Don Bemont

Reply to It's not just the Americans in Politics JoeUser Forums

I would hope that no one thinks that this prison abuse is anything approaching other horrors in Iraq, including, of course, those of Saddam Hussein. I'm sure that some may be howling as part of a partisan politics thing, but I am equally sure that no one really believes this is anything approaching that level. Personally, I think, though, that the situation goes a long ways towards demonstrating Colin Powell's wisdom that "You break it, you o

Stardock download in Political Machine JoeUser Forums

When I try to go to Stardock Central this afternoon, I get news of an update and it begins to download, then crashes and I am booted out. Is this just my computer, or are others having trouble with this update?

Reply to Competing (?) product - another presedential campaign game in Political Machine JoeUser Forums

Frogboy, since you sounded skeptical, I ran another game at masochistic, again with no use of campaigning or advertising. This time I carried every state except Texas and Alaska, and the money still looks low for the AI. This may indicate a problem in the way the AI is using its available money -- hopefully this is already fixed in the coming version.

Reply to Competing (?) product - another presedential campaign game in Political Machine JoeUser Forums

BTW, that screenshot couldn't be from a masochistic setting because the AI gets free money on that one and the money spent is too low. I'm 99% sure that the game was run on the masochistic level, although I suppose there is a minisucule chance that the setting got lost due to repeatedly re-setting to get the "re

Reply to Evil in International JoeUser Forums

I don't really care to know the individual motives of the murderers involved. I don't need to analyse the situation before taking action. (I am implying that any of the above posters was implying such a thing.) There is no possible justification. This qualifies as evil and the response should be to find the killers if possible an

Reply to Evil in International JoeUser Forums

Although I've heard about the impact of visual media, I didn't think that using evil as an explanation was what was effective. My point is that O G San wants a plan based on analysis of the situation rather than a simplistic emotional response to the situation. Analysis was one of the trademarks of the the

Reply to Evil in International JoeUser Forums

Using "evil" as an explanation, rather than merely a description, is pre-Enlightenment dogma. This is a very telling statement. Logic is a value of the printed page era. In particular, a value that value that spread through an increasing portion of the population, allowing the democratic values that t

Reply to Competing (?) product - another presedential campaign game in Political Machine JoeUser Forums

Frogboy, the explanation sounds reassuring, but I don't think that that is the way the game feels to the player. As an experiment, I turned up the difficulty level to the highest (masochistic) and followed this strategy: * In the early weeks, I simply went around setting up outpost headquarters in a massive number of states, stopping only for fundraising and a few tv appearances (most of which

Reply to The Politics of Media in Politics JoeUser Forums

What is there to dissent from? The situation you are describing is, in my view, the most significant challenge to our democratic tradition. By what magic will a majority of voters arrive at wise decisions, when the vast majority are getting their information in this manner? As Neil Postman put it in one of his books, most everyday citizens could have walked past the first fourteen presidents on the street and not recognized them, y

Reply to Competing (?) product - another presedential campaign game in Political Machine JoeUser Forums

I have played both, and have no doubt that the dream game is somewhere in the middle. PF does significantly better at making the player feel like the issues really matter. I don't mean to pretend to be an expert on marketing, but it seems to me that people who don't care about political issues will not be buying any political game, and those that do care about political issues will want to hear that they are beating up their opponent on abortion, tha

Reply to We need more feedback in Political Machine News JoeUser Forums

My main criticisms : Issues seem underpowered. I tended to be able to gain a very substantial lead before creating a single ad or making a single campaign speech. Fix this and I think you will have a big hit with this game; leave it as is, and I think it will be received as just so-so. You simply do not feel a compelling need to carve out a position on the issues as you play the game, and this takes away a lot of the sense of strategy

Reply to The Politics of Media in Politics JoeUser Forums

Television news is basically a compilation of what current matters can best be turned into entertainment, most frequently through vivid film footage. Politics is covered as though it were sports coverage with far more attention to the tension of the contest than the underlying ideas. There is almost no coverage of any ideas which cannot be turned into visuals. However, this alone is not an attack on those that create newscasting. Rather, th

