📅 The year is 2025.

🏝️ The place is Kingston, a small (and fictional!) island nation in the Pacific.

🗳️ It’s the presidential election year, and both candidates are neck-and-neck in the polls.

📱 They’ve determined that social media influence will be the deciding factor for the election.

🎯 You and your team have therefore been hired to achieve total and utter domination of Kingston’s social media landscape.

In other words, you will be trying to find out:

CAN YOU ELECT A PRESIDENT?

The Candidates:

☑️ Marina Castillo

Party: Democratic-Republicans
Background: CEO of “Island Horizons”—Kingston’s largest resort chain
Style: Hard-right firebrand
Legit Social handle: @marina_castillo

Promises:

• 💸 Sweeping tax cuts
• 🏨 Tourism-led economic boom
• 👮 Increase to Police and Defence funding
• 🚨 Crackdown on “creeping socialist excess”

Persona: A polished, confident, ruthless executive.

---

☑️ Victor Hawthorne

Party: People’s Alliance
Background: Career politician, champion of the hard-left
Style: Outspoken reformer
Legit Social handle: @victor_hawthorne

Promises:

• 💰 Free college and job training, funded by progressive taxes
• 🌱 Carbon taxes and a ban on offshore drilling
• 🔒 Police and military reform, focusing on more community investment
• 🔨 Dismantling Kingston’s “oligarchic” power structures

Persona: A passionate, relentless voice for the people.

---

🏛️ The Incumbent

President Gregory Brotherston (Democratic-Republican) is term-limited and backing Castillo.
He claims Hawthorne is an idealist who will wreck Kingston’s economy.
Castillo echoes: Hawthorne is a “dangerous radical” threatening prosperity.
Hawthorne fires back: Both are “oligarchs”—out of touch with real Kingstonians.

---

Who will win the hearts (and votes) of Kingston?
Who will shape the future of this island nation?

And what can you do about it? 🚀

YOUR MISSION:

Your team is operating in this game as a “social media consultancy” hired by one of the two campaigns above. Your job is to help your candidate win the election by shaping public opinion through social media - specifically, through the manipulation of “Legit Social”, Kingston’s indigenous Twitter-style platform.

You’re not the only team that has been hired, however!

Both candidates are very nervous about the possibility of losing the social media influence war, and as such, have each hired multiple teams, promising that the team that earns the most engagement overall will be rewarded with a lucrative contract to manage their social media strategy for the next four years. Of course, they can only do that if they win the election…

As such, your team is not only competing against the other teams hired by your candidate, but also against the teams hired by the opposing candidate. You will need to outsmart and outmaneuver these other teams, while still ensuring that your candidate wins the election.

You will need to be strategic, creative, and ruthless in your approach.

Can you help your candidate win the election and secure your team’s future as the top social media consultancy in Kingston?

---

Some additional facts about Kingston and the election are provided below.

---

ABOUT KINGSTON

The Republic of Kingston is a fictional Pacific island country. Settled by the British in the 1700s on previously uninhabited islands, Kingston is renowned for its tropical climate, white-sand beaches, and vibrant maritime culture. It is a presidential republic with a unicameral parliament. The economy centers on tourism, agriculture, and fishing, complemented by a small but growing software sector clustered around the nation’s universities. The population is approximately 600,000, with about half residing in the capital, Kingston City.

Etymology

The country takes its name from Kingston City, founded as an 18th-century administrative depot and trading port during early British settlement.

History:

• (18th century:) British settlers establish a naval supply point and plantation outposts on previously uninhabited islands.
• (19th century:) Maritime commerce, copra, spices, and tropical fruit exports shape the economy; civic institutions and courts are formalized.
• (20th century:) Gradual constitutional reforms yield self-government and, later, a presidential republic with a single-house parliament.
• (21st century:) Tourism expands and environmental protections are introduced; a nascent tech/startup scene emerges around local universities.

Geography and environment:

Kingston is a small archipelago of low-lying volcanic and coral islands surrounded by lagoons and barrier reefs. The climate is tropical, with a warmer, wetter season typically from November to April and a drier season the rest of the year. Marine reserves protect coral reefs, mangroves, and seagrass meadows, though coastal erosion, cyclone exposure, and reef bleaching remain ongoing challenges.

