Democracy 3 Positech Games Ever wanted to run the country? Have you ever wanted to be president? or prime-minister? Convinced you could do a bette… $4.99 Buy Now Watch Media DetailsEver wanted to run the country? Have you ever wanted to be president? or prime-minister? Convinced you could do a better job of running the country? Let's face it, you could hardly do a worse job than our current political leaders. Crime, Unemployment, National Debt, Terrorism, Climate Change...Have you got the answers to the problems that face western industrialized nations? Here is your chance to find out… An entire virtual country Democracy 3 simulates the motivations, loyalties and desires of everyone in the country. A custom-designed neural network is used to model individual voters, each which varying memberships of voting groups, political parties and pressure groups. Each voters income is modelled, along with their levels of complacency and cynicism. This is the most sophisticated political strategy game ever created. Unique user interface Despite being vastly detailed under-the-hood, Democracy 3 has a unique user interface that makes visualising the connections between laws, policies, voters and situations easy. A simple iconic-based view of your countries issues allows you to 'drill-down' through all the relationships between policies and voters to quickly analyse the impacts of your decisions. Your trade policy may affect GDP, which will affect unemployment, which will effect poverty, and thus crime, leading to a change in tourism, which affects GDP… Complex simulated voters Each individual voter is a mixture of a subset of the 21 different voter groups represented within the game. They might be a young, wealthy, liberal socialist commuter, or a retired conservative religious capitalist, for example. Not only this, but the extent to which they identify each of those groups is both variable, and can be affected by your policies in the long term. Convert your country to religion, or atheism, to capitalism, or socialism by careful and nuanced adjustment of your policies and laws over time. A 'focus group' feature lets you look at individual voters and see exactly how they came to a decision to vote for you (or not!). Detailed policy model Each policy (or law) in the game has a slider which allows you to fine tune it's intensity to get the balance just right. A series of equations within the game allows the same policy to have radically different effects on each voter group at different points in the slider, so some voters may be indifferent to a policy unless it reaches extreme levels, for example. Democracy 3 also models the global economy, including credit rating agencies and debt interest levels, as well as the impact of global events on your country. Information Seller:Positech Games Genre:Simulation, Strategy Release:Jun 08, 2014 Updated:Feb 02, 2016 Version:1.20 Size:117.4 MB TouchArcade Rating:Unrated User Rating: (9) Your Rating:unrated Compatibility:HD Universal sweetdiss Well-Known Member Jun 15, 2009 1,743 5 38 #2 sweetdiss, Jun 8, 2014 Seems like it could be kind of amazing... anyone try this yet? PeteOzzy Well-Known Member Oct 30, 2013 4,596 3 0 Norwich, England #3 PeteOzzy, Jun 8, 2014 I've tried the PC version and my head exploded; it's not a game to be taken lightly. That said, it's very polished, elegant and, most importantly, unique. I haven't tried the iOS version but I will soon, can definitely say that the interface should work well with touch input. I've been looking forward to this ever since it was announced, cheers for the heads up! pbb76 Well-Known Member Jun 22, 2009 140 0 16 #4 pbb76, Jun 8, 2014 It look really interesting and unique, but all I keep hearing (from ios and pc) from reviews is that it's super easy and not worth the money. Seems there are only 2 political parties, voting day is a non event, players constantly get popularity of high 90s % even if they have outlandish policies, nobody objects to policies and if you create a policy that negatively affects your country, you just bring in another policy that does the opposite and it's fixed. All in all, sounds like very little 'simulation'. Mythbuster Well-Known Member Nov 19, 2008 1,260 22 38 Journalist In the middle of nowhere #5 Mythbuster, Jun 8, 2014 A great simulation and great that a premium title more comes to the iOS platform ... the Steam Version has two small expansions ... I hope they will come to the iPad, too! Mythbuster Well-Known Member Nov 19, 2008 1,260 22 38 Journalist In the middle of nowhere #6 Mythbuster, Jun 8, 2014 I have both versions and yes, it is a great 'game' ... if you want to call it a game. It is a very well and realistic made political simulation. If you think, you could make it better than Obama & Co, you can test it. You will see, how many things are depending on each other and how fast you can get into deep trouble ... Well worth the asking price! Meridian99 Well-Known Member Nov 20, 2012 66 0 0 #7 Meridian99, Jun 8, 2014 I think that was a misconception because of people not using the difficulty slider, and also the game has been patched since then. But havent played it myself so not sure Meridian99 Well-Known Member Nov 20, 2012 66 0 0 #8 Meridian99, Jun 8, 2014 Anyone has any impressions on the ipad UI? Does it work well? Mythbuster Well-Known Member Nov 19, 2008 1,260 22 38 Journalist In the middle of nowhere #9 Mythbuster, Jun 8, 2014 Yep, very well! I would even say better than with the mouse at my Notebook. undeadcow Well-Known Member Dec 4, 2010 9,486 2 36 Houston, TX #10 undeadcow, Jun 8, 2014 This seems like a great addition to iOS, always glad to see more quality ports - especially simulation games even if they don't always get the fanfare they deserve. pbb76 Well-Known Member Jun 22, 2009 140 0 16 #11 pbb76, Jun 8, 2014 I predict I will cave and own this by tonight! volcanopele Well-Known Member Patreon Bronze Mar 27, 2011 303 0 16 Planetary