularity ratings of the politicians could be increased through discussions with other players and through the organization of election campaign events. If politicians or their parties got enough percentage points in the weekly virtual elections, they received mandates in the district parliament and could become part of the government or the opposition there. The task of the government should ideally be to pass laws on certain topics every week and thereby improve the position of one's own district in comparison to the others. If the politicians achieved sufficiently high popularity ratings, they could rise to the state level or later also to the federal level. In the game, the politicians were organized into parties . As a result, some game goals could only be achieved through communication between the players; more or less.
Planned developments
The game was supposed to be expanded step by step until it was possible to run not only in German-speaking countries, but in all European countries. In addition to the district, state and federal levels, according to the developers, a European level should be introduced by the end of 2009 at the latest, which, like a planned merging of districts, PoP 2.0 or all other actions, was no longer implemented. For this purpose, TPM Games GmbH was founded in 2008. On March 17th, 2010 the departure of co-founder Peter Merschitz from the project was announced.
Public effect
In May 2005, the operators of Power of Politics, together with the Austrian Federal Council, started a school project in which schoolchildren were to learn about politics and the political processes. Four school classes from four different schools took part in the game in order to prepare for a final “real” political meeting in the Austrian Federal Council. On the occasion of the National Council elections in Austria , an exhibition with the best election and advertising posters of the virtual parties was to take place in September 2006.
Awards
At the beginning of 2007, Power of Politics landed in third place in the overall ranking of “Browser Game of the Year” by Galaxy News.
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://www.parlament.gv.at/ press release, press service of the Austrian parliament
- ↑ Interview with Peter Merschitz in Der Standard : [1]
- ↑ a b Spielxpress : Interview with Tim Preuster and Peter Merschitz ( Memento of the original from September 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (pdf; 287 kB)
- ↑ http://www.rebell.at/ ( Memento of the original from March 11, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Interview with Tim Preuster and Peter Merschitz
- ↑ powerofpolitics.com: All about PoP and TPM ... job offer included ...
- ↑ blog.tpmgames.com: Looking for an employee for support and changes in the team
