The player plays the role of a prime minister running a country leading a team - played by AI agents - of staffers. You start by talking about your ideal government, and the game builds an organization that suits.
It's simCountry but very little clicking.
Each 'day' starts with a verbal briefing over zoom with your staff. They tell you what's going on and then you tell everyone what to do.
They probably do it.
It probably has an effect, largely dictated by studies and historical record.
You can fire the ones who suck.
You have a court system and some senator-types who are largely NPCs but have themes and goals like planetary advisors of old space planetary management sims.
You don't know who's lying, you don't know who's effective, you don't know whether the approval numbers are honest.
If you get too bad or you offend a whackadoo cult you get Kirked or Nixoned. It's all a turn-based thing where the entire interface is you talking into a zoom call - with admins, with talk show hosts, with your spies.
Good luck, Senor Presidente. Try not to get "recalled" or accidentally discover socialism.
"hey portal, call my kids" and it shows up on the fucking TV. That's the workflow. It lights the TV, switches inputs and starts a call. Boom.
microphone array works from everywhere
digital-ptz camera was game-changing
"hey portal, answer call" when the TV was off would light the TV, select the right HDMI and start the call. The workflow again was a single command.
setup: plug in HDMI, plug in power . Use QR to auth the unit to your account.
it was loss-leadered at like $100, which is why we outfitted the entire family during covid for the cost of a single tablet.
How it's going:
the M agent is dead, so its voice control for calling no longer works.
the Alexa link is dead, so it no longer works as an Alexa agent for home control
the streamer apps are dead, so it can't do Netflix, britbox, prime, etc
zoom is too weird to set up with the remote, so no zoom
video works
Cam still crushes it
sound still rocks
poking the remote HDMI-CECs over to the portal still, like what voice commands did
But it still - and here's the thing - is a single set-top appliance with an easy UI and controller that puts video chat on the damned TV
Grandma can no longer use her voice, but she can use the tivo-style remote to start calls. And, again, they're on this gorgeous big screen so nana can see everyone.
I simply cannot describe the difference between a phone, even a tablet, and a monster fucking TV image to make you feel really connected with people of normal size. I'd say it again if I thought it'd make a difference.
Tell us you bask in the freedom earned with the blood of iroquois who held the line at queenston heights until the british could reinforce and rescue their wounded in a landmark display of cooperation, and just don't care.
My dad invited me to meet him at work, one day. It was a bad week for me and the new step-mother getting along, and so I wasn't surprised. We took a little walk from the shop and stopped to chat.
"I've given you all 25 years of my life," was when the conversation changed, mid-speech. "Now it's time for me. It's my time."
It was how he invited me to go live with my mom, or just go. It began a bit of a formative time filled with stress and anger, and I daresay we've not been the same since.
a corruption metric is a different question, and there's a chart for that.