Political Games: A Gift and a Curse

The gaming world has often tried to keep its wires from getting tangled up in politics, but since 2004, political video games have begun to surface. According the Entertainment Software Association, the amount of political games has tripled since then. Some liberal, other conservative, political video games aim to entertain and educate at the same time.

Strategery 2012 is one such game, where you can play as Romney's election team during the primaries and then as Obama's team during the general election. It follows the format of Nintendo's popular military turn-based strategy games, the Advance Wars series. As the player, you go up against several opponents as volunteers, press secretaries, and fundraisers, each with a minimum "credibility" score. It's a funny, quirky game that gets across the amount of thought, dedication, and work that can go into an election.

While many are slightly biased and contain the opinions of their developers, as well as cracking jokes about candidates, some of these games try to teach political fundamentals. Gerrymandering is a huge issue in the United States, mostly because no one knows about it. But the good folks at the USC Game Innovation lab created The Redistricting Game, focusing on teaching players the basics of redistricting. Even though it didn't catch the media's eye, it's one of the best examples of gaming that promotes civic action.

Yes, it is.

Besides actually making these types of games, some companies are promoting the current election. Even though most politicians aren't much into the world of button mashing, Obama included, Microsoft got in the game. During the Presidential Debates, Xbox promoted "Election 2012" on Xbox Live, offering, for those who watch three of the four debates, free Halo armor...in gold! During the debates themselves, Microsoft also polled viewers, and, no surprise, lots of democratic and male voters.

Gamers also find themselves rooted in politics, especially those who are already involved in it. The U.S. Libyan diplomat, Sean Smith, who recently died during an attack on the American Embassy in Libya, was a huge member of the Eve Online community, a sci-fi based MMORPG. In fact, after his death, tributes were made in his name, "Vile Rat," as players, friend and enemy alike, renamed their space stations in his honor.  In game, he was as hard a diplomat as he was in real life. One of his friends online, Alex Gianturco, who he also met in real life, said "If you play this stupid game, you may not realize it, but you play in a galaxy created in large part by Vile Rat's talent as a diplomat. No one focused as relentlessly on using diplomacy as a strategic tool as VR."

Lachowicz's WoW
Character, Santiaga

But not all politically oriented people are praised for their hard work in the gaming community. One World of Warcraft player was "deemed unfit for office" based on her involvement with the popular MMORPG. Colleen Lachowicz, democrat and level 85 Orc rogue, was the subject of a smear campaign by the Republican Party of Maine, who claim she's unfit for office due to her "double life" and violent comments online. Lachowicz hit back:

I think it's weird that I'm being targeted for playing online games. Apparently I'm in good company since there are 183 million other Americans who also enjoy online games. What's next? Will I be ostracized for playing Angry Birds or Words with Friends? If so, guilty as charged!

What's really weird is that the Republicans are going after my hobbies instead of talking about their record while they've been running Augusta for the last two years. Instead of talking about what they're doing for Maine people, they're making fun of me for playing video games. Did you know that more people over the age of 50 play video games than under the age of 18? As a gamer, I'm in good company with folks like Jodie Foster, Vin Diesel, Mike Myers, and Robin Williams. Maybe it's the Republican Party that is out of touch.

Ouch.

Politics and video games may not always get along, but the truth sits in an industry with unlimited potential for educating and informing the public. Last year, the gaming market was worth $56 billion dollars, "more than twice of the recorded-music industry, nearly a quarter more than the magazine business and about three-fifths the size of the film industry." And it's only expected to rise from there. Australia and the UK have seen the potential and already offered tax incentives for video games. It shouldn't be long before the U.S. is on board. Video games are the future of civic engagement, and though some may disagree with much of the medium, it's long-reaching, powerful, and most importantly, fun. 

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Posted in: community,democrats,election,eve online,game,gamers,games,MMORPG,politics,republicans,statistics,video games,world of warcraft

Can Saving the World be Fun?

Friday, September 21st is a day that means nothing to a good portion of the world. To many, it’s the end of the work week and the start of the weekend. But most don’t know that Jeremy Gilley put forth immense effort to have September 21st recognized by the United Nations as Peace Day.

And succeeded.

September 21st is officially Peace Day! This isn’t news, though. Peace Day has been around for over a decade, but the news hasn’t reached our ears yet. How can there be peace if no one knows it exists? Part of the problem is spreading the word, but the other half of the problem is that awareness can only go so far, and that distance is about 30 feet in any direction.

