Patriot Act Game Pokes Fun at Government

The Miami Herald is reporting that a new game based on Monopoly is taking a crack at Patriot Act and what creator Michael Kabbash describes as the curtailed freedom that has resulted. From the article: "The object of the game is not to amass the most money or real estate, but to be the last player to retain civil liberties. 'I've had people complain to me that when they play, nobody wins. They say "We're all in Guantanamo and nobody has any civil liberties left," he said. 'I'm like "Yeah, that's the point."'"

Comments

This is how you affect the system

[Gogl]

Have you ever written a representative or senator? Ever gotten anything besides a standard intern-generated-and-stamped form letter? The only people who actually have access to politicians are big donors, and they're generally part of the system and part of the problem in the first place.

Petitions are nice, but the real way to raise awareness is to go to the people, not the politicians. If a game like this can raise awareness, more power to it. At the very least, it made some newspapers, and now Slashdot.

So don't dismiss it so quickly: I would say the creator of this game has already done more than you to bring about change. Awareness is important.

Mourning a genre

[Y-Crate]

The glory age of political games has long past, and hardcore fans of the genre such as myself have found ourselves lacking in new titles. You won't find successors to Conflict: Middle East Political Simulator, Hidden Agenda and Shadow President made these days. In the past decade, we've seen only a tiny, tiny handful of games in this genre, one of which is the original Tropico - which if you install the expansion pack, is quite a fun game that lets you examine all kinds of political systems by implementing them yourself without restriction. If you have a Mac, Simbabwe is certainly worth your attention (and it's free!)

"Welcome to Simbabwe, where the property is already owned and the houses built and you compete to burn and dispossess them. Bounce around the map plundering farms, denying grain silos to opposition supporters and robbing the community chest."

Political sims are truly the best ways to combine entertainment and education, and I sincerely hope that some indie developers reading this looks over some of the older games I've linked to and is inspired to develop a cross-platform title, as there isn't much to choose from right now.

Police State, anyone?

[kingsmedley]

This game sounds eerily similair to Police State, a game that was developed in the 1960's and inspired by life in the Soviet Union. The goal was a little different - you were trying to become the Soviet Premier (basically, the only person with any rights) while avoiding being denounced by others and sent to Siberia. The game board was even vaguely Monopoly-ish (in appearance, not in play).

If you're curious, you can see the game here.

Re:I'd like to add one more thing...

[smellsofbikes]

My boss calls himself 'fairly conservative' and I call myself a left-wing lunatic. And guess what? on almost every issue that the two of us think really matters right now, we're in 100% agreement: free speech, privacy, civil liberties, and general government-intervention-in-private-life. When we talk about this we decide that we would've been at completely opposite ends of the spectrum when Carter was in office but by now we're almost indistinguishable in what we'll be voting for next time around. Now if only someone that actually encapsulated what we want was going to be running, but that's probably not going to happen.

Re:I must've missed the memo...

[deblau]

From answers.com:

Civil liberties: Fundamental individual rights, such as freedom of speech and religion, protected by law against unwarranted governmental or other interference.

Civil rights: The rights belonging to an individual by virtue of citizenship, especially the fundamental freedoms and privileges guaranteed by the 13th and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution and by subsequent acts of Congress, including civil liberties, due process, equal protection of the laws, and freedom from discrimination.

In other words, civil liberties correspond to 'natural law' rights, or human rights -- rights you are born with. You have civil liberties in spite of the State. Civil rights are rights granted because of State involvement, like the right to vote.

Re:Priceless

[Kombat]

The problem with your theory is that it requires the cooperation and secrecy of hundreds of people outside the government. Such as:

• The airline executives themselves who are sacrificing expensive airplanes and pilots
  
• The pilots themselves who divert the planes (with passengers and crew) to wherever the government will "dispose" of them. Effectively committing suicide.
  
• The air traffic controllers, who must somehow forge and lie about radar tracks and radio conversation records for the flights in question.
  
• The demolition experts employed to carry out the precise, deliberate destruction of the WTC towers and Pentagon.
  
• Building security at the towers, who must've had to look the other way while these explosives were set up. And then show up for work on the day they knew the buildings would be destroyed. Like the pilots, effectively committing suicide.
  

Why would all these people play along, when in many cases, it meant their own deaths? These are not top-secret, covert, CIA/NSA/FBI/military operatives we're talking about. I could maybe buy that those guys would play along and keep quiet in the name of "patriotism." But why the airline execs? The air traffic controllers? Why wouldn't someone have come forward with a story supporting your crazy assertions?