US Gov Sim

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US Gov Sim, short for United States Government Simulation and also further abbreviated USG, is a forum-based simulation of American politics. In addition to crafting and attempting to pass legislation as a member of Congress, players can also take on roles as media pundits, governors, cabinet members and presidential advisors, and now, lobbyists.

The game is played in resets, typically beginning with the last or the next upcoming real life election year with a backstory explaining how the real life American political leaders gave way to the player characters as well as introducing a few basic storylines to start. From there, the players pick things up and run with it. After some time has passed (usually a little over a year in real life time), the game resets. USG is a Long Runner, currently in reset 8.

The game can be found here here.

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USG provides examples of:

• Aborted Arc - Any arc that's still ongoing when a reset occurs; parts of storylines that are still ongoing when an admin leaves the staff and many storylines that just don't catch the attention of the players
• Adaptational Attractiveness - Politics has been called "Hollywood for Ugly People" in real life, but many players have actors and models or other attractive people for their avatars. This has been described as Self Fanservice and become a Berserk Button for several players.
• Alternate History - Technically you could say that all resets are alternate histories of a sort, but Reset 8 began with a brief, mini-reset period played out in an alternate 1990's.
• The Artifact - Players who stick around will end up playing different characters. They are typically referred to by the name of their most well-known character, which usually is not the same as that of their current character. When this happens, players can change their posting names to that name and not that of their characters.
• Attack of the Political Ad - Most high profile elections include significant political advertising campaigns, particularly the infamous "negbombs".
• The Bus Came Back - Players will often give discarded characters who have ended their active political career a new life as members of the media or lobbyists; an example of Truth in Television
• Cast Full of Gay - While not a majority, the proportion of players who are LGBT is much, much higher than in the general population; in addition, many straight players have played openly gay characters. At one point several resets ago, almost half of the US Senate was composed of openly gay characters. Today, this number has decreased and the personal lives of the characters have assumed less importance.
• Celebrity Paradox - Because most players use a real life celebrity or politician as a picture for their character, this has a tendency to happen.
• Character Development - In various degrees. Some players characters develop into fully realized characters, others become generic stand-ins for the players' own beliefs.
• China Takes Over the World - Played with across the resets. It's rarely played completely straight or completely averted. A certain wariness and coolness between the U.S. and China is present in every reset, but it never turns into outright hostility.
• The Danza - the few players that unwittingly use their real names for their characters.
• Deadpan Snarker - at least half of the players and virtually all of the staff thinks of themselves as one. It is the internet, after all.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him - the other common fate (along with Put on a Bus) of characters who have lost elections; also frequently happens when a player joins the admin staff.
• Expy - Several players have characters that are unabashedly based on older characters (who have been discarded due to election losses, scandal, or other reasons). Often, players will dispense with the cosmetic changes and directly clone a character from a past reset.
  • Samir Hawsawi is blatantly one of Osama Bin Laden.
• Expanded States of America - The most current reset features Puerto Rico as the 51st state.
• Glorious Mother Russia - Russia is a common adversary in the world of USG across resets, with the notable exception of the most recent one, which saw the United States back the winning side in an alternate-history 1990's Russian Civil War.
• Government Procedural - The point of the game.
• Hauled Before a Senate Subcommittee - A frequent response to any White House scandal, most infamously in the wake of Reset 5's Operation Purple Lemming, which saw Director of National Intelligence Clark Hayden perjure himself to cover for the President.
• Heel Face Revolving Door - Switching parties between the Republicans and Democrats is common, and most of the players who have been in the game for a long enough time will eventually join the other side, if only for a brief period. Everyone's mileage varies regarding which side is the heel and which side the face, of course. In an attempt to curb the "revolving door" aspect, there's a required waiting limit between party switches and a moratorium during elections.
• In Spite of a Nail - Varies. The news scenarios often have parallels, but are rarely full-out expys. On the other hand, real-life figures often tend to maintain prominence as NPCs decades after they've "left office." Of course, given the massive changes involved in setting up the initial scenario and introducing the player-characters to the political scene, it's more like "in spite of a fully automatic nailgun killing half the US Government"
• Life Imitates Art - "Life imitates USG" is a full-blown meme, due to the ability of admins in charge of coming up with news stories to predict, if not the details of future events, then at least often the broad strokes.
• Like You Would Really Do It - most of the players feel this way regarding the admins letting a scenario result in the launch of nuclear weapons or the U.S. losing a war. The first has been averted, hard, while the second has been played with.
• Meaningful Funeral - Reset 7 had one for President Magruder, which also served to memorialize the veteran player who played him. A Tear Jerker for many of the longstanding players who knew him well.
• Memetic Badass: Hayden.
• Mexicans With Machine Guns - play a starring role in Reset 7, first as antagonists serving the Mexican President Evil (who turns out to be a pawn of drug cartels) and taking part in a false flag operation to whip up nationalist sentiment against the U.S. They make a Heel Face Turn and become allies for the second half of the reset.
• Next Sunday AD - the resets begin in earnest at the next upcoming presidential or midterm election. It then transitions slowly to Twenty Minutes Into the Future as the resets usually last until the 2020s.
• Old Soldier - USG includes dozens of esteemed veterans who no longer play, but choose to lurk in discussion boards and occasionally shoot stories of their past exploits. When one returns to play (almost always briefly) it is a source of much speculation.
• Only Sane Employee - Being one is often part of the job description for party chair or admin
• Our Presidents Are Different
  • President Shackleton had a reputation as a President Jerkass
  • President Warren: President Iron
  • President Mason: President Scheming
  • President Mellis: President Minority
  • President Cullen: President Personable
  • President Pizzuto: President Action
• Put on a Bus - Happens to many characters following an unsuccessful election.
• Reset Button - pressed after about a year or two real life time (during which time the in game year has advanced to the early 2020s)
• The Rival - ask someone about AGS. Just try.
• Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies - what happens after a reset is announced
• Rules Lawyer - put it this way: there is a pinned thread in the general discussion forum entitled "The Law School Thread" and something like a third of the admin staff are lawyers in real life.
• Serious Business - players have compared the commitment involved in running in a presidential election to holding a full time job
• Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism - the players fall all over the scale. The game as a whole leans slightly towards the cynical side, possibly because more of the staff fall on the cynical side as well, though this is far from an ironclad rule. In addition, there are idealistic elements that are there for cynical reasons (claims about "not taking special interest money" can be made more easily when your opponent isn't getting any money either because PA Cs aren't being simulated).
• Unexpected Successor - Reset 7 began this way, with President Magruder assuming the Presidency from the position of Speaker of the House.
• The War Room - Although unseen by most players, one of the most exciting parts of the game and ends up driving much of the news for the rest of the game.
• We Want Our Jerk Back - Whenever Maynard is banned for trolling, someone thinks this
• Your Mom - According to Sykes Law, a minimum of 40 percent of all posts in the Admin forum should involve questioning the sexual practices of other admins mothers.