Played this game over at a friends house, and as a political person, I have some observations/comments:
1) Why are all states the same to advertise in? Shouldn't larger media markets be more expensive? This would be more realistic and properly "weigh" the states?
2) As an edutainment title, I would have expected some information about registering to vote and places to get information about "the issues" from less-partisan sources such as VoteSmart.
3) Negative campaigning should be more effective. This is not reflected in the game. Negative messages are remembered 7x more often than positive ones. This is a deviation from realism and as a result does not answer the question as to why every campaign seems to go negative. The feature could have a "blowback" aspect, whereby the integrity and ratings of the candidate slinging the mud is also soiled.
4) The lack of an independent or third party option is just downright insulting and shortsighted. I understand this wasn't meant to be an all-encompassing game but.... this is ridiculous.
5) There are way too many "everyone agrees" issues in the game. More jobs, economic recovery, and other such knee-jerk issues are ridiculous. Candidates should be pushed to make compromises. I believe this is one of the inherent lessons the game is trying to teach.
6) Overall I appreciate the effort and am very glad to see this title make it to market, these are just some things I really wish had been done differently. I will be picking up a copy or two, since I have several politically active friends.
- Dameontx
