Mr President Game Analysis

To hold the position of President of the United States of America is a highly honored task. Every four years, someone new and possibly not seen before in politics has the shot at becoming the next President. It is very important for people to understand how this process works, and be inside the thoughts and decisions that a candidate must make to reach Capitol Hill. Thanks to the people at 3M, the presidential campaign can be simulated through the complex, yet easy to understand, board game, Mr. President: The Game of Campaign Politics. Recently in class, we ran the simulation/game. One game in particular, between Nathan Allen (R) and J.C. Reese (D) involved some strategy and number crunching. Which candidate/player used the better strategy?
President: The Game of Campaign Politics, they may find themselves struggling to get through one game, let alone apply a strategic way of thinking to their playing. Seasoned players of any game, whether it be Tic-Tac-Toe or a professional sport like Major League Baseball, will tell you that having some idea and plan of what you will be doing helps more than any amount of practice. If Derek Jeter went out on the New York mound unsure of who to pitch to, he’d be at the disadvantage. Back to the Mr. President game, there are many strategies to choose from, but some work better than others with the different political parties a candidate identifies with. In the real world, Republican candidates have used Southern Strategy, a set of ideals and morals that target racism of African Americans. This mindset and strategy helps the candidate gain support and votes from the Southern states. In the game, this wouldn’t work, because the player technically forces votes, and you don’t have to factor in the general population’s opinion or right of the voter to not vote for them. One strategy that would work for Republican players in the game would be to target a mix of 40% neutral states (states that don’t typically vote for one political party more than the other, 40% strongly Democratic voting states, and 20% Republican voting states (states that, in the past, have voted Republican). Campaigning in states that strongly sway towards Republicans in their voting shouldn’t be a main focus as it won’t take much persuasion to win over the peoples’ votes. An even mix of voting in neutral states and strongly Democratic states gives a Republican player an 80% majority of campaigning in states that they would generally not have much of a chance of winning, this is if they don’t campaign in those states at all. Campaigning in these states, especially the Democratic voting states, is crucial to getting the two-hundred and seventy electoral votes needed to win