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?

Pwn Or Die has posted this short but funny parody of the classic AYB... with a presidential campaign twist.

Hopefully, you found time to watch Friday's presidential debate between Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama. Perhaps you even viewed it from within Second Life.

Over at The Click Heard Round the World Rik Panganiban checked out the SL presence of both camps during the debate:

The McCain viewing party was held in a beachside setting at the "Straight Talk Cafe" build... It was a festive event, with avatars dancing, sipping beverages, and lounging on beach chairs as they watched the debate from their TVs and laptops at home.  About 25 avatars were in attendance...

 

The Obama camp's debate watching party took place at "Obama/Biden Lounge at Hope Beach...  About 30-some avatars were in attendance. Their impressions were nearly opposite those of the McCain camp...

 

Obviously this was a very small subset of both candidates' supporters.  What I observed was a lot of preaching to the choir and one-sided views of their candidates.  There was no real dialogue across the aisle, nor was there intended to be... I think it's a useful reminder that no matter the political figure, one person's angel is another person's demon.

Over at BlipTV we found this:

"Swift Kick Moms for Truth" is a one-minute “machinima” video featuring virtual versions of Obama’s grandma and McCain’s mother scolding the candidates for their deceptive ads. Lead-in by virtual Tom Brokaw.

 

Created in the Second Life virtual world by Machinima by Silver and Goldie, with voice artist Mark Winston.

The title, of course, harkens back to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth group, which trashed John Kerry's 2004 presidential bid. The term "swiftboating" has since become part of the language, denoting a smear campaign.

This video, however, is both non-partisan and just for fun.

With the presidential campaign in full swing, Chris Morris of Forbes recaps of the current crop of election simulation games.

Here's a brief sample of Chris's thoughts on the games. Hit the link for his full report:

• President Forever 2008 ...lets you get as detailed as you want to in the campaign. You can determine ad spending, spin news headlines and change campaign themes. Heck, you can even recruit Oprah as a crusader.
• The Political Machine... You're... able to campaign against other players in online multiplayer matchups.
• Power Politics III is the grandfather of political games, having put a version out for every election since 1992 (with the exception of 2000, when designer Randy Chase was unable to find a publisher) 

Morris also mentions a pair of games that are just for fun, with no pretense of simulation:

• Kung Fu Election pits all the candidates... in a series of one-on-one "Mortal Kombat"-style bloodfests.
• Campaign pits Obama against McCain... in a game that seems like an odd combination of "Risk" and any generic spell-based game.

Over at The Click Heard Round the World, Second Life devotee Rik Panganiban wonders why Democrats seem to far outnumber Republicans in SL's online world.

Panganiban, who goes by Rik Riel in-game, is a self-identified Obama supporter and notes that the Democratic presidential candidate topped a recent SL poll by a 2:1 margin over Republican John McCain.

Panganiban also notes that McCain's SL presence, "Straight Talk Cafe" is usually deserted and seems to be malfunctioning. He writes:

Looking at the Second Life resident-organized groups, there does appear to be a larger support base for Obama, with 1,300 residents in the "Obama for President" group, compared to only 300-some residents in the largest McCain for President group...

 

Given the fact that Obama and McCain have been in a virtual deadheat in the real world polls, what is the deal with Second Life?  Are there more progressive, liberal folks flocking to the virtual world?  Is it the age group that tends to dominate SL, the late-20s / mid-30s demographic? 

 

I found this all kind of sad.  Although I'm an Obama supporter, I would love to talk with McCain boosters about his policies, particularly his positions on foreign policy and the United Nations. Does McCain support closing Gitmo?  Would he fully fund efforts to stop the scourge of AIDS in Africa?  I really want to know, and I would want to know if his supporters care about these things.

Although neither the McCain-Palin or Obama-Biden tickets have especially significant track records in regard to video game issues, one of them will win in November and thus be in a position to influence the course of the public debate over games.

With that in mind, it's clear that some bloggers can't resist sending a bit of parody the candidates' way.

