Like I said, I'm no AGS (American Government Simulation) veteran, but I've flirted with it in the past and have a basic understanding.
Basically, how NGS will work is that you will create a fictional character who is a member of the United States House of Representatives. In the future, as membership increases, the game will expand to cover the U.S. Senate, executive branch, and the Supreme Court. Users may also sign-on as members of the media, but where is the fun in that?
Most of the game will be spent drafting, debating and voting upon proposed legislation. Party leadership and committee leaders will also be elected. As the game expands, campaigning will become a larger part of NGS, with members duking it out with one another for Senate seats or presidential nominations.
The game is run by a couple of "gods" who establish the back-story by releasing news stories, publishing economic reports, etc. The players in the game react to these events. In my previous experience with AGS, things in this department tend to run very smoothly and the "gods" do a good job of keeping things very realistic. All polls/election results are determined in a way that is free from human interference.
Two big, new elements of NGS are
economy and
reputation score.
In "economy", every player is given some starting cash at the beginning of the game. This cash can be used for several different things, including investing, purchasing "favors" from the media, or donating to other player's campaigns. Players may choose to buy stock in several real-life companies in-game as a source of income. Players may also hold fundraisers to pad their bottom lines. Additionally, every time a player posts something substantive, proposes legislation, etc. then he or she receives an automatic cash increase. As far as I know, there isn't any penalty for not having any cash besides not being able to purchase favorable news coverage for yourself (or negative for your opponents) or influence the other players. So, I suppose one could just ignore that portion of the game if he found it too complicated.
The new "reputation score" model is how polling is determined. Every time a player posts something along the lines of a press release or tweet, holds a press conference, gives a speech on the floor, etc. then he is rewarded with "reputation points". Reputation points only come in two flavors: (+1) or (-1). The goal, obviously is to be a popular as possible as it helps your polling numbers. For example, if you candidate wanted to hold a press conference on tax cuts, then based on the quality of that press conference (either "above average" or "below average") then you would receive either +1 or -1 rep points. Also, (I may be wrong on this), if you reference a specific pending piece of legislation in your comments, it will make that legislation either more or less popular among the population, based on the quality of your post.
This is pretty much all that I know so far.
In the game, I am user JBrannon. So, feel free to join and then PM me so that we can start our meterotic rise to political dominance!!!
