Last week GamePolitics broke the news that campaign ads for Barack Obama were showing up in EA's Burnout: Paradise on Xbox Live.

Since that time the story has gone national, with coverage by among others, the Associated Press, New York Times, Washington Post, and USA Today. ABC News and CBS News have mentioned the Obama ads on their websites, although not on the air - so far.

With tonight's final Presidential Debate taking place at Hofstra Unoversity in New York, will the XBL ads come in for a mention? If they do, it will almost certainly come from McCain. There is speculation that McCain's debate strategy this evening will seek to raise questions about Obama's readiness for the White House.

Could McCain use the XBL ads in an effort to paint Obama as geeky or frivolous? If he does, will such charges resonate with voters? Or will McCain come off as out of touch and, well, old?

It's all speculative, of course. We'll find out tonight.

Theory Spark has issued a hefty patch for its excellent campaign sim, President Forever + Primaries.

The game has been decribed as "part SimCity, part C-SPAN" by the Washington Post. It's certainly the deepest of the current crop of political games.

If you're a current player, be sure to grab the update, as auto-patching has been disabled.

GameSpot's Brendan Sinclair is reporting that those now-famous Obama ads running in Burnout Paradise are visible only to gamers who are connecting to Xbox Live from 10 potential battleground states. From GameSpot's coverage:

The EA representative said the ads would only appear in 10 different states, most of them contested battleground states. Paradise City residents in Ohio, Florida, Iowa, Colorado, Indiana, Montana, North Carolina, New Mexico, Nevada, and Wisconsin are being targeted by the campaign...

The Obama campaign is only running on the Xbox 360 version of the game, as it was handled by Microsoft-owned in-game ad firm Massive Incorporated... As for the absence of Republican presidential candidate John McCain, the EA representative said Massive had approached the Arizona senator's campaign about Burnout advertising.

GamePolitics broke the news of the ads last Thursday.

UPDATE: The Seattle Times is now quoting EA PR rep Holly Rockwood to the effect that the Obama ads are running in eight additional games:

• Madden 09
• Nascar 09
• NBA Live 08
• Need for Speed Carbon
• Need for Speed Pro Street
• NFL on Tour
• NHL 09
• Skate

Someone in the Little Big Planet beta doesn't think much of Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin...

Last week GamePolitics broke the news that in-game ads for Barack Obama were apparently running inside Burnout: Paradise on Xbox Live. Although we sought comment several times from publisher Electronic Arts before running that story, no confirmation was forthcoming.

GigaOm, however, managed to get the official word from Holly Rockwood, EA's director of corporate communications, late yesterday:

I can confirm that the Obama campaign has paid for in-game advertising in Burnout. Like most television, radio and print outlets, we accept advertising from credible political candidates. Like political spots on the television networks, these ads do not reflect the political policies of EA or the opinions of its development teams.

In the meantime, we've got an exclusive follow-up with Dragunov765, the gamer who took those great photos which originally brought the ads to our attention:

The photos were taken Oct. 6th, 2008 in my living room with an Olympus 550UZ... I imported them directly from the camera into Photoshop because Photobucket won't handle any images over 1Mb and I generally shoot in super HQ...  Beyond reducing the file size for posting to the internet, no other adjustments were made to the images.  The files I sent you were the images that came off the camera.  I would have taken more, but I didn't even have the memory stick in there because I'd just completed downloading some other photos and hadn't put it back in.

The funny thing is that I had already played through 97% of the game months ago and it was collecting dust on the shelf.  I had only tossed it in because we just bought the new TV and one of my daughter's friends wanted to see the motorcycles in action.  We'd been buzzing around the city in various vehicles at high speed for about half an hour before I happened to crash right in front of one of the billboards (Burnout's in-game camera induces vertigo if you try to manipulate it so you normally have to get a car airborne before you can actually read any of the signs close up).  It was a genuine "WTF?" moment.

Atom.com has posted the latest in a string of Sarah Palin parody games.

Hunting with Palin casts the player in the role of America's best-known hockey mom as she takes aim at endangered Alaskan wildlife as well as Russian ships, subs and Migs. Those pesky Commies are just across the way, you know...

Points off for hitting Eskimo dog sled teams, snowmobilers, oil rigs or John McCain, who occasionally pops out.

Well-known Second Life blogger Rik Panganiban has unabashedly come out for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

In a post titled Barack FTW 11/4! -- Why Gamers Should Back Obama, Panganiban writes:

I think it's high time that people get past this notion of gamers as passive couch potatoes divorced from the world around them. I've seen gamers raise thousands of dollars for worthwhile causes like Penny Arcade's "Child's Play" charity and games for US troops overseas. 

 

Gamers can be ardent defenders of Net Freedom or even protestors for Chinese nationalism.  Heck, they have their own blog devoted to politics.

