Activism: The Public Policy Game Activism: The Public Policy Game Game Review Activisim: The Public Policy Game is a web-based game created by Persuasion Games. It can be accessed for free at http://activismgame.com. This game was commissioned by the 2004 Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC). The aim of this game is not in the realm of academic education but in political education. It has no curriculum based used but can be used with upper middle and high school students who are learning about government and political issues. A person playing Activism first enters their location, age range, and gender. This is used to compare to other games played in your area, in your age range, or by your gender. The player then creates a virtual activism plan that prioritizes the public policy issues most important to them by allocating different numbers of activist to each area. There are total of 10,000 activists to be dispersed. They player could also chose to load another player?s plan sorted by location, age, and gender. There are six issues the game discusses are economy (includes tax reform, healthcare, and college tuition relief), education, corporate policy (revives the economy by sending corporate tax dollars to the treasury), security, military, and internationalism (improving relationships between the U.S. and the international community). While the player is allowed to set their own priorities they are not allowed to ignore any of the six public policy issues. Each of the 6 issues has its own ?mini game? and all six appear on the screen at once. The player must play all six games simultaneously and keep the issues balanced. Each mini game has a gauge that indicates how well the player is performing in that area, color coded in green (good), yellow (okay), red (failure). If any of the six mini become red the game is over. There are also three ?Quality of Life Indicators? which are a light bulb, the dollar sign, and a peace symbol. These signs effect how difficult it is to manage other issues. In order to win the game the player must bring all six of the gauges in the green level. I have played this game a number of times and have never been able to get more than two public policy issues into the green area. The game starts as soon as you press play and you must prioritize your areas while playing the 6 mini games. You can change your priorities as you play but that distracts you from the mini games. This purpose of this game is educational and political. The object is to help John Kerry and Congress work together. This game would fit in the high school level United States history with the formation of political parties, AP United States Government and Politics. This game would demonstrate to the students how difficult it is to balance all different aspects of government simultaneously and would help them determine what their own personal opinions regarding public policy are. It also may open some of their eyes to the issues faced by Congress that they were never aware of. Critique: Activism is very busy and complicated because there are so many things going on at once. It takes a great deal of time to play as it does take quite a few minutes for anyone of the issues to fall into the red area and it takes a good deal of time to get an issue to go into the green area. Also, because this game was made for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee it is biased. However, this bias can be used to discuss differences in the parties as the GOP also has a political game online called Take Back Illinois. Posted by akhager ( Sep 29 2007, 02:21:10 PM EDT ) Permalink Comments [0]

The Political Machine Game Review Game Information: The game I chose to review for our third game review is called The Political Machine. While the game does cost money in order to play, I viewed a demo of it found here: http://www.politicalmachine.com/game.aspx. While the game does not specify an age group it is intended for, the student needs to have a firm understanding of U.S. politics and government. Therefore, the game is best suited for students at the secondary level learning about civics and economics. Game Play: The Political Machine allows players to choose between four different types of the game, including ?quick game? that is based on real world issues, or ?fantasy? game where the issues and state values are randomized. The player may also choose to play ?campaign mode? where he/she goes through different levels and in the end will face the top political candidates of all time. In the multi-player version of the game, players compete online against one another. In all versions of the game the player is a campaign manager for a United States presidential candidate. Players are allowed to create their own candidates (represented via avatar) or use real previous Presidential candidates such as Bill Clinton, George Washington, and Abraham Lincoln. The player must travel around the country in order to campaign and win voter support for his/her candidate. Some of the issues the player is faced with include the economy, policy decisions, and the War on Terror. Players are required to buy ads, make speeches, and go on T.V. as well as do other things in order to campaign for their candidate. If these activities make the candidate low on money the player must launch a fund raising event to help raise more money. Before the player goes to each state to campaign, they may view the top five issues that are most important to the people of that state as well as the political orientation breakdown (Republican, Democrat, and Independent). The players are confronted with scandals, ?smear merchants, spin doctors,? and other crises throughout the game. The main goal of the game is for the candidate to achieve 270 electoral votes for his/her candidate on Election Day. Structure and Teaching: The purpose of this game is to expose students to the processes that go on in campaigning for an election. The game helps the students grasp all the different things campaign managers and candidates must do in order to run for President. If the player chooses to play the ?quick game? that represents the actual political orientation and important issues to each state, the player will learn about real state political issues. The player is also forced to think about the issues that are important to him/herself. Many times secondary level students are unsure as to what kind of issues they are passionate about, and I believe this game is a great way to expose some of those issues and hopefully be a chance for political self exploration. The game hits directly on the issues of 21st century content because it encompasses issues that deal with global awareness, finance, economics, business, as well civic issues. This game would be great for a U.S. government or civics course. Critique: This game exposes students to the issues and realities campaign managers and candidates must face when running for election. The game allows students to engage in active learning and problem solving skills. Players must plan out and gear their speeches and ideas to the individuals or groups of people they need the vote from in each state. The ultimate goal of the game is to become President but in order to do that the player must realize and understand how to achieve votes in order to do this. So for example, if the player is representing a Democrat and is visiting South Carolina and looks to see prayer in school is a major issue there, they may think about focusing on that issue. However, the player must realize that many Democrats in South Carolina may not agree with prayer in school, and if the candidate focuses on that issue, he/she may upset the Democratic base in that state. There are costs associated with the game. The monetary cost of the game is anywhere between 20-60 dollars (depending on the vendor). Although I was not able to play the game, it will require a lot of time to complete. The game would require much classroom time if started from the very beginning. I believe Locke (who presented this game in the class) said when he used it in his student teaching he brought in a version that he previously started. This being said, I do believe the game would be very beneficial in the classroom. The graphics and pictures used are very aesthetically pleasing and there is a sense of humor brought to the game with spin offs of real television shows. However, the game does not expose the student/player to anything that happens before the Presidential election (i.e. primaries, financial issues with campaigning, etc). Posted by jlsmit13 ( Sep 29 2007, 01:42:02 PM EDT ) Permalink Comments [0]