A political simulation cannot do without an economic model that defines the reality in which the game plays out. Political decisions can’t just be limited to ethical issues or power for the sake of power, there has to be a way to actually influence and shape the world. The complication of doing so in a game that aims for a high degree of realism, is that politicians in most developed (and most undeveloped) countries don’t directly control the economy, but instead influence it through policy about issues like taxes, trade, industrial regulations, and so forth. In many strategy games, the game actually relies on the player(s) to make trade deals and so forth, but here the task is basically simulating an entire world’s private and public sectors, and the policies that influence them. Sounds easy right?
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Economy
Simulating a worldwide economy
An important reason work on Particracy Classic or its handful of reboots I have undertaken over the past decade has always stalled, was that my vision of the game requires simulating a worldwide economy, and that is just really hard. Not just a player-controlled economy you see in games like Civilization or Stellaris, but an actual private sector with supply, demand, exports and imports, and government taxes, investment and regulation on top of that. Sounds easy right? One person I was talking to a few years ago referred to this particular challenge as the problem that brought down the Soviet Union, which to be honest did daunt me a little. This time around however, I’ve gained a few insights and developed techniques that I’m confident will enable me to build a decent economic model to act as a foundation for the simulation aspects of the game.
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