President Forever 2008 is a sophisticated strategy simulation that delivers both gameplay and realism. President Forever 2008, which has been completely rebuilt from the 2004 edition, includes all presidential elections from 1992 through 2008. The default set-up covers the primaries and general election for 2008, including 16 default candidates from both major parties.

The goal is simple: win enough Electoral College votes to win the election. The latest release also allows candidates to achieve specific goals without winning the election. You are responsible for all aspects of your candidate’s election strategy: planning and buying advertising, conducting fundraising, giving speeches, recruiting high-profile and grassroots supporters and spinning news.

Players select their election year, party and candidate. President Forever 2008 has significantly more political parties, elections and candidates than the 2004 edition. Players can edit existing candidates or create new ones to add a historical or fictional figure or even themselves to the game. Candidates have varying levels of experience, issue familiarity and other attributes, which affect how they perform and how voters perceive them.

The U.S.A. is a big country, and a successful candidate must focus limited resources. Choose which states you will target, and decide how much of your candidate’s resources to expend pursuing each one. New in the 2008 edition, primaries and caucuses for each state are included as candidates from each party battle to win their nomination. Choose where to barnstorm, give policy speeches and raise funds.

Players can recruit new foot soldiers and big-name crusaders. Both can help spread your campaign message and drum up popular support. Foot soldiers work in their own states and can help get out the vote, while crusaders travel around according to your strategy. Special interest groups and news media can provide momentum-boosting endorsements – but gaining them may cost scarce political capital. The closer they are to your candidate on an issue, the more likely they are to provide an endorsement.

Establish and tweak your candidate’s key theme and beliefs on core issues. The issues change in each election year. Your candidate can change the party’s platform, which will attract some voters while alienating others. While moving to the center can help attract voters, there is also a chance existing supporters will leave after a dramatic policy shift.

Polling numbers are released once per week and allow you to gauge public support and opinion on campaign issues. Positive poll numbers can help gain much-needed momentum and sway undecided voters. Public polls can be unreliable while private polls are expensive.

Create ad campaigns to highlight your candidate’s campaign themes and platform. Better ads take more time and cost more money. The more they run, the more they cost. Carefully tailored advertising can build a campaign, but ineffective ads may waste valuable resources. Be careful – attack ads can tarnish opponents but can also backfire.

News stories can be spun to improve your candidate’s profile, for damage control and to turn the heat up on an opponent. From time to time, candidates are offered the chance to give interviews. These may help or hurt the campaign depending on attributes such as knowledge and charisma.

You can dig up scandals on opponents or hire spies to infiltrate an enemy’s headquarters. Be careful! This strategy can backfire if caught.

Throughout the game, as in real life, outside events will occur that affect the election. Your response, as well as your candidate’s attributes and position on the issues, will determine whether events help or hurt your campaign.

Almost everything in an election costs money. Run out, and your campaign will grind to a halt. Increasing the time spent fundraising will divert your candidate’s time from other aspects of the campaign, but will build up the campaign war chest.

Barnstorming, giving speeches and attending fundraisers deplete energy, which can only be restored by resting away from the campaign. Getting tired can lead to embarrassing gaffes.

Command points are the strategic resources available on a day-to-day basis. They are replenished each turn, but are limited – there are never enough for all possible courses of action your campaign may wish to pursue. Making a policy speech, holding a fundraiser, spinning news stories and recruiting foot soldiers and crusaders all deplete your candidate’s precious command points. You must ensure the maximum political value for each command point you expend.

Candidates have a fixed number of political points, which are used to tailor a campaign to particular political interests. These help gain endorsements, which in turn build momentum.

All of TheorySpark’s election software, including President Forever 2008, allows users to create their own scenarios. Strategy games’ fascination lies in the “What If?” factor. With these games, players’ options are limited only by their imaginations.

An active community has grown up around the game series, and hundreds of user-created scenarios are available at TheorySpark.com. They cover elections past, present, future and fictional. Recreate the rise of Caesar circa 48 B.C., campaign for votes on Mars in 2148, or relive the Protestant Reformation as it would have been were it decided at the ballot box.