Among Panganiban's reasons for backing the Obama ticket (these are his words):

• Obama Groks the Power of the Internet: ...No, [Obama] didn't invent the Blackberry, but he does understand that the Gamer Generation connects with each other in substantially different ways than generations before.
• Obama Defends Net Freedom: ...The ability of next-gen game developers to create online games depends on a vibrant and open internet environment, unfettered by artificially throttled and filtered access.
• Obama Knows We Need Broadband: ...you know how sucky it is to play Halo over a sketchy internet connection... 
• Obama Supports Stronger Math & Science in Schools: America lags way behind the rest of the industrialized world in math and science aptitude in its high schools...
• Obama Totally Pwns in Unreal Tournament:  He's the only player I know who can go head to head in a Scavenger against a Fury equipped with Berserk and come out ahead.  Talk about presidential.  (Ok, maybe I made that up. But I hear his Wii Bowling score is 278.)

Rik is having some fun with that last bit. Actually, as GamePolitics has reported, Obama remarked publicly that the last game he played was Pong.

GP: If an established game blog presents a case for the McCain ticket, we'll gladly publish that as well.

A clever online game offered by Peritus Public Relations of Louisville, KY challenges players to predict which states will be carried by Republican John McCain or Democrat Barack Obama in November 4th's presidential election.

Peritus will send $1,000 to the winner's favorite charity. And, no, your PS3 acquisition fund is not among the list of eligible charities...

I registered and gave it a try. It's fun to use the interactive map of electoral votes to make a prediction, although the registration process was slightly intrusive. Why do they need my address? Confession to Peritus: I lied.

Here's some info from the press release:

We are a firm of veritable political junkies... We created this game because we wanted to inject some fun into the political season while benefiting a charity at the same time. We felt by creating a game that was essentially unprecedented, and entertaining we would be able to reach to people who are generally politically apathetic. So we asked ourselves, why can’t politics be fun for everyone?

The Peritus Pundit gives the user an opportunity to compete against a national audience of political enthusiasts in picking the next President of the United States. The winner picks a charity of their choice and our firm will donate a $1,000 to the organization...

A press release posted at examiner.com describes an upcoming five-day gaming marathon which will raise funds for the presidential campaign of Sen. Barack Obama.

The “Gaming for Obama” marathon kicks off at noon on October 20th and runs until midnight, October 25th. A live feed will be provided by Justin.tv (GP: the site which ran the leaked GTA IV game play footage).

VH1 personality Rey Gutierrez (left), who will host the marathon, commented:

‘Gaming for Obama’ is not just a fund raiser, but also a way to raise awareness in the gaming community to go out and vote for their favorite candidate on Nov. 4. Instead of hitting the streets with banners, we’re using modern technology and tools no one has really tapped into to reach a demographic that historically has had a low voter turnout.

 

We’ll be playing next-generation and past-generation games, including Rock Band, Halo, Call of Duty and many more titles, on all gaming platforms. Viewers will see everything through multiple cameras set up around my house. Gaming. Sleeping. Eating. Showers. No, kidding. No showers.

Local Miami gamers are invited to drop by while other gamers are welcome to join in online. Gutierrez, who also hosts justin.tv's R3Y’S GAMEDAY EXTRAVAGANZA (R.G.D.E), hopes to reach out to Hispanic voters as well during the Obama marathon:

 

Two of the R3Y’S GAMEDAY crew are fluent Spanish speakers, so we hope to attract that market since it is the fastest-growing minority in the United States and a critical group of voters in the upcoming election.

Stretching back to the Democratic primary season, Sen. Barack Obama has been referencing video games as a sort of code for underachievement by America's youth.

With his campaign in the home stretch, Obama continues to hit that theme. The Chicago Sun-Times provides the text of a speech delivered by Obama in Columbus, Ohio on Friday. Ohio, of course, is a key battleground state and both the Obama and McCain campaigns are going all-out to woo voters there.

Here's the game-related language from Obama's speech. It differs little from comments he has made throughout the campaign, and drew cheers and applause, according to the Sun-Times's transcript:

You know, I will invest in education. We'll make sure government gets behind the schools. But it won't make much of a difference if parents aren't turning off the television set and putting away the video games and making sure that our children are doing their homework.

Q: What do you get when you cross a media sensation with a guy who loves to see his name in print?

A: A letter from Jack Thompson to Sarah Palin.

Facing imminent disbarment, the Miami attorney has written to the Republican vice-presidential candidate, urging her to take a stand against violent video games. And, of course, offering his own services in that regard.

In a letter to America's best-known hockey mom, Thompson writes:

The McCain-Palin campaign, with all respect, is missing the boat on this issue. I strongly urge your campaign to tell American parents that if elected you will present to Congress a bill that prevents the sale of adult games to kids while fully protecting the First Amendment. 