We hear about social issues all the time. Organizations try to catch our eye with emotionally appealing commercials and guilt trips. Sarah McLaughlin’s depressing song does wonders for reflexes as we trip over ourselves to change the channel. They may be able to put some tears in our eyes, but as soon as Friends comes back on, the tears evaporate. God forbid you should be walking by the university library on the day someone’s advocating global warming. In which case, you get something like this:

Can you spot the students? Eight of them are in this picture.

The problem isn’t us (sort of)—it’s the medium. Television doesn’t leave a lasting impression. Advocators are annoying so we avoid them. And donations, while helpful, are just a way to clear out the change. “Well,” you say. “You sure are talking high n’ mighty there. If you know so much, how do we fix it then?”

Simple—with video games.

Now, I’m not the first to say that, and I probably won’t be the last, but using video games as a medium to not only raise awareness, but also involvement, is an excellent option. Beneath the bloodshed and the grenade explosions, the nymphs and the dragons, there’s also a desire for peace. We want it in video games. We want to restore the world to a proper state, where all its inhabitants can be happy. So why not merge one of the most expansive mediums with some of the more engrossing social issues?

The United Nations’ World Food Programme(WFP) released its first PC game—Food Force—in 2005, for the fight against hunger. The game itself registered over 10 million users, prompting the WFP to cozy up with Konami Digital. This led to the 2011 release of Food Force…for social media. Playable on Facebook, the game takes advantage of this social media perk by leading the player, and their chosen Facebook friends, though six levels where they face obstacles while sending out humanitarian aid, growing crops, and raising farm animals in order to create a “real world impact.”

Not unlike Food Force, Zynga, a social media game developer, helped raise money for Water.org by offering a blue water bison for purchase, raising $300,000 for the organization!

Yeah, all of these are organizations dedicated to helping social causes, but what if I told you it's not just lobbyists and hippies*?  MTv has put their best foot forward in an attempt to raise awareness about the problems in Darfur. In 2006, MTv released Darfur is Dying, a video game aimed at illustrating the lives of Darfurian people in refugee camps. You play as 1 of 10 characters, each of which has to increase the survival of the camp by doing things like foraging for water. The game does a good job of interweaving action with purpose, having dire consequences for failing, such as losing a character to death or possibly even rape. As you play, the back story of the Darfur conflict unwinds.

Games like Darfur is Dying revolve around survival, but there are also games that promote peace. After the September 11th attacks, NewsGaming.com unveiled its first game, September 12th. In the game, the more violence you use to stop terrorism, the more terrorists are made. The goal of the game is to decrease violence and also to show how "current US tactics on the war on terror affect the civilian population and generate more terrorism." After the Madrid bombing, NewsGaming.com released Madrid, which paid homage to the victims.

People Power: The Game of Civil Resistance

Steve York also created A Force More Powerful, based on the 1999 documentary, which is credited as being the "first interactive teaching tool in the field of nonviolent conflict." Players used several nonviolent strategies and tactics like boycotting and protesting to successfully solve conflicts around the world. The game has since been discontinued, paving the way for The International Center for Nonviolent Conflict to create a more updated game based on the same principles, People Power: The Game of Civil Resistance. This one is far more personal, as you embody a leader of a popular movement.


Funding is an issue. It's always an issue. For an advocacy video game to be interesting, it needs to look good and feel good. Making a commercial video game can cost more than most films. In fact, A Force More Powerful required $3 million dollars, while the game sold for about $20. Darfur is Dying was created on a
$50,000 grant and despite its much smaller budget, it gets the point across. Funding will affect the reach a game may have, but it doesn't detract from the deeper sentiment of the game.

Video games reflect a billion dollar industry. They're growing with this generation and are just begging to be put to work, even more so then what's already out there. Just in commercial games alone, you find the need for peace and the binary of morality. Games like Deus Ex and Infamous don't reward you for being good. Actually, being good is difficult, and in some cases, way harder than being good (i.e. sneaking around to avoid casualties).

And yes, there are violent games. Just like there are violent movies and violent books and violent music and round and round we go. But those games that can be classified as more violent than others--shooters in specific--are not the top selling genre(granted they're the second, but only one genre of many).

The complexity of our cultures and our world is what makes video games so accessible, interesting, and personal. Such intimacy created between game and gamer is a strong one. It puts you right there, in the area of conflict. Sometimes you're in trouble. Sometimes only you can save the world. In this case, only we can save the world. This type of interactive intimacy brings us closer to the issues people face every day, to the community, and to ourselves. It's time to get serious about gaming and connect with the millions that are already playing them.

Can saving the world be fun? Yeah, why not?





*Don't hit me.

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Posted in: advocacy,community,ermahgerd,Facebook,food force,genres,jeremy gilley,peace,peace day,reality,social issues,social media,statistics,united nations,video games,water.org,WFP