The Swiss Volkspartei (Swiss People's Party, abbreviated SVP or UDC) has created some truly unbelievable political games. Help Zottel the goat keep Swiss passports out of the brown and yellow hands of immigrants, or help him kick "black sheep" foreigners over the border. And there are more (thanks to Marie-Laure Ryan for bringing them to my attention).

To understand the games, though, you have to first know something about the party itself. It was once a centrist agricultural party, but took on right-wing populist interests in the last twenty years. Since 2003, the party has been very strong in the Swiss National Council. Their right-wing policies have included attempts to ban the construction of minarets, drawing accusations that it wanted to rid the country of Muslims, and the deportation of criminal foreigners, which some compared to Nazi deportation policies.

The game is titled is something like "Zottel for Swiss Progress" in English. It was quite professionally created by Inter Network Marketing, and it builds on the branding and imagery the party has been using in print, featuring a goat and cartoonish depictions of black and white sheep.

There are four minigames. In each, the player controls the stereotypically Swiss goat "Zottel" to advance the policies of the Swiss People's Party. The games are arcade-like and seem to impose a quickly increasing difficulty level in order to draw them to a close rapidly. In Persuasive Games, I called this the rhetoric of failure -- the only way to win, it would seem, is to follow the game over screen's enjoinder, "For a flourishing Switzerland, vote UDC!" The game is only available in German and French, so I've tried to translate the four game premises and instructions below, so you can get a sense of what's going on.

Game 1: Stop Abusive Naturalization
Protect the Swiss against foreign overpopulation by intercepting as many passports as possible, which the Leftists and Greens irresponsibly distribute.
Catch the passports before they fall into the wrong hands. Steer Zottel left and right with the arrow keys. Use the spacebar to kick aside the judge.

Game 2: Stop Criminal Foreigners
Eject black sheep that represent foreign criminals
Return the black sheep back where they came from. Control Zottel with the mouse. Move quickly and click the mouse to eject the black sheep and buses full of sheep back across the border. Don't touch the white sheep please!"

Game 3: End EU Taxation
The EU wants more power, influence, and money. This is why it wants to impose its fiscal regime on Switzerland.
Shoot the hats off the EU taxmen before they can plunder our reserves. Move the sight with the mouse and clock to shoot. Shoot the bags of money before it makes it to the EU. Stop the taxmen!

Game 4: Suppress Increasing Governmental Shenanigans
Collect the radar stations placed around the country. The Greens complicate matters by imposing speed limits. Advance against the Greens to engage them in combat. Use the arrow keys to move Zottel.

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