Political Ping-Pong
Posted by The Poet Omar on 09 Jun 2007 at 7:08 pm | Tagged as: Election 2008, Libertarianism, The Poet Omar's Page, Culture, Domestic Politics
As yet another sign of the coming Apocalypse, politicians and political hacks are now channeling their energy (albeit a very small amount of it) into creating video games about politics. Have a look at this article detailing two of the newest games in this field. While the actual interfacing of politics and the gaming world is not exactly fresh news (recall all the Joe Lieberman v. Rockstar Games fights in the past few years [Rockstar, btw are the makers of the Grand Theft Auto series], along with older fights over Doom and even pre-video game era fights over Dungeons and Dragons), the idea of institutions that directly shape (or try to) the political scene in America today making video games is. I am excluding America’s Army since that is a recruiting tool, not an attempt to shape the political process. Notice, however, the number of complaints dealing with the fact that Ron Paul isn’t included in the Pong game. Apparently, the youth of America have suddenly become energetic libertarians. I’m not sure if that says more about them or about libertarianism as a whole. I suppose we’ll just have to see how energetic they really are at election time (the question being : can they tear themselves away from Starcraft II [currently scheduled for a Q3/4 2008 release] long enough to go to the polls to make a difference?).
8 Responses to “Political Ping-Pong”
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Uncool! Now I probably WILL be playing Starcraft 2 instead of hating myself for voting for candidates I dislike.
This will also probably be the first videogame I’ve purchased in almost two years, meaning my already on-the-ropes social life will most likely fade away.
Argh. I didn’t need to know about this :-)
Lol, Joshua. Sorry to feed the addiction. If it’s of any consolation, I’ll probably be there at 9 AM on release day to pick up my copy.
I thought I had broken myself of it, until I went onto YouTube and saw some gameplay footage. Curse you!
Hahaha! My evil plan continues to succeed! I got PogueMahone hooked on World of Warcraft a few months ago. MichaelW is my next target, although Lance may possibly be in the crosshairs, too…
I smell an ASHC Starcraft 2 tournament!
Also, where’d you get the info on it being Q3 or 4 in 2008? I’ve just heard that it won’t be ready in 2007, but it looks very far along, hopefully not more than a year away.
There’s going to be a Starcraft 2 ????
Personally, I’m more a fan of the Command and Conquer series and Real War…
And you wont get me on WoW, at least not till we move and I have gobs of free time available… of course, I already kicked the Evercrack habit, and don’t need a new habit.
Dibs on Protoss. ;)
From a sometimes reliable source : EbGames/Gamestop’s pre-order book. My local stores have already begun taking pre-orders, but they are currently claiming a mid-late 2008 release for the game. Given that Blizzard is willing to push back release dates to fix unforeseen problems, I wager that EB’s estimate is fairly close (especially given the urge to make Christmas releases).
And hopefully a Diablo 3, Warcraft IV, WOW 2, etc. :)
lol going from EQ to WOW is like moving from recreational pot to mainlined heroin. Alternately, LOTR online is very addictive and “borrows” a lot of mechanics from WOW.
I play the toss as well, but it looks like I won’t be able to use my invincible invisible carrier battle group tactic. As there are no more carriers.
Hmm, we could always just play SC1 now…