Water Cooler Games - Boot the Bigot

Boot the Bigot
June 21, 2006 - by Ian Bogost

From the Human Rights Campaign comes Boot the Bigot, a game purportedly about Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, who has recently been derided for his public statements against homosexuality and sexual privacy. Santorum is up for re-election this year, so it's not surprising to see a little extra digital bling from his detractors.

The game itself isn't much of one. It's another example of skinning a common and simple game with a political figure. In this particular example, the game skinned is whack-a-mole (or pick your favorite variant). Santorum heads pop out from behind the Capitol, and the player controls a boot with the mouse.

It's too bad that legislators and policy organizations continue to believe that games have so little potential to represent actual political processes. The topic of privacy, for example, is ripe for proceduralizing in game form. I think back to the now well-known ACLU Pizza Delivery piece about surveillance, which isn't a game but offers plenty of ideas for making one.

On a related note, I haven't yet seen much of any games for the 2006 US midterm elections. My sense is that it's a bit early still, with many state primaries just now taking place. I suspect if we're going to see more election games this year, it will happen in August/September.

(thanks to Cynthia)

Comments (2) | Post a Comment | TrackBack (0)

Comment from zach whalen on June 21, 2006

At least it's a bit more of a game (interactively speaking) than Santorum's own Where's Bob Casey pseudo game. I'm not sure which is more effective rhetorically, though.

Comment from Dennis G. Jerz on June 22, 2006

Off topic... Just caught the ABC Nightline interview with Ian. "We should really be questioning the kind of advice that Congress is getting."

You tell 'em, Ian. My wife is sitting next to me telling me I should volunteer to screen video games for the government.

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