“Advergames” are an increasingly popular method of bringing commercial messages to the nation’s 117 million or so video gamers. Interest groups are also getting into the action, hooking up with design shops such as Persuasive Games, which, for a mere $40,000, will design a custom game to get out your political message.
|
Game / Creator |
How to Play |
Feels Like… |
Nice Touch |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Airport Security |
Oversee a busy airport security checkpoint, relieving passengers of contraband such as water bottles, toasters, and pants |
If the ACLU reissued the ’80s arcade game Tapper |
Courtesy announcement: “Please be advised: Security personnel are authorized to use groping.” |
|
Take Back Illinois |
Lower medical costs, boost civic engagement, and improve schools and the economy |
SimCity meets Milton Friedman |
Rigged so that you can only win if you freeze taxes or cap malpractice damages |
|
Darfur is Dying |
Play a refugee trying to find water while hiding from Jeeps filled with rampaging Janjaweed militiamen |
Sid Meier’s End of Civilization |
So you’re sitting on your butt playing a video game about genocide |
|
Border Patrol |
Blow away Mexican drug smugglers and “breeders” with children in tow as they cross into the United States |
Duck Hunt for racists |
Score 88 points and win. The number is a neo-Nazi code for “Heil Hitler” (H is the 8th letter of the alphabet). |
|
Bushgame |
Guide Hulk Hogan and Mr. T as they battle corporate pigs and mutant Bush Cabinet members in a surreal fight to save the world |
Old-school Nintendo, as imagined by the South Park guys |
Bridging a gaping chasm with a super-nerdy bar chart of the federal deficit. Don’t fall into that $500 billion hole! |
