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From: bruck@actcom.co.il (Uri Bruck)
Subject: Re: Simulation of political campaign?
Organization: ACTCOM - Internet Services in Israel
Date: Sat, 3 Jun 1995 20:06:34 GMT
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Jorn Barger (jorn@MCS.COM) wrote:


Homogenous?
I think social background can effect a person's politics.
One the things I dislike about simulations like SimCity is the way
social issues are completely ignored.
When they tear down the cheap housesw and build condos instead
they just that the same people who lived in the working class houses
will continue to live in the condos, while the reality is that 
they are probably thrown out into the street.
If in each region you consider some sort of demogrphics, not
for individuals of course, statisctically.
F'rinstance, people who belong to background A are more likely
 to believe  a candidate of party X who promises to change taxes.
note: the social background, the party the candidate represents, history
of that party, candidate in that region are all relevant.
Now, each person can belong to several different groups,
so you might like to represent blarge bunches of people,
say like, Males of ages 20-30 with income higher then X are likey
to follow such and such candidate, this does not meanthey will 
all change their opinion, it just means that support percentage
for that candidate will rise higher in that group than in another.

: Each region has a fixed population of voters, but their opinions
: on the issues vary statistically from region to region-- and this
: already can make for some interesting complications...

: Say you allow eight critical issues: abortion, social programs,
: defense spending, corporate accountability, distribution of tax
: burden, ...and three more?
Sounds like a good start.

: My real interest is in *how neatly* such issues split along party
: lines (not very neatly at all, I think).  If it were neat, then you
: could easily side with the majority on each topic, but where it's not,
: you'll have to understand how important each issue is to each voter,
: and what combinations of opinions they hold, in order to predict how
: many votes you'll lose (or gain) by taking a particular stand.


: So each candidate has to design a campaign that appeals to a majority
: in each region, which involves emphasizing your strong points,
: locally, and waffling (perhaps) when the mood of the region is at odds
: with a given stance.

Designing a campaign also has to do with timing.
You might like to give the candidate an option to  time his anoucements
to participate is certain events (does baby kissing win votes?)
To redirect some of the campaign folowing the polls.
Of course some of the voters may perceive the change and drop
their support because they feel he is trying too hard...
: And then you have various dimensions like charisma, sympathy from the
: press, advertising budget, dirty tricks, scandalous revelations...
I assume you want the human to play one of the candidates and the computer to 
play the other candidate/s and the voters.

: j

Looks like anohter intersting thread is going to develop here.
Uri

