Posted by
cavalier973 on Saturday, April 12, 2008 8:09:30 AM
This topic is going to have to be over two or more posts, since I have to actually work sometimes.
"Tropico" is a game developed by Poptop Software out of St. Louis, MO (which has since been taken over by TakeTwo Interactive). The game was in the Strategy/Simulation genre, and featured you as an "El Presidente" (dictator) of a small Caribbean island. As El Presidente, you had wide-ranging authority, but the majority of your decisions were economic. While you had to face re-election every five years, your position was more like that of a CEO of a corporation rather than a president of a country. (the Wikipedia article is here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropico)
It is a fun game (I bet you can still get it from Amazon.com or Ebay), as much for the ambience as for the actual gameplay. Latin music plays in the background, the landscape is beaches and palm trees. All the buildings have that "going to ruin" look about them--even if they've just been built! When you start, you have to fill out your own resume: Did you become the president by being elected, or by staging a communist uprising? What are your strengths? What are your faults? (You must choose two faults, like "Drunkard", "Compulsive Gambler", or "Ugly". Each of these affect gameplay)
Your citizens are unique; each has his own "worldview" and set of goals; these are broken down into factions. You have the Communists, the Religious, the Capitalists, the Intellectuals, the Environmentalists, and the Militarists. But each citizen may be and usually is a member of more than one faction. In order to keep winning elections honestly, you must placate each faction. For the Communists, you keep the income gap from growing too wide. For the Religious, you build churches and enact "pro-family" edicts. For the Capitalists, you build more advanced industry (a sawmill for the timber camp, a furniture factory for the sawmill). Intellectuals get schools and colleges. The Environmentalists want less heavy industry and edicts that control pollution. The Militarists want better pay for soldiers. And so on.
The economy of your island begins as a simple farming community. While all the farms you begin with grow corn, you can also grow bananas, pineapples, coffee, tobacco, papya, and sugar. You can also build ranches to grow cattle or goats. You can set up fishing wharves. Eventually, you start building heavier industry like lumber mills, funiture factories, canning factories, etc.
As in any good banana republic, you have the opportunity to engage in a little corruption. Enact a "Special Building Permit" Edict, and you start seeing money flow into your personal Swiss Bank Account. Every election, you have the option to stuff the ballot box, because Tropicans don't always know what's good for them, right? If you have a fort on your island, you can turn it into a tourist trap--or a torture chamber for those pesky opposition party members. One of the funnier buildings you can build is the "El Presidente's" childhood home. What's funny about that? You can build two of them.
But Economic policy will be your primary concern throughout the game. And it is to that that I will address my remarks when I next get the chance.