Political Machine 2024 video game by Plymouth-based company allows everyone to create own strategy

PLYMOUTH, Mich. (FOX 2) - A Plymouth-based developer and publisher of games and desktop software just unveiled this year’s version of a political strategy game.

"The Wall Street Journal pointed out in 2016 that only Stardock and FiveThirtyEight predicted Trump would win," said Chris Kowal.

It is a pretty impressive claim to fame some savvy political analyst or sophisticated data aggregator come up with that? Nope.  

It was Stardock Entertainment’s political strategy game series and this year's version: The Political Machine 2024 has just been released.

It allows players to compete in the primaries to build their own political manifesto, with votes from virtual ballots - a decoding of digital representative democracy.

"The game has been made at Stardock since the election of 2004," said William Erdman, Sr. Game designer Stardock. "Every four years they like to put out a new installment that features new candidates, new issues (and) updates the gameplay."

And 2024 is no exception. This iteration according to Erdman delivers one of the game’s most significant updates, including political action cards.

"In the game, you get to either pick a current presidential candidate or you get to make your own," Erdman said. "Then you spend several weeks/turns going from state to state, making speeches, placing political headquarters, playing political action cards, just trying to raise your enthusiasm - so you can win the election."

People who already have some political engagement politicos, political aficionados seem to be drawn to the game, as well as those with casual interest.

In some ways politics is a game, why wouldn’t game makers also be drawn to it?

"The United States is already laid out like a game board. Each state is worth a specific number of points," Erdman said. "You get so many points, you in essence win."

"Building a really advanced simulation is what we love to do," said Kowal. "We take that and put it into a space game, a political game, a corporate game. It’s all about the simulation.

The Plymouth-based developer and publisher of games and desktop software was founded in 1991.

"We’re committed to Michigan, we want to grow in Michigan," Kowal said. "We’d hope to see the Midwest grow with talent."

For more on the game, go to the site here: politicalmachine.com