Hacktivism Intent – JamesA
My initial intent was to integrate a reward system in a game, or across multiple games, that would encourage players to vote on election day. After some thought, I decided a more involved approach would be more rewarding and effective. What if, instead of just getting people to vote, I could get them more interested and involved in the political system as a whole?
I decided the most fun way to do this would be to create an educative interactive experience, hosted on a website or mobile app. Something between a strategy game and an interactive novel. In this game, the player would be tasked with putting together a campaign for the office of President. The main challenge would be coming up with the money required to continue your campaign. Every week you’d need to pay a staff salary, travel expenses, etc. You could also pay for extra expenses, such as advertisements and guest speakers for your rallies. It would likely be very difficult to win without these extra expenses. The player, like any presidential hopeful, would have to do some fund raising. So how would they go about it? Start a grass roots campaign to collect a large amount of small donations? Or get cozy with corporate lobbies and wealthy private donors? The player will quickly find that the former solution is untenable by itself, and that victory is almost completely out of reach without the power of large donations.
The game would be targeted toward anyone and everyone willing to play it. By putting the player in the driver’s seat, it’s my hope that they’ll experience the frustration of the system firsthand. Cynical players will find their victory is easy and hollow. Once you had the money to run advertisements, the race would essentially become a 50/50 chance that boiled down to media coverage and debates. In these debates, smearing and taking careful advantage of your opponent would be more effective than any other strategies. I know this sounds like a bleak experience. It is. The goal of this game is not for the player to have a good time. It’s for them to get upset. It’s to convey that our system is broken, and needs fixing.
As far as numbers go, this project wouldn’t be terribly expensive in terms of time or money, but it would require expertise and a lot of care. Just by myself, it could take years to get a finished product I could be proud of. I wouldn’t be able to rush because I know something without depth or poignancy is unlikely to make much of an impact. On the flip side, a project with such a wide scope could easily become messy and bloated, without a clear enough message. Careful planning is required to carry a realistic project through to a satisfactory end.
(Disclaimer: I’m bad at drawing)
One thought on “Hacktivism Intent – JamesA”
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This, I feel is exactly what this country needs. Especially after this past election which was just a bad political joke. I’m curious, are you going to have the ability to choose which party you wish to represent, or will it just be the two major parties of Democrat and Republican? This seems like it will help educate those who mindlessly vote as well. Great depiction of Trombo.