"Gaming the Vote!" (GameSpy article on political computer games)

[AZCat]

http://pc.gamespy.com/articles/559/559987p1.html">Gaming the Vote!
Election games offer a different view of the Presidential race, and we take a closer look in this first installment of a special three-part series.

By Tom Chick
Oct. 25, 2004

For millions of Americans, November 2nd will be a date that shall live in infamy. For other millions, it will be a vindication. The 2004 Presidential race is arguably the most divisive and closely contested political contest in recent American history, coinciding as it does with significant shifts in the country's foreign policy, international standing, economic health, and even political philosophy. With a flood of newly registered voters and record-breaking ratings for the televised debates, there are predictions of an additional 14 million eligible voters turning out this year for a total of 120 million eligible voters, up from 106 million in the 2000 election. The day after the elections will be both morning and mourning in America. Is it any surprise that this epic civic war has inspired a handful of computer games? Perhaps the surprise is that it hasn't inspired more of them?

The Games of Politics
Computer games about the Presidential election are hardly new. Politics has long been viable subject matter for strategy games, with Chris Crawford's 1985 classic Balance of Power being probably the purest expression of this. Similarly, you see plenty of games trying to work the political angle into a larger context, whether it's Civilization's forms of government, political victory conditions in a sci-fi game like Master of Orion, or even an infernal Senate struggle in Disgaea, a Japanese fantasy RPG. But as far back as 1988, SSI published Nelson Hernandez's President Elect, which was solely about the election process for the American Presidency. Randy Chase's Power Politics was published in 1992, followed by a Doonesbury-themed sequel called The Doonesbury Election Game in 1995. Before these, there were Avalon Hill's Candidate and Mayfair's Road to the White House, both board games. (Several developers we spoke with in the course of researching this article cited Road to the White House as an inspiration.)




More at article, with two more articles to follow this week on related topics. I found it a nice respite from reading the latest 'scoops' about the campaigns, and thought you might also! :)