Kotaku yesterday ran What Can Games Teach Us About the Election?, recommending that the would-be presidents study titles like WoW (leadership), Missile Command (foreign policy) and Trauma Center: Under the Knike (heath care). Here's a sample:

Far from condemning video gaming, McCain and Obama would do well to embrace gaming culture in the hope that some of our collective wisdom will rub off...

 

Worried that you may not have traveled extensively enough, or had enough experience on the world stage?

 

...Chillax, just grab a PC and binge on Civilization... A few Civ campaigns should be enough for a basic grounding in the subtle nuances of international relations. The tech progress tree might also give a greater understanding of science although beware — if the candidates heed the game's advice too closely, Wall Street may reel from the unexpected national investment in Pottery and Burial Rituals.

 

A Civ player quickly learns the importance of a stable economy to a war effort. It's no good throwing phalanx after phalanx at a conquered land if your advisors are telling you to build more granaries, after all. Better to focus on diplomacy, and maybe build a colossus or two to keep the plebes happy back home.

Meanwhile, Daily Game has a two-parter with a slightly different twist on the subject. If Barack Obama and Joe Biden Were Video Games and If John McCain and Sarah Palin Were Video Games strains the metaphor a bit to relate the candidates to a half-dozen or so games.
 

A press release touting Xbox Live's partnership with Rock the Vote notes that Barack Obama has a 12% edge over John McCain among participants in an XBL poll. 100,000 users took part, which, according to the press release, makes the XBL sample larger than Gallup, NBC and CNN combined. Of course, as Giant Bomb notes:

...they aren't pretending that it's actual science, because there are so many holes in this poll that it's impossible to take it as anything other than sort-of interesting. For example, as someone who has more than one Xbox Live gold account, I probably could have voted twice...

Still, it is a fascinating use of what started out a few years back as a space designed strictly for online gaming.

As far as the results, Obama's big lead is not especially surprising, given that XBL users likely skew significantly younger than the population as a whole. Here are the numbers:

• Obama \ Biden:                  43%
• McCain \ Palin:                    31%
• Undecided:                         13%
• Other:                                13%

Of more value than the polling is the impressive level of political engagement engendered by the XBL / Rock the Vote partnership. As the press release points out:
 

In its first two weeks of the program, more than 55,000 voter registration forms were downloaded through Xbox LIVE and xbox.com. Additionally, videos from the recent Democratic and Republican conventions were downloaded nearly 25,000 times.

 

To-date, the Xbox LIVE community has downloaded more than 350,000 pieces of program-specific content, ranging from candidate gamerpics to videos and Rock the Vote logos. That’s nearly five times the amount of people present at Barack Obama’s acceptance speech during the Democratic Convention in Denver.
 

Last month GamePolitics reported that Microsoft had partnered with Rock the Vote to enable voter registration through Xbox Live.

Game columnist Larry Curtis of the Deseret News reports that he used XBL to get registered and found the process to be painless:

I decided to try it and see how easy it is [to register] and it turns out to be extremely easy. There is a promotional box that is clicked with the regular game controller and then a couple of more clicks and it sends me an e-mail with a voter registration card and gives the user an "I registered" icon to use on their gamer profile if I choose.

Since I live here in Utah where my vote doesn't matter in the slightest (sorry to be cynical but Utah is going McCain's way, no doubt about it) I may not have otherwise registered this year but when it really is that easy, well, how can I not be a better citizen?

...Far more amusing was the Halo-themed outfit "Red vs. Blue" making an effective video about how not voting, or getting chocolate milk when you should be voting, can bring disaster.

 

GP: The Red vs. Blue video mentioned by Curtis can be seen at left.

I'll admit to having a man crush on Stardock ever since they issued the PC Gamer's Bill of Rights at PAX last month. Gotta love it when a game publisher thinks about issues like copyright in a rational way and makes a commitment to caring about its customers.

While Stardock is perhaps best known for strategy titles Sins of a Solar Empire and Galactic Civilizations, its presidential campaign sim The Political Machine is a terrific play as well. And now you can download it to sim the 2008 presidential race for free. Stardock announced last week that they are giving away The Political Machine Express for Windows PCs. From the company's press release:

The free strategy game... puts players in the role of the campaign manager of either John McCain or Barack Obama in a quest to win the White House. The game has been updated to feature vice presidential candidates Joe Biden and Sarah Palin...

