Although GamePolitics tracked numerous election-themed games during the presidential campaign, we just stumbled across one of more unique and interesting ones.

Steal This Election is slick look at how to use dirty tricks to win the White House. The game has more attitude and atmosphere than most of the other offerings we've seen, which are generally variations on martial arts, FPS or whack-a-mole.

Our only gripe is that the online game is broken. GP's candidate (a Sarah Palin knockoff) won with 182% of the vote. Also, there doesn't seem to be much replayability. No matter which candidate you choose, the dirty tricks are the same. It made sense in the game for my Palinesque character to paint Obama as a terrorist, since that was, unfortunately, an actual theme in the election. It made less sense to have the same tactic available for the Obama-like character to use against the game's faux McCain.

Despite these rather significant flaws, Steal This Election is worth a look if political games float your boat. Let's hope that they fix the game mechanics by the time November, 2012 rolls around.

GP: Okay, that's it. No more election games. Probably...

Comedy troupe the Yes Men spoofed the New York Times yesterday with an elaborate prank which saw hard copies of a faux NYT distributed in New York and several other major U.S. cities.

The feel-good parody edition was reportedly created to encourage President-elect Barack Obama to keep his campaign promises.

There's a game angle to the prank as well. Among the stories in the parody edition is one which reports that the Defense Department's popular America's Army game has been cancelled as part of the elimination of the Army's entire recruitment budget. In its place, the story says, the State Department will offer the more peaceful America's Diplomat.

The avowed purpose of America’s Diplomat is to encourage young people to consider careers in the diplomatic corps, and to present non-military alternatives in a positive light. Where the ability to aggressively attack and kill opponents spelled success in America’s Army, America’s Diplomat stresses situations that demand negotiation, dialogue and peaceful outcomes...

 

Lenny Purvill, a 16-year-old player, noted an initial disappointment in finding his favorite online game replaced. “I liked to pretend I was in the army going on missions in Iraq. And blowing stuff up was fun,” he told the press. Purvill, who has been playing the game since he was 13, had been considering signing up when he turned 18.

His initial disappointment, however, was replaced by fascination as he facilitated a peaceful negotiations between Sunni and Shiite militiamen. “It was like, are they gonna shoot each other? No! They’re not! ’Cause I’m helping them settle their differences with diplomacy. It’s so awesome,” he said.

GP: "Comedy troupe" might not be the most appropriate description of the Yes Men. Their Wikipedia page terms them "culture jamming activists."

GamePolitics covered so many election-themed Flash games during the run-up to November 4th that we actually lost count.

Surprisingly, however, a roundup on Amazon.com's Game Room Blog turns up a few that we missed. For the sake of completeness, here they are, along with Amazon's description:

• Joe The Plumber: Layin' Pipe  ...use your brainteasing abilities to beat the flush in this escalating series of puzzles that are reminiscent of the hacking mini-games of BioShock.
• Below The Beltway  ...this boxing game [featuring the red and blue tickets]... pulls no punches.
• Campaign: General Election Edition ...A turn-based strategy game where players choose their candidate and support staff members--each with different strengths, weaknesses and special moves... Singleplayer and multiplayer...
• AirMILF ...Thanks for the memories Governor [Palin]
   

DasGamer has an entertaining feature on what they bill as the The Top 20 Video Game Moments In The 2008 Presidential Election.

Highlights include:

• the Ron Paul WoW march
• Barack Obama's XBL ads
• John McCain's Pork Invaders Facebook game
• the Sarah Palin All Your Base video
• a list of Game Biz contributions to candidates

Over at 1up Scott Sharkey has a fun feature listing the characters he deems the Top 10 Video Game Politicians of all time.

Scott's list includes:

• Andrew Ryan, Bioshock
• Laguna Loire, Final Fantasy VIII
• Princess Peach
• President Ronald Reagan

Check out 1up for the rest of the list as well as the rationale behind the choices.

Sad Ninja Comedy has released a preview of what they say will be an upcoming iPhone game spoofing Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

The planned game is the companion to the comedy duo's film Rock Obama: The Barack Obama Musical

Here's SNC's description of its iPhone game Rock Obama:

Play as Barack Obama as he tries to gain popularity at a rally.

Podiums start to rise from the floor, and you tilt the iPhone to guide Obama to the right spot to gain popularity points. Encouraged by catchy music and quotes from the movie, help Barack keep up as the podiums rise faster and faster.

Upcoming release on iPhone App Store will be FREE for a limited time.

GP: Interesting use of the iPhone, although we suspect excitement over games about the candidates to drop after tomorrow's election...

USC grad student John Brennan dropped GamePolitics a line to show us this amazing Half-Life 2 machinima featuring John McCain, Barack Obama, and an authentic HL2 head crab.

