Possibilities for computer-run game

[wellsoberlin]

You could have more complicated rules for elections if you used a
computer to calculate them. I ran some experiments using Mathematica
in 2002 and I have posted two Mathematica notebooks containing that
work.

The basic idea is to split a bloc's vote up according to a Skew
formula. If a bloc rated one party as 20 points and another as 19 the
bloc's votes would be split almost evenly, slightly favoring the 20
point party. But if it was 20-15, the 20-point part would get most of
the bloc's vote (not just 4/7). The ClassicScenario notebook shows
how to construct a distribution of bloc votes by district, and how to
use the Skew function to calculate election results given a table of
bloc ratings. If you have had programming experience you might be
able to figure out what's going on; Mathematica notation is pretty
transparent.

The trouble is, to experiment with this you have to have access to
Mathematica. If you are connected to a University, you probably do
have access to it. Otherwise, Mathematica is expensive. and so is not
suitable for a group effort.

I suggest using Google Docs for this purpose. You can read about it
here: http://www.google.com/google-d-s/tour1.html
This allows you to keep a spreadsheet on line that others can see and
(if you give them permission) they can also edit it. I have enough
experience with Excel to think that it would be straightforward to set
up a spreadsheet with all the data in it and use it to calculate
successive elections and keep party records updated according to how
they voted in legislative sessions. You could run a game with a
Gamesmaster and a computer with a spreadsheet on it. You could also
run an email game this way.

When I get a chance I will experiment with putting the data in
ClassicScenario on a Google spreadsheet and posting it.

Charles Wells