Politics and games have never exactly matched up on the same wavelength, in no small part due to the differing age groups that the two apply to. Just like with movies, radio, and television, video games reach a wide variety of people who, up until recently, have remained a largely untapped resource for the politically inclined. However, with a generation of gamers reaching voting age, games have suddenly become a viable platform for political discussion, most notably evidenced through the recent Presidential Election. Is a brand new day of political game and Internet activism finally on the rise? I'll go over some of the highlights of political activism in games from the past election that you might not have heard about.
On January 2, 2008: Gamers staged a Ron Paul March in World of Warcraft at 8:30 in the morning. Other gamers blamed the march for server lag.
June 20, 2008: The McCain campaign releases the first political flash game on Facebook, Pork Invaders.
August 1, 2008: Game journalist Darren Gladstone creates White House Calibur and unleashes it upon the Internet. (I.e. He created Barack Obama and John McCain as characters in Soul Calibur IV)
October 31, 2008: Barack Obama and Sarah Palin enter the world of Mercenaries 2 as downloadable characters.
Judging from just a few of these events, political activism in gaming is thriving on a scale never seen before. However, whether these games are actually 'good' games or effectively carry any sort of political message is another matter entirely. But, even if the games are crap, if people keep finding inspiration in politics for making new games, sooner or later somebody will figure it out.
For more information about this subject, check the links below.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/149170/casual_friday_obama_vs_mccainfight.html
http://www.gamepolitics.com/2008/11/05/top-20-video-game-moments-presidential-campaign
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