Geologist AZ, US #12 volcanopele, Jun 8, 2014 Last edited: Jun 8, 2014 And don't forget that different countries are easier than others. Great Britain is easy mode compared to say, the United States. I second the suggestion for the two expansions. The latest one really allows you to go down the rabbit hole of possibilities of either the far right or far left and see where their policies lead you. Likely an assassin's bullet. As far as the UI is concerned, it doesn't feel like they did ANY optimization for the touch screen. You can definitely see this on screens like the new policy selector or at the beginning where you choose party names. It feels exactly like the PC version (for good or ill). I also think the price is a bit ambitious. Now I bought it, sure, but I am a bit of a political wonk, so this game is right up my alley. But I think it should have been discounted to $5. Not saying this isn't a premium game, but the price now isn't far off the Steam version, and there you have access to Steam Workshop, where you can quickly expand the game with more countries. LordGek Well-Known Member Staff Member Patreon Silver Patreon Gold Patreon Bronze Feb 19, 2009 12,282 141 63 Software QA Engineer Saratoga, CA, USA #13 LordGek, Jun 8, 2014 How's the replayability with any given country? If I find a winning combo of policies when playing the US is it safe to assume that same combo of policies would work just as well in a replay of the US? Does the game track any sort of meta stats like highscores for each run? volcanopele Well-Known Member Patreon Bronze Mar 27, 2011 303 0 16 Planetary Geologist AZ, US #14 volcanopele, Jun 8, 2014 There are random events that can help spice up each playthrough, like ministerial scandals or stock market crashes. While it is easy to stay the course for countries like the UK, for the US, they can dramatically effect your strategy if you wish to get re-elected because your electability seems to always be on a knife's edge. I haven't tried the US on the iPad, but I know that pre-expansion my strategy had been to slash the military in order to help balance the budget, but after the expansions, that caused a whole host of problems (without a strong military, the US was unable to protect its oil supplies, so repeated attacks on foreign sources of oil caused the economy to go into a tailspin) Royce Well-Known Member Mar 22, 2011 4,240 180 63 #15 Royce, Jun 8, 2014 I wouldn't hold your breath. This is from the same dev as Gratuitous Space Battles. Even though this is under his own publisher name, both are 3rd party ports and he is very anti-iPad as a gaming platform. GSB did receive 1 update shortly after release to address some major bugs, but was never updated again to bring the expansion packs or eliminate additional bugs. I suppose if this game does significant better in sales then there might be some hope. Mythbuster Well-Known Member Nov 19, 2008 1,260 22 38 Journalist In the middle of nowhere #16 Mythbuster, Jun 8, 2014 The PC versions were from the same guy, yes! But he did not make the iPad versions. The wrote himself that he had real 'bad luck' with the guy who made the first iPad conversation ... so I really hope he has more luck with the company which translated this game into iOS ... Pocketnova Well-Known Member Oct 15, 2012 2,346 0 0 #17 Pocketnova, Jun 8, 2014 Oh yes! I was really looking forward to this! How did I miss it? Buying as soon as I get home. badmanj Well-Known Member Mar 16, 2009 1,886 24 38 Software developer Reading, England http://www.underground-collective.com #18 badmanj, Jun 8, 2014 Game looks good though a little concerned about a comment I saw about the graphics looking quite pixellated on any Retina iPad. Also a little surprised at this comment from the developer: "Ive priced it at a BARGAIN price of $9.99. This is cheaper than on PC, but then its fixed resolution, no mod support etc, so I suspect its reasonable. I really dont care about anyone on the app store complaining about the price. You can basically f*ck off and die in a fire if you think the game is overpriced. Thats the official developer & publisher position BTW. People who think $10 is overpriced for a game should go play angry birds of flappy birds, or similar fare and stop whining ." Either he's a 12 year old child prodigy or could do with lessons in diplomacy (which is a little ironic when you think about it!)... Anyway... one other question on the game itself... does it have a very 'U.S. bias' regarding gameplay? For example, is there a concept such as 'Congress' - does the government adopt a US-centric structure? kalkara Member Mar 12, 2014 7 0 0 #19 kalkara, Jun 9, 2014 Source or bullshit. Royce Well-Known Member Mar 22, 2011 4,240 180 63 #20 Royce, Jun 9, 2014 If that surprises you, you're obviously not familiar with the developer Here's a link to that blog post: http://positech.co.uk/cliffsblog/2014/06/08/democracy-3-is-now-on-something-called-an-ipad-whatever-that-is-d/ Anyway, I don't have any problem with the post. He's an irreverent guy who has no love for iPad as a gaming platform, but he's still willing to have a couple of his games ported over to test the waters. The point of the post was more likely to preempt complaints from PC players who paid more for the same game, rather than to communicate anything to iPad players. (You must log in or sign up to post here.) Show Ignored Content Page 1 of 4 1 2 3 4 Next > Share This Page Tweet Your name or email address: Do you already have an account? No, create an account now. Yes, my password is: Forgot your password? Stay logged in
I've tried the PC version and my head exploded; it's not a game to be taken lightly. That said, it's very polished, elegant and, most importantly, unique. I haven't tried the iOS version but I will soon, can definitely say that the interface should work well with touch input. I've been looking forward to this ever since it was announced, cheers for the heads up!
