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Win The White House
Manage your campaign and rack up electoral votes to win the American presidency.
In Win the White House, students take on the role of a presidential candidate for the United States of America. Players must manage the entire campaign from primary season all the way through the general election. To win, students use a mix of time and resource management to gain control of as many electoral votes as they can over a ten-week campaign. During each round, players must choose the proper use of media, public engagements, polling, and fund raising.
As other games in the iCivics series, Win the White House allows players to learn key civics knowledge and 21st century skills. In addition, students will learn how understanding individual state politics, voter preference, and media can affect a campaign.
Funder:
Hearst Foundations
Contact:
http://www.icivics.org/contact
Screenshot:
Review the Game
I liked the basic concept of the game. It is so hard getting people to understand the basic concepts of the presidential primary and electoral college politics.
Here are some things that I would do differently.
Most importantly, pacing. Things like the radio tower, do not add to the game and provides a moment for the students to walk away.
Why pick five issues to start? They’ve already answered those correctly. Let them pick and try to get right the top issues for each state.
The answers are too easy for middle school students. If you want to make it easier for them, add a training component, like ask for advice from your campaign manager.
Play the primary and the general election through. This points out how you need to address different issues to win within the party and in the general election.
Do, the polling, but have the results come back from all states.
I would also change the amount of money raised and how they use it. Can do any combination of five things in a turn (fund raise, appearance, media buy). The fund raising would still require a speech. Only difference is that the answer affects the amount of money raised and not momentum.
One last thought, is the adviser Henry Kissinger?
Anyway, good structure. Just needs some tweaking.
Review the Game