 

I have this crucial, constitutional legislation drafted and ready to go.  You will see voters flock to your proposal.  The American entertainment industry’s assault upon our children and our values must stop, and you are the person to stop it. 

Thompson's previous attempt at "this crucial, constitutional legislation," however, was declared unconstitutional in stinging language by a federal judge in Louisiana. Utah's Republican attorney general also dismissed a Thompson-drafted bill as a violation of the First Amendment. State legislatures in Delaware and Massachusetts have likewise passed on Thompson's proposal.

Full text of the letter after the jump... 

Running with Scissors has released an election-themed poster featuring the Postal Dude, anti-hero of the ultra-violent Postal game series.

Also depicted is the Postal Dude's dog, Champ, a pit bull wearing Sarah Palin glasses.

RWS boss man Vince Desi explains, sort of:

Posters are a powerful medium. From politics to movies to your favorite musical group, young and old people around the world have been infected by this unique art form...

Rapper T.I. (real name: Clifford Joseph Harris, Jr.) urges the younger generation to pay attention to the presidential race between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain - even if it means putting video games aside for a while.

As reported by People, T.I. commented on the upcoming election:

When I'm speaking to young people and they say, 'Who you voting for?' I say, 'Well, what you think's wrong with the country? What problems do you need to be fixed? OK, then cut your PlayStation off and turn to CNN and listen to these people.

Listen to each of the candidates' platforms, and whoever you think is speaking passionately and intelligently and will do the things you think need changed, that's who you vote for.
 

We've only gotten one report of this, which seems a bit odd, but an Xbox Live gamer who goes by Dragunov765 has posted photos of what appear to be in-game ads for Barack Obama.

Dragunov (we know his real name, too) says he came across the ads while playing Burnout Paradise earlier this week and posted them on his Rooster Teeth journal page. We were tipped to the pix by a GP reader who vouches for the guy. In turn we contacted Dragonuv, who commented on the ads:

Here's the photos I took while playing Burnout: Paradise on the XBox 360.  I don't know how often they rotate the in-game advertising, but I imagine they are still up.

 

I gotta give [Obama] credit for covering all the bases.  I also think this is an interesting endorsement for adults as gamers (or maybe he's planting the seeds for a re-election bid in 4 years...)
 

The ads mention that early voting has begun and reference voteforchange.com. That site says that it is "Paid for by Obama for America" and helps voters find early voting locations in states that permit the practice (which has indeed begun).

EA reps did not respond to several attempts by GamePolitics to verify the ads.

GP: Bottom line? If the ad pix are Photoshopped, ya got me, Dragonuv. But I don't think they are. Dragonuv is no kid and my gut tells me he's on the level. 

And in any case, why couldn't - why shouldn't - a candidate make use of in-game ads? After all, it's the new, new thing, and Obama has been courting the youth vote all along.

The concept of in-game political ads does raise some issues, however. Does the campaign get to choose the games in which their ads appear? We have to think they do. Having one's campaign ad appear in GTA IV, for example, might hand an opposing candidate an opportunity to sling mud. 

A group of 28 teens gathered in Second Life for last night's presidential debate, reports The Click Heard Round the World:

The teens were fairly bored during the economy and health care portion of the debate.  But they perked right up once the candidates starting talking foreign policy.  Several of them were interested in Darfur and human rights.  A couple were concerned about college tuition costs. 

 

All in all, I thought this was an effective way of getting teenagers to be more engaged with the political process. I think they felt more comfortable being in a setting with a bunch of their peers rather than in a roomful of adults.  Several of them seemed genuinely concerned about certain issues and got to express that to each other over the text chat.  And they got to have fun, often at the expense of one of the candidates, but that's to be expected.

Holymeatballs has expanded coverage, including some of the students' reactions to the debate as expressed via SL's chat feature.

Surprisingly, only one of the teens seemed to take notice of McCain's bizarre reference to Obama as "That one."

UPDATE: A World of Warcraft player mentions that the debate was also a hot topic in the general chat on the Silvermoon server.

Pwn or Die serves up new Sarah Palin images in which the Republican Veep candidate is Photoshopped into various video game shots. 

You'll recognize GTA IV, Tomb Raider, and others

Personally I found the GTA IV lollipop girl image (hit the link) the most entertaining, but the big, huge Pwn or Die watermark across the center is a buzz kill.

We are seeing more and more Palin parody material of late. Fidget finds it no surprise that Palin is getting so much attention in gaming circles, citing this RNC-time post on The Atlantic

In addition, I predict a bonus unintended consequence for McCain among middle class/educated/post-college/pre-adult white males. A demographic label that follows many into their late 30s and currently trends for Obama. Basically the gamers/Gen-Xers/Seth Rogen/Will Farrell crowd..."Sarah Palin as Lara Croft" will leave these guys drooling like zombies.

