Presidential Adaptation

You may recall my review of The Presidential game from about a month ago. Today we adaptated it for more players. Grabbing chips, coinage, etc. from other games, we made it a six-player (thus six-candidate) game by including the Green Party, the Constitution Party, the Libertarians, and an Independent candidate. We learned about the ideologies and goals of those parties as we played.

As I looked up information on those other "major" parties, I discovered that there are 31 nationally ranked "minor" parties, as well as regional parties, the majority of whom I'd never heard of. Even though we disagreed with most of the platforms and philosophies, it was fascinating to read about such parties as the Transhumanist Party, the Black Riders Liberation Party, and the United States Pirate Party.

In real life, of course, this country is still dominated by a two-party system, regardless of how many other political parties there are. That's unfortunate in many ways. Though our adaptation isn't likely to be a reality any time soon, it did ignite learning and discussion in addition to changing the dynamic of our game play.