By way of explanation, John writes:

I'm an MFA student @ USC's interactive media program.  My thesis project is a series of modifications to Half-Life 2 that will operate in the same space as political cartoons.  I'm playing with format right now, but so far it is Modding and Machinima as self expression and political commentary:)

I have a process for quickly getting 'news-makers' (providing enough photography) into Half-Life 2, access to MoCap data, and some good people helping out.

I'm just launching my first piece now, but it is sizable enough that I'd like to bring it to your attention.  It includes McCain, Obama, a debate stage, and is just in time for the vote.

Maxis is serving up a preview of The Sims 3 engine with a pair of videos featuring a Sim Sarah Palin.

In the trailer embedded here on GP, the Republican VP candidate dances (in camouflage lingerie) at a rally. In a second video Palin tussles with her opposite number, Democrat Joe Biden.

John McCain and Barack Obama also appear. We enjoyed this little notation at the end of the trailers:

No candidates were injured during the making of this video.

Maxis has crafted the 2008 presidential tickets for Spore users.

From the press release:

For a bit of fun, EA’s Maxis studio has created the presidential and vice presidential candidates in the critically-acclaimed video game, Spore. Created with the game’s Spaceship Editor, players can download the characters, drag them into Spore to edit – even subscribe to the Sporecast and meet them flying around in Space! 

CLick here for more info...

Political cartoon site Filibuster takes a look at current presidential campaign poll results through the lens of Guitar Hero...

Thanks to: Sharp-eyed GP correspondent Andrew Eisen. No worthy webcomic escapes his all-seeing eye!

Some pundits are saying that high profile GOP vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin has hijacked the Republican spotlight from John McCain.

No argument here.

But if you require proof, consider that Pandemic Studios is releasing two playable characters as DLC for its controversial Mercenaries 2: World in Flames. The characters are Barack Obama and Sarah Palin, not Obama and presidential rival John McCain.

Among other combat activities, Obama struggles with a tank commander before dropping a grenade into the turret. Palin, clad in a designer red jacket and fashionable black skirt, wields an RPG and beats a helicopter pilot into unconsciousness.

It's all very presidential.

G4's Adam Sessler has a video report (at left). Pandemic exec Tom Stratton offers an explanation, of sorts:

Mercenaries 2 is a game seemingly ripped straight out of today's headlines and fueled with the same type of over-the-top action found in the best summer blockbuster films. It only makes sense we inject the game with a spin on current affairs. The timing was too good to let pass.

Venezuelan government officials and others have protested Mercs 2's invasion narrative in the past about. Placing Obama and Palin in the game will likely generate another round of outrage from the Hugo Chavez regime.

Nor is this the first appearance for 2008 candidates in a controversial video games. Last month GamePolitics reported on the inclusion of Obama and McCain in a trailer for GTA knockoff Saints Row 2

Watch Adam Sessler's report here... Additional Obama/Palin Mercs 2 footage can be seen here...

What could the average gamer do with an extra $150,000?

Let's see... all three consoles, a PSP and a DS, Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero World Tour, souped-up gaming PC, dozens of games, peripherals, XBL gold membership, monthly MMO subscriptions, travel to PAX... and still have about $140,000 left over for pizza and Bawls.

It's in that spirit that a new web game from the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee mocks Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin for spending $150K on high-end clothing for her campaign. The group describes itself as "the largest and fastest growing organization of RNs in the U.S. with 80,000 members in all 50 states." From the its press release for Dress Like Palin:

Contrast [Palin's wardrobe spending] with a registered nurse who can be outfitted in scrubs forjust $10 for a hospital shift. "The same $150,000 would outfit 15,000 RNs in scrubs," notes Geri Jenkins, RN... "How disgraceful at a time when so many Americans are struggling to pay their medical bills or keep their homes..."

The $22,800 the RNC spent on makeup, for example, would pay for 224 mammograms, 651 flu shots, or provide a supply of cholesterol lower[ing] Lipitor for one person for nearly 14 years. And that stylish $2,600 Valentino jacket would cost an average teacher onefull month salary -- or pay the full winter natural gas heating bills for two Midwest families.

To be fair, there's not much of a game to Dress Like Palin. It's more like an interactive attack ad.

By now the story of how two innocent lines from the Qur'an delayed Little Big Planet's worldwide launch is well known.

While the delay made eager LBP fans sad, 2P Start webcomic has some fun with the fiasco. Click here for the full comic.

GP: Thanks to sharp-eyed GP correspondent Andrew Eisen for the link.

Just when I thought that I had overcome my tower defense game addiction, along comes White House Tower Defense.

From the description at Kongregate:

Players can use characters such as Vice-Presidential hopeful Sarah Palin, who sits astride a moose, armed with a tranquilizer gun. Joe Biden is also represented in the game, sitting atop an Amtrack train, “gaffing” his way to victory. The game includes most of the political season’s key players, from George Bush to Bill Clinton...

In this game, the map is Washington DC, and the path leads to the White House. The player is trying to prevent Democrats or Republicans from reaching the White House and gaining 270 electoral votes

Unlike the rash of current Flash games which drop Obama, Biden, McCain and especially Palin into goofy Mortal Kombat or FPS-style action, White House Tower Defense is one political game you'll still enjoy after the campaign is over.

GP: Big thanks to GamePolitics reader CMiner for recommending this one...

Jack Thompson seemed to bring out the worst - and the best - in GamePolitics readers.

Gamers who follow GP were eager to debate with Thompson, who came to symbolize the anti-video game movement. And while those interactions were frequently contentious (on both sides), some funny stuff emerged as well.

One of my favorite recollections involved Thompson posting a comment referring to former ESA Doug Lowenstein as a "self-immolating clown." 

This is typical highfalutin language from Thompson, who is a pretty smart guy (although obviously not smart enough to figure out how to hang on to his law license). Anyway, after Thompson posted the self-immolating clown remark, an old-school GP user (was it Mr. Falcon?) responded with:

Yeah. We had one of those at my nephew's birthday party. Took weeks to get the small out of the drapes.

In this post from the old GP LiveJournal site, we had some laughs over GP reader wxdiva's use of an Olde English-style tapestry (above) to satirize Thompson's nonstop Urgent! press releases, his references to his TV appearances, his penchant for reaching out to prominent political figures, his GTA hate, his threats to take GamePolitics down and his coining of the word pixelantes (pixelated vigilantes). 

Thompson meant the P-word as an insult to gamers who instead adopted it as a badge of honor. Pixelantes, by the way, is now permanently enshrined in the Urban Dictionary and elsewhere.

There was also a guy who satirized the game hatin' attorney by imagining him as a caveman, Og Thompson, who wanted to censor the discovery of fire.

At The Click Heard Round the World , blogger Rik Panganiban surveys political machinima and comes up with more than a dozen examples of the genre.

One of the most recent is RePuffs, a satirical take on the Republican presidential ticket from Machinima.com

Amber Lee Ettinger, better known as Obama Girl, has paid music video homage to Howard T. Ackerman, the hard-nosed, fictional U.S. President in EA's upcoming Command & Conquer Red Alert 3.

It's all hype, of course. But with Obama Girl and a Red Alert title, what's not to like?

Red Alert 3 launches next week for PC and in November for Xbox 360.

It must be awfully difficult to be a disbarred attorney. I mean, what do you do with all of that free time?

If you're Jack Thompson you file court motions. And Thompson filed one of his more bizarre ones today. It's another of those picture books filings that the disgraced attorney has taken to submitting in recent months. Apparently capitalizing upon his free time, Thompson has taken the trouble to paste in snaps of:

• GP volunteer comment mod E. Zachary Knight
• GP editor (me)
• Hal Halpin, head of consumer group the ECA
• Brian Crecente, editor of Kotaku
• Strauss Zelnick, chairman of Take-Two
• Doug Lowenstein, former ESA boss

His purpose seems to be an attempt to make the case - yet again - that the video game industry is responsible for his disbarment. That's an odd approach as most of the people he names in today's filing aren't part of the video game industry.

Thompson seems particularly upset over the amusing Disbarment Countdown Timer created by EZK. On that score Thompson writes:

If there were any doubt as to the core purpose of this disbarment, instigated by the video game industry, note... The Jack Thompson Disbarment Countdown Clock is at the center of a commerce-driven lynch mob... This court should grant the emergency stay to at least freeze the Countdown Clock pending an evidentiary hearing on this nonsense.

It's so clear now! The multi-billion dollar video game industry reached down from its perch on Wall Street and demanded the creation of a free Disbarment Timer add-on for Firefox. Makes perfect sense...

As to my involvement, he writes:

GamePolitics.com’s operator is Dennis McCauley, who filed his own Florida Bar complaint against Thompson for being mean to videogamers. GamePolitcs ran a multi-part series about Thompson’s Bar trial, court transcripts and all. Mr. McCauley, pictured below, worked with Referee Dava Tunis to place court documents at his site before Thompson got them...

It's true that I filed a Bar complaint about him in 2006. I've written about that in the past. The Bar complaint certainly wasn't about "being mean to videogamers."

GP did indeed run a multi-part series on Thompson's Bar trial, complete with transcripts. I'm very proud of that series. The assertion about working with Judge Dava Tunis is simply a lie.

UPDATE: Thompson also mentioned that GamesLaw.net has been tracking his court filings. All part of the conspiracy, eh, Miami Jack?