Government and politics:

Kingston operates as a presidential republic. The President serves as head of state and government and appoints a cabinet. The National Assembly is unicameral, with members elected on a proportional basis; it legislates, approves budgets, and oversees the executive. Political life is shaped primarily by two parties, the People’s Alliance and the Democratic-Republicans.

Elections for the presidency and assembly occur every four years, with a two-term limit for presidents; and the elections happen out of sequence, with the presidential election occurring two years after the assembly election. 2025 is a presidential election year, with the incumbent president, Gregory Brotherston, term-limited after two terms. The two main candidates are Marina Castillo (Democratic-Republican) and Victor Hawthorne (People’s Alliance).

Political polling is mainly done by the Independent Polling Association of Kingston, a non-partisan organization made up of local researchers and analysts. They have a long history of accuracy and reliability, having been conducting opinion polls since 1995.

The national flag is depicted as a blue field with a red star formed by three intersecting bars, symbolizing the union of the main islands and their seafaring identity.

Demographics:

The population is concentrated in urban coastal districts, with a few very small settlements on outer islands. English is the national language. Historical migration to Kingston has supported a diverse national culture, reflected in music, cuisine, and festivals.

Economy:

Tourism is the leading sector, driven by beach resorts, diving, and cultural events such as Regatta Week in Port Royal. Agriculture supplies domestic markets and niche exports (tropical fruit, spices), while fishing—including small-scale tuna and reef fisheries—supports coastal livelihoods. A software sector has emerged in recent years, featuring startups in fintech, logistics, and marine monitoring, often incubated through university partnerships and co-working hubs in Kingston City.

Journalism:

The press is free and vibrant in Kingston, though the small size of the market means that just two newspapers dominate the media landscape. The first, the “Daily Kingston”, is widely considered to be right-leaning, and tends to report through a lens of the importance of traditional values. The second, meanwhile, is the “Kingston Herald”, which is in turn considered to be left-leaning - it focuses on reporting stories through the daily lives and needs of the common people, and often covering news, politics, and social issues with a populist tone.

Infrastructure and transport:

The country is served by an international airport near Kingston City and roll-on/roll-off ferries providing links to the outer islands. A coastal ring road on the main island connects urban centers. Telecommunications have expanded rapidly to support the tech sector, with fiber backbones in principal cities. A new commuter railroad is being debated and constructed right now to link Kingston City with other urban centers on the main Kingston Island.

Education and research:

• Kingston University (Kingston City) — a prestigious institution known for law, business, and the arts; home to policy and cultural studies centers.
• Port Royal Institute of Technology (Port Royal) — focuses on engineering and computer science; collaborates with industry on applied research, robotics, and sustainable maritime technologies.

Culture and Sport:

Kingston’s culture blends maritime heritage with contemporary influences. Cuisine highlights seafood, tropical produce, and spice-driven dishes. Festivals feature sailing, drumming traditions, and street markets, with the most prominent being Regatta Week in Port Royal and the Mango & Spice Festival in New Haven.

Sport is central to community life, with club rivalries across multiple codes.

Each year, Regatta Week in Port Royal draws international sailing teams and tourists.

Public services, security, and environment:

A national coast guard is the sole military force for Kingston. Working closely with the national police force, the coast guard provides border security, maritime safety, and fisheries protection. Health services are centered on regional hospitals in Kingston City and Port Royal, with clinics on outlying islands. Environmental policy emphasizes marine conservation, waste reduction, and incremental renewable energy adoption (solar and wind) to reduce diesel reliance.

In recent years, the coast guard has been plagued by under-funding and considerable debate has occurred regarding modernization and proposals for a national compulsory service for youths to address low enlistment rates. Its four aging patrol frigates are increasingly unreliable, and there is a growing consensus that the force needs to be restructured and reimagined to meet 21st-century challenges.

The island is broadly safe, and there has never been a major terrorist or domestic incident. There has never been a bombing, shooting, or mass casualty event. The island is broadly healthy, and aside from a brief COVID-19 lockdown, has never suffered major health scares, despite a somewhat underfunded national health system which struggles to recruit and retain skilled medical staff.

Social media:

A majority of Kingston’s population uses the indigenous platform ‘Legit Social’, a Twitter-style software which is used for news and entertainment alike.