Politikos

Overview
Politikos is the eighth game in the Xhilatren cycle. Only when players realized that the game wasn't a joke did the reviews roll in.


 * "What the hell is this shit?" - one star
 * "Why did they even make this?" - one star
 * "Never have I ever heard of a worse game." - one star
 * "The inter-game market system is the only reason I can think of why anyone would play this piece of shit game." - two stars
 * "I'm done with ID after this." - one star
 * "I've always wondered what goes on in government. Now I get to be part of the bureaucracy!" - four stars
 * "Here it is: the shitty game we all knew was coming." - one star
 * "Final Fantasy XIII has nothing on this turd of a game." - one star

After the market system was fully implemented, the reviews changed.


 * "Now I see the point of this. I'm back with ID all the way." - five stars
 * "Two words: pure genius." - five stars
 * "This trading engine is incredible. Now I understand why the rest of the game is so shitty." - five stars
 * "I don't know what to say. I had this game pegged for dead, and then the markets went up." - five stars

Gameplay
Politikos focuses exclusively on politics and political maneuvering, hence the name. The goal of the game is for the player's faction to gain control of 51% of the government of the nation of Politocracy. Players do not choose their faction when they enter the game; instead, the game auto-assigns them in the interest of balance.

Currently, the largest control any one faction has is 18%.

Backstabbing, under-the-table deals, bribes, payoffs, blackmail: anything you can think of that has the words "bad politics" or "corruption" associated with it is fair game.

But the real draw of the game was made clear after the market system was fully implemented. The market of Politikos has an extraordinarily powerful engine that functions like a cross between the global stock market and a currency exchange: it allows the transfer and/or trade of currency and items between all the games in the series.

Recently, the developers announced that the engine was capable of trading with games outside the series. Developers of other games are invited to add their games to market by creating profile of all the tradeable items in their games and their sell price, and answer a few simple questions about the economics of their game (such as total amount of in-game currency for use in the currency exchange, etc.).

After this announcement, over 100 games applied for addition to the market.

Trivia
This black sheep of the cycle experienced a complete reversal of public opinion after its market system was fully implemented.

Currently, there are 247 games represented in the market; 173 more are signed up for approval and implementation within the next two years, for a total of 420 games.