I went back to Tropico. The original, which I hadn't played in many years, but played quite a bit before becoming a CivFanatic. (Actually, acquiring Civ III, my first Civ game, likely did correspond with a significant decrease in playing El Presidente).
I hadn't played with the expansions, which focus on tourism, so I tried the Spring Break scenario. The economy was solid, built initially on coffee, with a little bit of tourism, but I had 30 years to get $150K in tourism profits and 40 spring breakers at once, so in the 1970s I went on a hotel-and-beach-resort bonanza. It was just enough, and in 1979 I achieved victory.
Now I've started a random-map island, and to make things a bit more challenging I bumped the economic difficulty up to hard, and spend all of my foreign aid for the first few years increasing the splendor of the area around my palace. This was almost my undoing. Rumor had it that one of my two soldiers thought he might be a better presidente than I, and when the other soldier unexpectedly died - we're sure there was no foul play whatsoever - the questionable one launched a coup attempt. Rather than panic, El Presidente telephoned his new friend Fidel up in Havana, and offered top dollar for a few experienced revolutionaries to move to Tropico for a few years. This successfully ended the coup.
Still, things have not gone swimmingly. The main problem has been that the economy has been largely dependent on cheap commodity exports - corn, logs, and fish. A lumber mill has been largely ineffective at increasing the value of Tropican exports, in no small part due to understaffing due to poor education. A nascent tourism industry is being developed on the western shore, but it so happens that is also the direction that pollution is blown by the wind, threatening the appeal of our pristine Tropican beaches. A gold mine has been opened, but it is upwind of the tourist areas, and thus far has not led to significant exports. A cannery, with a goal of exporting tinned fish, has been stymied by our grain production being lowered due to low rains followed by a hurricane, meaning we need the fish for domestic consumption. Tourists have shown up, but the profits are modest, in part because while we have hotels, we haven't developed much beyond that in the tourist industry.
This all means that the Tropican life is not the best. True, El Presidente has provided decent housing for all Tropicans. And now their is fresh beef at the market along with grain, fish, and, soon, pineapples. But there are few other amenities. Two of the three soldiers that moved here from Havana later emigrated somewhere else, despite top-dollar wages, just out of boredom. Most Tropicans live poor, boring, and short lives.
And that means that most would prefer someone replace El Presidente. Tropico was never truly a representative government - El Prez was the last government's heir apparent - but the United States has taken an interest, diplomatically stating is it concerned by "El Presidente's version of democracy", and sending gunboats to conduct diplomacy three or four times - or is it five? We've lost count. The promises of a better life no longer sound very believable, nor do promises of an election.
Tropico isn't quite a failed state - there are still investments in the economy, they just never seem to live up to expectations. Maybe at some point the factories or tourism or mining will start firing on all cylinders and the standard of living will take off. But for now, we're just anotherbanana pineapple republic.
I hadn't played with the expansions, which focus on tourism, so I tried the Spring Break scenario. The economy was solid, built initially on coffee, with a little bit of tourism, but I had 30 years to get $150K in tourism profits and 40 spring breakers at once, so in the 1970s I went on a hotel-and-beach-resort bonanza. It was just enough, and in 1979 I achieved victory.
Now I've started a random-map island, and to make things a bit more challenging I bumped the economic difficulty up to hard, and spend all of my foreign aid for the first few years increasing the splendor of the area around my palace. This was almost my undoing. Rumor had it that one of my two soldiers thought he might be a better presidente than I, and when the other soldier unexpectedly died - we're sure there was no foul play whatsoever - the questionable one launched a coup attempt. Rather than panic, El Presidente telephoned his new friend Fidel up in Havana, and offered top dollar for a few experienced revolutionaries to move to Tropico for a few years. This successfully ended the coup.
Still, things have not gone swimmingly. The main problem has been that the economy has been largely dependent on cheap commodity exports - corn, logs, and fish. A lumber mill has been largely ineffective at increasing the value of Tropican exports, in no small part due to understaffing due to poor education. A nascent tourism industry is being developed on the western shore, but it so happens that is also the direction that pollution is blown by the wind, threatening the appeal of our pristine Tropican beaches. A gold mine has been opened, but it is upwind of the tourist areas, and thus far has not led to significant exports. A cannery, with a goal of exporting tinned fish, has been stymied by our grain production being lowered due to low rains followed by a hurricane, meaning we need the fish for domestic consumption. Tourists have shown up, but the profits are modest, in part because while we have hotels, we haven't developed much beyond that in the tourist industry.
This all means that the Tropican life is not the best. True, El Presidente has provided decent housing for all Tropicans. And now their is fresh beef at the market along with grain, fish, and, soon, pineapples. But there are few other amenities. Two of the three soldiers that moved here from Havana later emigrated somewhere else, despite top-dollar wages, just out of boredom. Most Tropicans live poor, boring, and short lives.
And that means that most would prefer someone replace El Presidente. Tropico was never truly a representative government - El Prez was the last government's heir apparent - but the United States has taken an interest, diplomatically stating is it concerned by "El Presidente's version of democracy", and sending gunboats to conduct diplomacy three or four times - or is it five? We've lost count. The promises of a better life no longer sound very believable, nor do promises of an election.
Tropico isn't quite a failed state - there are still investments in the economy, they just never seem to live up to expectations. Maybe at some point the factories or tourism or mining will start firing on all cylinders and the standard of living will take off. But for now, we're just another