It look really interesting and unique, but all I keep hearing (from ios and pc) from reviews is that it's super easy and not worth the money. Seems there are only 2 political parties, voting day is a non event, players constantly get popularity of high 90s % even if they have outlandish policies, nobody objects to policies and if you create a policy that negatively affects your country, you just bring in another policy that does the opposite and it's fixed. All in all, sounds like very little 'simulation'.
A great simulation and great that a premium title more comes to the iOS platform ... the Steam Version has two small expansions ... I hope they will come to the iPad, too!
I have both versions and yes, it is a great 'game' ... if you want to call it a game. It is a very well and realistic made political simulation. If you think, you could make it better than Obama & Co, you can test it. You will see, how many things are depending on each other and how fast you can get into deep trouble ... Well worth the asking price!
I think that was a misconception because of people not using the difficulty slider, and also the game has been patched since then. But havent played it myself so not sure
This seems like a great addition to iOS, always glad to see more quality ports - especially simulation games even if they don't always get the fanfare they deserve.
And don't forget that different countries are easier than others. Great Britain is easy mode compared to say, the United States. I second the suggestion for the two expansions. The latest one really allows you to go down the rabbit hole of possibilities of either the far right or far left and see where their policies lead you. Likely an assassin's bullet. As far as the UI is concerned, it doesn't feel like they did ANY optimization for the touch screen. You can definitely see this on screens like the new policy selector or at the beginning where you choose party names. It feels exactly like the PC version (for good or ill). I also think the price is a bit ambitious. Now I bought it, sure, but I am a bit of a political wonk, so this game is right up my alley. But I think it should have been discounted to $5. Not saying this isn't a premium game, but the price now isn't far off the Steam version, and there you have access to Steam Workshop, where you can quickly expand the game with more countries.
How's the replayability with any given country? If I find a winning combo of policies when playing the US is it safe to assume that same combo of policies would work just as well in a replay of the US? Does the game track any sort of meta stats like highscores for each run?
There are random events that can help spice up each playthrough, like ministerial scandals or stock market crashes. While it is easy to stay the course for countries like the UK, for the US, they can dramatically effect your strategy if you wish to get re-elected because your electability seems to always be on a knife's edge. I haven't tried the US on the iPad, but I know that pre-expansion my strategy had been to slash the military in order to help balance the budget, but after the expansions, that caused a whole host of problems (without a strong military, the US was unable to protect its oil supplies, so repeated attacks on foreign sources of oil caused the economy to go into a tailspin)
I wouldn't hold your breath. This is from the same dev as Gratuitous Space Battles. Even though this is under his own publisher name, both are 3rd party ports and he is very anti-iPad as a gaming platform. GSB did receive 1 update shortly after release to address some major bugs, but was never updated again to bring the expansion packs or eliminate additional bugs. I suppose if this game does significant better in sales then there might be some hope.
The PC versions were from the same guy, yes! But he did not make the iPad versions. The wrote himself that he had real 'bad luck' with the guy who made the first iPad conversation ... so I really hope he has more luck with the company which translated this game into iOS ...
Game looks good though a little concerned about a comment I saw about the graphics looking quite pixellated on any Retina iPad. Also a little surprised at this comment from the developer: "Ive priced it at a BARGAIN price of $9.99. This is cheaper than on PC, but then its fixed resolution, no mod support etc, so I suspect its reasonable. I really dont care about anyone on the app store complaining about the price. You can basically f*ck off and die in a fire if you think the game is overpriced. Thats the official developer & publisher position BTW. People who think $10 is overpriced for a game should go play angry birds of flappy birds, or similar fare and stop whining ." Either he's a 12 year old child prodigy or could do with lessons in diplomacy (which is a little ironic when you think about it!)... Anyway... one other question on the game itself... does it have a very 'U.S. bias' regarding gameplay? For example, is there a concept such as 'Congress' - does the government adopt a US-centric structure?
If that surprises you, you're obviously not familiar with the developer Here's a link to that blog post: http://positech.co.uk/cliffsblog/2014/06/08/democracy-3-is-now-on-something-called-an-ipad-whatever-that-is-d/ Anyway, I don't have any problem with the post. He's an irreverent guy who has no love for iPad as a gaming platform, but he's still willing to have a couple of his games ported over to test the waters. The point of the post was more likely to preempt complaints from PC players who paid more for the same game, rather than to communicate anything to iPad players.