The 2016 U.S. presidential election was incredibly interesting. It had all the makings of fiction, but it was real life. Upon looking over the election and everything that happened, it is now easy to compare the election to a game. Like any game, it had two clear opponents, interesting gameplay, set rules and an ultimate winner.
Two Sides
In the 2016 election, after a very wild primary season, there were ultimately two main opponents. Hillary Clinton was representing the Democratic Party. Donald Trump was representing the Republican Party. Clinton was a well-known politician and former First Lady of the United States. Trump, who was also well known, had no political roots. He was a businessman, best known for his incredible wealth.
Interesting Gameplay
Perhaps one thing that really ties the election to a game is the interesting gameplay. There was no lack of it in this election.
It was wild from the very beginning where the Republican Party had a huge candidate list in the primaries. There were 17 candidates vying it out for the Republican nomination. As time went on, candidates continued to drop out until there were only three left: Ted Cruz, John Kasich, and Donald Trump. In the end, Trump won the nomination, but there was a lot of inner turmoil within the party.
Many Republicans refused to support Trump. There was a lot of talk in the media about trying to stop him from becoming the nominee at the convention, but ultimately, he was ruled the winner and the Republican nominee.
On the Democrat side, the two main candidates were Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. Sanders is an Independent senator but ran Democratic in the primaries. Clinton was expected to be the forerunner from the very beginning. However, Sanders gained a very loyal following. He won quite a few states and gave Clinton a run for her money. In the end, though, he couldn’t overcome Clinton’s superdelegate lead that she held from the beginning. Clinton easily became the nominee.
Once the actual election season began and there were the two major party nominees, things continued to be very tumultuous. Clinton had to deal with reports of her illegally sending confidential emails containing classified information on non-secure, private servers. In addition, her overall demeanor was often criticized as being cold and non-approachable.
However, Trump pretty much maintained the focus of the media. With constant attacks on his actions and words, the media painted a picture of a man who had racist and misogynistic tendencies.
Both candidates suffered from very low approval rates. However, Trump managed to gain a huge following, which eventually led to him winning the election. It was this final inning of the game that really threw everyone for a loop because Trump was never expected to win. All projections had Clinton easily winning the race. It was a major upset in U.S. political history. It was comparable to Super Bowl LI, which occurred a few months after the election and saw the Patriots come back from an almost certain loss to win.
Rules
Similar also to a game, the election had set rules. The people voted for who they wanted to win, but in the end, the actual president was elected through an electorate process. The U.S. has a representative government, which means the popular vote does not always reflect who will win the election. Each state has a certain number of electors who will actually cast the vote for the candidate. How the electors vote is usually based on who won the state’s election.
Trump did not win the popular vote, but thanks to strategic campaigning, he managed to secure 304 electoral votes against Clinton’s 232 to win the office.
Winner
All games must have a winner. In the 2016 election, that winner was Donald Trump. He became the 45th President of the United States on January 20, 2017. As is often the case in a game, people who were not fans of the winner were not happy with the outcome of the election, and the beginning of Trump’s presidency was marked with many protests and uneasiness.
Turning It Into a Game
The Electoral.io online game
This election was so much like a game that developers actually created a real game based on it. If you visit http://electoral.io/, you will find a game that pits Clinton against Trump in this historic election. However, you can control the outcome this time. You are in the driver’s seat as you choose which candidate you will support. You are playing against people from all over the world who are also working to get either Trump or Clinton elected by collecting votes and money.
The 2016 Presidential election was a completely new ball game. It did not turn out as anyone expected and had many unexpected moments along the way, but that is why developers decided it could easily become a game.