 

Players play on the electoral map of the United States with the goal to gain the 270 electoral votes necessary to win the election. Players get 21 weeks (approximately the time candidates have between the primary season and the general election) to make speeches, raise money, buy advertisements, hire political operatives, appear on cable TV shows in order to woo voters to their side.

GP: Although I've played the full version, I haven't tried the free Political Machine Express. The primary difference would appear to be one of scope, however, with Express focused on the actual McCain-Obama fight, whereas the full $19.99 game offers numerous hypothetical scenarios.

The video accompanying this article is the trailer for the full game.

Impact Games' Play the News is currently offering a chance to weigh in on the upcoming vice-presidential debate between Republican Sarah Palin and Democrat Joe Biden. The debate will take place on October 2nd at Washington University in St. Louis.

If you're not familiar with Play the News, Impact CEO Eric Brown describes it as "where fantasy leagues meet the evening news." Players can check out background information, select optional courses of action and make predictions. PTN tracks your score and allows you to level up and earn achievements.

The Pew Internet & American Life Project has just released the results of the first-ever national, publicly available look at youth and video games.

Teens, Video Games & Civics examines how and why games are played and details the relationship that gaming has to social and civic engagement among teens in the United States.

In gathering their data, Pew conducted phone interviews with 12-17-year olds along with a parent. The results of the 75-page report are a fascinating glimpse into how video games fit into the lives of teens. Major conclusions include:

• Almost all teens play games.
• The most popular games played by teens today span a variety of genres and ratings.
• Gaming is often a social experience for teens.
• Close to half of teens who play online games do so with people they know in their offline lives.
• Teens encounter both pro-social and anti-social behavior while gaming.
• The most popular game genres include games with violent and nonviolent content.
• Parental monitoring of game play varies.
• There are civic dimensions to video game play.
• The quantity of game play is not strongly related to teens’ interest or engagement in civic and political activity.
• The characteristics of game play and the contexts in which teens play games are strongly related to teens’ interest and engagement in civic and political activities.
• Playing games with others in person was related to civic and political outcomes, but playing with others online was not.
• Civic gaming experiences are more equally distributed than many other civic learning opportunities.

Pew notes that:

Video gaming is pervasive in the lives of American teens... Opportunities for gaming are everywhere... When asked, half of all teens reported playing a video game “yesterday.”

While racing, puzzle and sports games were determined to be the most popular, Pew found that two-thirds of American teens enjoyed action and adventure games, which may contain violent elements. A listing of teens' Top 10 most popular games was headed by Guitar Hero, Halo 3 and Madden. Grand Theft Auto was 8th.

Pew also concluded that gaming is a social experience for teens and that parental monitoring varies. Surprisingly, only a small (13%) subset of parents said they believed that games had a harmful effect on their kids:

• 90% of parents say they always or sometimes know what games their children play.
• 72% say they always or sometimes check the ratings before their children are allowed to play a game.
• Parents of teens who play games are generally neutral on the effect of games on their children, with nearly two-thirds believing that games have no impact one way or the other on their offspring.
• 62% of parents of gamers say video games have no effect on their child one way or the other.
• 19% of parents of gamers say video games have a positive influence on their child.
• 13% of parents of gamers say video games have a negative influence on their child.
• 5% of parents of gamers say gaming has some negative influence/some positive influence, but it depends on the game.

Civic engagement was one of the main focal points of the study. Games, however, seemed to have a mostly neutral effect in this area, with much depending on the civic-mindedness of individual gamers:

Neither the frequency of game play nor the amount of time young people spend playing games is significantly related to most of the civic and political outcomes that we examined—following politics, persuading others how to vote, contributing to charities, volunteering, or staying informed about politics and current events. There is little evidence to support the concern that playing video games promotes behaviors or attitudes that undermine civic commitments and behaviors.

 

At the same time, there is little evidence to support the idea that playing video games, in general, is associated with a vibrant civic or political life. The frequency of gaming was related to only two civic and political outcomes—political interest and protesting—with differences only emerging between the highest and lowest frequency of game play.

