Zkribbler sits exiled in his alpine chalet, sipping on a cup of hot Swiss Miss chocolate and rum, pondering how he got here. It began with a simple video on YouTube by Quill18, which shows a really cool game in which the player takes over the reins of a troubled nation:
After messing around with the free demo, Zkrib bought the Democracy 2. The first scenario went splendidly. It was the same scenario played by Quill18, but instead of focusing on raising the GDP, as Quill did, Zkribbler focused on improving literacy and fighting pollution, and later in taking over health care with his now-celebrated Zkribcare. Zkribbler was re-elected with 90% of the vote the first time; and was re-elected with 98% of the vote the second time. Okay, this was in a country where 70% of the people are socialists; so not all that hard.
The next scenario was in a highly capitalist country, which is a harder game to play. Democracy 2 is one in which government policies are used to fix problems. In this scenario, it's hard to attack, say, pollution because things like emission controls cut back on the freedom of capitalists and their ability to turn a profit. Nevertheless, Zkrib won election with 52% of the vote the first time :relief: and with 67% of the vote the second time. Unfortunately, class warfare broke out, literally. The poor were shooting the rich, this despite Zkrib having beefed up the army and police force a lot, instituting phone tapping, securing the borders and even instituting one-a-day school prayers. The "weed" of class warfare was a tough one to dig out.
After nibbling at various minor cures, which did not work, the tax-haven status of the nation was revoked. This did a lot to restoring "equality," but rich investors began leaving for other climes. And still, class warfare continued. After giving some thought to decreasing the high sales tax, it was decided to repeal the tax altogether. That did it. The back of class warfare was broken. :) However, the business cycle turned negative and a certain, unnamed foreign country's mortgage-backed securities turned out to be worthless, leading to a worldwide "market meltdown." The combination of the loss of sale tax revenue, the recession, and the market meltdown, ripped by budget from being in surplus to being in grievous deficit. Public debt soared. :(
The sales tax was brought back [but at a more "average" rate]. The deficit lessened, albeit still continued growing. The nation still had faith in Zkribbler, with his popularity climbing to 85%! As the government was building up enough political power to institute taxing corporations, the perfidious and disloyal cabinet struck -- ousting Zkribbler in a coup de tete, "justified" by the climbing debt.
So here he sits, bitter that he was ousted when 85% of the electorate still backed him, and by a bunch of clowns who have no chance of running the nation any better than he did. :mad:
After messing around with the free demo, Zkrib bought the Democracy 2. The first scenario went splendidly. It was the same scenario played by Quill18, but instead of focusing on raising the GDP, as Quill did, Zkribbler focused on improving literacy and fighting pollution, and later in taking over health care with his now-celebrated Zkribcare. Zkribbler was re-elected with 90% of the vote the first time; and was re-elected with 98% of the vote the second time. Okay, this was in a country where 70% of the people are socialists; so not all that hard.
The next scenario was in a highly capitalist country, which is a harder game to play. Democracy 2 is one in which government policies are used to fix problems. In this scenario, it's hard to attack, say, pollution because things like emission controls cut back on the freedom of capitalists and their ability to turn a profit. Nevertheless, Zkrib won election with 52% of the vote the first time :relief: and with 67% of the vote the second time. Unfortunately, class warfare broke out, literally. The poor were shooting the rich, this despite Zkrib having beefed up the army and police force a lot, instituting phone tapping, securing the borders and even instituting one-a-day school prayers. The "weed" of class warfare was a tough one to dig out.
After nibbling at various minor cures, which did not work, the tax-haven status of the nation was revoked. This did a lot to restoring "equality," but rich investors began leaving for other climes. And still, class warfare continued. After giving some thought to decreasing the high sales tax, it was decided to repeal the tax altogether. That did it. The back of class warfare was broken. :) However, the business cycle turned negative and a certain, unnamed foreign country's mortgage-backed securities turned out to be worthless, leading to a worldwide "market meltdown." The combination of the loss of sale tax revenue, the recession, and the market meltdown, ripped by budget from being in surplus to being in grievous deficit. Public debt soared. :(
The sales tax was brought back [but at a more "average" rate]. The deficit lessened, albeit still continued growing. The nation still had faith in Zkribbler, with his popularity climbing to 85%! As the government was building up enough political power to institute taxing corporations, the perfidious and disloyal cabinet struck -- ousting Zkribbler in a coup de tete, "justified" by the climbing debt.
So here he sits, bitter that he was ousted when 85% of the electorate still backed him, and by a bunch of clowns who have no chance of running the nation any better than he did. :mad: