Yesterday I spent three hours at the Georgia DMV getting my new drivers license. Three hours. That's one hour waiting in line outside the office, one hour waiting for my number to be called, and a third hour waiting for my license. Gimme that old time bureaucracy.

I saw a lot of people turned away at the first desk inside (after having waited in line for an hour) because they didn't have the proper documentation. This got me thinking: is it possible that a game could more effectively communicate the rules and process of local political administration than a set of resource lists or instructions? I'm not talking about mapping political opinion about bureaucracies into a game, although that's a good idea too. Rather, I'm suggesting a game that simulates the bureaucratic process and, in so doing, helps the player understand how to get through it as painlessly as possible. Bureaucracy is really just a set of rules, even if a perversely absurd one.

For example, the Georgia DMV game would model the absurd three-part waiting process, show the consequences of having different documents available, and provide a basic model for the high- and low-traffic periods during the day and week. No real-time play, don't worry.

Currently, it might be impossible to imagine a government funding such a thing. However, it might be the kind of thing that could take off at the grassroots. Maybe I'll consider trying it in our Georgia Tech research lab sometime.

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