If you enjoy commenting on GamePolitics, the odds are that you are more aware of political and civic issues:

Teens who take part in social interaction related to the game, such as commenting on websites or contributing to discussion boards, are more engaged civically and politically.

GP: All in all, this is very positive news for gaming. Pew Internet gets it right when it comes to the pervasiveness and social elements of gaming. Moreover, parental responses show that games are perhaps not regarded as the "murder simulators" some critics would suggest.

Get the full text of Teens, Video Games & Civics here...

Over at Water Cooler Games, Ian Bogost points us to Debate Night: Obama's Unofficial Game:

Gameplay is derived from Zuma-type games; the player chooses a key issue (represented iconographically) and then uses a match-and-move gesture to swap their positions. Match three or more and they disappear, the equivalent of volleying successfully in the debate.

 

The game both acts as a quality piece of interactive media in support of the campaign and a subtle critique of the process itself, since the issues themselves matter less in the campaign than the way they are repositioned.

Debate Night was designed by Gonzalo Frasca, who collaborated on the Dean for Iowa game during the 2004 Democratic primaries.

Thanks to: GP correspondent Andrew Eisen for the heads-up on Debate Night.

A new ad from the Obama campaign employs a virtual roulette interface in an effort to paint John McCain as a politics-as-usual, Beltway insider...

On Tuesday GamePolitics took note of the release of a Sarah Palin action figure and wondered how long it would take for a Palin-based game to hit the web.

Answer: Three days.

Today, U.K.-based T-Enterprise has unveiled Polar Palin.

In the game the player controls a dynamite-equipped polar bear who attempts to blow up Palin-driven "campaign tanks" as well as oil rigs.

What's it all about? Here is the explanation given on the game site:

The U.S. recently classified the Alaskan polar bear as a threatened species because of the destruction of its natural habitat. It is predicted that the population of bears could be reduced by two-thirds by the year 2050 due to pollution and global warming.

 

The state of Alaska, led by Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, is to sue the U.S. interior secretary to reverse the decision amid fears that it will hinder oil and gas development.

A new video trailer which shows off the cooperative mode in the upcoming Saints Row 2 features likenesses of presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama engaging in full-on gameplay.

And in Saints Row, of course, that means full-on violent gameplay...

GamePolitics readers will recall that Xbox reps were on hand at both the Democratic and Republican National Conventions in recent weeks, touting the Xbox Live service as a way for younger voters to get involved.

This CNN video offers visuals of what gamers can do, politically speaking, via Xbox Live. Options include taking part in opinion polls and getting registered by linking to Rock the Vote. There's also an interview clip with G4's Adam Sessler, who helpfully points out:

I think it's great because, obviously, anybody registering to vote, that can't be a bad thing. I think that one could say that it's such a passive and relaxed experience, doing it there on your couch... will that stimulate the person to actually make it to the pools in November? I hope they all realize you cannot vote through Xbox Live.

Via: Kotaku

As reported by the St. Petersburg Times, Connecticut-based HeroBuilders is now pushing a Sarah Palin action figure with the buyer's choice of three outfits.

Depending upon one's taste, the Sarah doll comes in a Hillary-like pantsuit, the Lara Croft-ish outfit seen at left, or a risque schoolgirl get-up.

If you simply must have one, be prepared to shell out between $27.95 - $29.95, depending upon ensemble. The company also offers figures based on John McCain, Eliot Spitzer and John Edwards.

Can a Flash-based game be far behind?

Via: Associated Content

Can online games serve as a vehicle for campaign financing?

We may find out, given that an upcoming Second Life event is designed to raise money for the Obama campaign. As detailed by Midcourt, the virtual fundraiser will take place next Sunday from 4-7pm Pacific time. A DJ will be playing music and supporters can leave money in donation boxes.

Planners of the Obama event hope to raise 100,000 Lindens, SL's in-game currency. That would be about $380 at current exchange rates. That's not exactly the kind of money that will push a candidate over the top, so the event is probably more significant as an experiment in virtual political fundraising.