Reply to Rational vs. Emotional Thought in Politics JoeUser Forums

I wonder how accurate their analysis of brain waves is. As I had always felt, and then found confirmation in a William Glassner book, science is much better at taking pictures of brain activity than it is at interpreting what those pictures mean. In this case, I am especially suspicious because the clear distinction between logical thought and emotional thought is pretty much impossible. It seems to me that most actions and most thoughts are

Reply to Dress Codes and Low Roads and No Abodes Allow Escape in Politics JoeUser Forums

please give one reason to feel optimism is something other than a fool's errand. Present a 'one-chance-in-a-million' scenario. Thank you for the compliment in your message. As to optimism, I think that a look into the future always appears gloomy. For example, if five years ago, I had seen into the f

Reply to Dress Codes and Low Roads and No Abodes Allow Escape in Politics JoeUser Forums

The crisis in education today is among the most---and may be the most---profound crisis in our society. It is a crisis, however, not of curricula or reading material, but a spiritual and political crisis that has to do, in my estimation, with willful ignorance and greedy self-righteousness, on the one hand, confronting hopelessne

Reply to Dress Codes and Low Roads and No Abodes Allow Escape in Politics JoeUser Forums

If only America could get as worked up over students' reading, writing, math, history, and critical thinking as they do about petty rules. By this, I mean community, and parents, and teachers, and administrators, and school board members. And I mean those who are hell bent on more rules, and those who are hell bent against those rules.

Reply to further beta feedback in Political Machine JoeUser Forums

I like the idea of picking your VP at week 20. It would also make the game even more re-playable if you had an option of playing with a wide array of fictional VP candidates, and they were very different from each other -- different levels of national appeal, different home states (of course), different levels of home state appeal, and different possibilities of a scandal being discovered in their background. Thus, the leader could pick a "sa

Reply to Bush Tells The Truth in International JoeUser Forums

I agree. Any move towards American politicians saying what they really believe, rather than communicating in centrist images and focus group tested phrases is worthwhile. Whether the American public agrees or disagrees with the policy, it is out there for discussion and informed voting.

Reply to Political Machine beta released in Politics JoeUser Forums

One more thing. I've been noticing that the colors on the popular vote map are not very helpful. You can be seriously misled and find that the "almost black" state has become a runaway for your opponent.

Reply to Windowed Mode + Manual? in Political Machine JoeUser Forums

Political Machine forum isn't remembering my GalCiv/drengin.net account. I really shouldn't have to log in again. Same problem here.

Reply to McCain -Feingold Backfires in Politics JoeUser Forums

Well, this sounds different that your original post, although you still trouble me with your focus on self (having predicted correctly) rather than the good of the country. A lot of what you are saying escapes me: They just live in denial of the fact that neither Party cares a whit for them In this

Reply to McCain -Feingold Backfires in Politics JoeUser Forums

The smugness of your message is kind of puzzling. Yes, there is an ongoing war over the extent to which we want to allow concentrations of wealth to affect the political process. Yes, McCain-Feinstein was one battle in that war, and yes, the Bush administration's reading of that law in this particular way is another battle. Conservatives (I gather you are one) will be absolutely sure that the FEC has the correct reading of the la

Reply to Political Machine beta released in Politics JoeUser Forums

One more thought... If endorsements are powerful, then they should not be available to everyone at the same price. Your position on issues (and your record, if you incorporated anything of that sort) should have an impact. A candidate with a "to heck with the environment" stump speech -- and possibly past record -- is simply not going to get the environmental group's endorsement, while a candidate running mostly on pro-environmental issues is going

Reply to Political Machine beta released in Politics JoeUser Forums

I played a "normal" difficulty game, and found this much more challenging. Assuming you are looking for feedback, here goes: 1) I am troubled by speeches and ads claiming that "my opponent opposes ______." Does anything affect how well this works? Does the opponent's lack of statements on the subject, for example, leave him vulnerable? 2) Related to this, i

Reply to Political Machine beta released in Politics JoeUser Forums

Windows XP, 512 RAM, GeForce4 Ti4400 (driver 5.2.1.6), A7N8X Asus Mobo, AMD Athlon XP 2600+ Game played on cakewalk level Problems As far as I can see, the game make me (Kerry) the incumbent even when I try to correct this before beginning. Highlighting of issues for for speeches, ads is problematic -- the blue highlight can easily end up covering two issues After building up political capital, the main screen