Georgia Tech Prof. Ian Bogost has launched a new election-oriented game.

Campaign Rush debuted at CNN late last week and Bogost writes of the new offering at Water Cooler Games:

My studio Persuasive Games developed a new game that CNN International has just published. Campaign Rush is a light-hearted game on the theme of politics and the current election. It's a casual click-management game in a campaign office, in which the player helps volunteers respond to the barrage of incoming phone calls, emails, letters, and the like. In addition, you can create an account and choose your party to compete for the best score.

However, just another meme vector dings Campaign Rush in a review:

Well, I’m a bit disappointed... The campaign offices must indeed be caffeine-fueled storms of ringing phones, rushing campaign workers and clattering keyboards. The game conveys something of that atmosphere.

 

But there’s not much content there - the gameplay isn’t really about the election. It’s a point-and-click game of whack-a-mole dressed up with candidate posters on the virtual walls.

 

Bogost can do better. Take Back Illinois [2004 election cycle] was a great way to get introduced to the issues. This is a little more towards Presidential Paintball.

Second Life users can now follow what Twitter users are saying about the presidential tickets.

Steve Nelson of SL's Capitol Hill area writes:

I've installed a new display at Capitol Hill in Second Life that streams Twitter tweets about candidates.  The tweets float above columns, and are refreshed every minute with a search for Obama, Biden, McCain or Palin. You can also talk to the display to get the latest tweets about an individual candidate. Touch a column, and you get the original post on Twitter that you can use to follow links, etc...

 

As for me, joining the discussion in Second Life, with an eye on the Twitter election channel, and another eye on my TV, makes my head explode.
 

Strauss Zelnick, chairman of Take-Two Interactive and John Riccitiello, CEO of Electronic Arts, might not be able to get together on a merger, but they seem to agree on at least one thing: Barack Obama.

Both game biz execs have contributed to Obama's presidential campaign.

In fact, in research conducted by GamePolitics of publicly available records, A-list video game industry types seem to be leaning in the Democratic direction. Of 16 donors we found, only three had given to Republican candidates. Meanwhile, 13 had donated to Democrats (although only 9 of these gave to Obama).

While our survey can't in any way be considered scientific, we looked at several dozen other prominent industry figures, but did not find any presidential campaign contributions that met our guidelines. The ground rules in use dictated that we would only consider 2007-2008 presidential contributions. In some cases, however, donors gave substantial amounts to congressional races or non-candidate-specific political action committees. Those aren't listed here.

Among the biggest names we found were Rockstar's Sam Houser (Obama), Spore designer Will Wright (McCain) and Ultima designer (and space traveler) Richard Garriott (Hillary Clinton). Here's the list:

Republican contributors:

• Will Wright: (Spore, The Sims) $3,000 to McCain; previously donated $2,350 to Giuliani
• Bobby Kotick (Activision CEO) $2,300 to McCain; previously donated $2,100 to Romney
• Curt Schilling (38 Studios) $2,300 to McCain.

Democratic contributors:

• Strauss Zelnick (Chairman, Take-Two) $2,000 to Obama; had previously donated to $2,500 to Edwards, $1,000 each to Biden & Richardson
• Ben Feder (CEO, Take-Two) contributed $1,000 to Biden in 2007
• Sam Houser (Rockstar) $4,600 to Obama
• Patricia Vance (president, ESRB) $2,000 to Obama
• John Riccitiello (CEO, EA) $4,600 to Obama
• John Smedley (Sony Online Entertainment) $2,300 to Obama
• Richard Garriott aka "Lord British" (Ultima series, NC Soft) $2,300 to Hillary Clinton
• Alex Rigopulos (CEO, Harmonix) $32,900 to Obama
• Kathy Vrabeck (president, EA Casual) $2,300 to Obama
• George Lucas (LucasFilm) $33,100 to Obama
• Doug Lowenstein (former ESA head) $2,300 to Hillary Clinton
• Kenneth Doroshow (new ESA general counsel) $2,500 to Obama
• Gabe Newell (pres., Valve) $2,300 to Dodd

GP: We will update the list as additional donors are located.

UPDATE: Adding links for each donor. Just click on the name for details. Also, removed a couple of mistaken entries on the Democratic side. Specifically, we had initially listed a John Carmack, but further review indicated that it was not the game desgner.

techPresident has uncovered some tinkering with Spore's Creature Creator utility by politically-minded gamers.

By way of example the site points to Spore-rendered versions of George W. Bush, John McCain (at left) and Sarah Palin.

To be fair, the Palin creature is bit of a stretch...

So, is the union of Spore and politics called Sporitics? Spolitics?