FULL DISCLOSURE DEPT: The ECA is the parent company of GamePolitics.

Read the court filing here.

Although we griped last week about the seemingly never-ending stream of Sarah Palin-themed games, we found one this morning that breaks the standard Sarah-shooting-at-stuff mold.

Palin as President is an entertaining trifle which explores how the controversial Guv might perform in the White House. It's definitely good for 3-5 minutes of work avoidance at the office. Forward it to 19 other people and - presto! - you've sabotaged an entire hour of organizational productivity.

Via: Political Irony

Republican presidential candidate John McCain introduced the world to Joe the Plumber during last week's presidential debate.

His running mate, Sarah Palin was recently quoted to the effect that the time is right "that normal, Joe six-pack American is finally represented in the position of Vice Presidency..."

Now, Joe the Plumber and Joe Sixpack battle it out...

GP: Big thanks to GamePolitics reader Videolandhero for pointing this one out...

Everyone who knows Flash seemingly has a Sarah Palin game these days. I don't know about you, but I'm all Palined out.

But, given our mission to bring you all things related to politics and gaming, we dutifully take note of Puck Palin from T-Enterprise. Hit the link for the full-sized version.

More creativity is needed, however, as the presidential campaign winds down. How about a Joe the Plumber game? That's something designers can work with. There's the obvious Mario connection, for one thing...

UPDATE: If you are not seeing the game, it is because T-Enterprise is migrating its server...

The Associated Press reports that Barack Obama's Xbox Live ads have sparked some humor.

According to an AP report, Seth Meyers of Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday quipped:

Barack Obama has begun running ads within video games. Obama ads can be seen in video games such as `Madden NFL '09' and `Burnout.' Not to be outdone, John McCain has begun putting ads inside many MRI machines.

GP: Look for Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert to have some fun with the Obama ads as well...

Via: GoNintendo

Thanks to: Sharp-eyed GP correspondent Andrew Eisen for spotting this one!

Online games spoofing the 2008 presidential election are plentiful these days, but Truth Invaders takes one of the more unique approaches that we've seen.

In the Space Invaders knockoff, players select among several questionable statements made by both the Obama and McCain campaigns and then try to turn lies (red) to truth (green).

Designer Jeremy Bernstein, who previously created The Redistricting Game, describes Truth Invaders as FactCheck.org meets Space Invaders.

...this one is from Politico.

Blast Russian missiles an MiGs as well as moose and lipstick-wearing, flying pigs...

UPDATE: for some reason the embedded game was starting up in IE, so I've replaced it with a screen shot. Hit the link if you want to play the game at Politico.

Via our sister-site, GameCulture, comes this spoof of those old Intellivision commercials which inexplicably featured erudite writer George Plimpton.

Here's the original. It's almost as funny as the parody...

Over at Crispy Gamer, game scribe Kyle Orland pokes fun at the whole Jack Thompson is a media creation bit, with GamePolitics coming in for some extra attention:

A group of prominent game journalists is gathering together to fight the recent disbarment of anti-game crusader Jack Thompson. The group, headed by GamePolitics editor Dennis McCauley, issued an open letter to the Florida Supreme Court this morning, urging them to reinstate the controversial former lawyer...

 

The statement also included a link to an online petition where gamers could sign up to "get Jack Thompson off the bread lines and back in the headlines, where he belongs." Signatories on the letter include prominent writers for Kotaku, Joystiq, Destructoid and dozens of other gaming blogs...

 

McCauley is worried that those reveling in Thompson's fall from grace haven't fully absorbed what the game journalism landscape will look like without him... McCauley went on to argue that Thompson delivered "the spittle-flecked, borderline-incoherent rants that gamers wanted -- that they needed -- and in that he'll be nearly impossible to replace. We've lost a giant, and we need to do everything we can to get him back."
 

GP: Funny stuff, Kyle.

Oh, and I have just one word for you: paybacks...

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.

GP sister site GameCulture points us to Singh Is King.

The Flash game, posted on an Indian website, parodies the numerous political struggles faced by India's Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh:

Singh Is King's charm and goofball mood belies the black humor behind the game's obstacles. There's the obvious, such as a grinning President Bush floating in air with an outstretched arm, but there are also references to the PM's frequent clashes with India's communist party... as well as India's failure to join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

 

Perhaps the darkest token, however, are the Indian farmers that Singh is occasionally forced to leap. In 2003 alone, more than 17,000 farmers committed suicide in India, swallowing pesticides to avoid the shame of debt and family financial ruin brought on by an agricultural economic crisis...

 

Singh Is King is, therefore, worth a look on two fronts. It's a reasonable way to pass a few errant minutes and gives a peek at how politics are penetrating game culture around the world.