SpawnPoint - Where Game Begins

One of the reasons that independent game producers have such a cult following is that the freedom allows them to go after edgy, controversial topics. A commercial studio has PR-sensitive managers holding back at every juncture that might lead them over the line... "Boy, we can't do that! That's too controversial! We can't offend somebody who would have given us their $39.95. Take that back and take all the thinking parts out."

Indies have no such constraints, and furthermore the casual, small-scale game is just right for games with a political message or theme. You wouldn't want to play something the length of Warcraft where you had to sit through heavy-handed preaching. A 15-minute Flash quickie is just the right length to putter around with, think about whatever it is you were supposed to ponder or giggle at the satirical message, and then be on your merry way. In short, political games probably wouldn't have happened without the casual and independent games market.

Before I take a look at some of these, let me tip my hat to the one commercial game series that broke the rule I just laid out: Sim City, particularly the later games in the series, did deal somewhat with politics. That's unavoidable, being that the whole premise of the game is to act as mayor. But notice that even here, Maxis carefully steered the politics to political correctness; having so much as one Smog-o-matic on an industrial lot is enough to cast this huge pink cloud of pollution over half the city. Because, you know, big industry destroys the planet, which is bad, m'kay? Said the big industry...

So, let's visit some political-charged games and get ready to be gently offended...

McGame

To start with a favorite! Just beggin' for a heapin' lawsuit, McGame is a McDonald's simulator. You have to grow soy crops and cows, manage their keeping, run the restaurant, and control advertising and "public relations". Some of the decisions facing you are whether to genetically modify soy crops, whether to recycle cow parts into the feed, and whether to fire employees or struggle along rewarding and reprimanding them. Each of the options is a trade-off, with the whole game nicely balanced so that you are almost set up to fail eventually.

Bulldozing the native village to get more space to raise cattle, for instance, will trigger a hostile group of anti-globalization lobbyists, but you can counter-act that with an ad campaign about how you help the third world. Playing too fast and loose with health standards in your beef will lead to making customers sick, but no matter - you can just bribe a health expert to keep from getting slapped with a fine. Meanwhile, you have to keep the company profitable or get fired and lose.

The Political Message: Unusually balanced for this type of game! On the one hand, it makes a biting satire out of the fast food industry - see it as the gaming companion to the film "Supersize Me!" But on the other hand, the game is unflinchingly realistic - to keep producing fast food at the rate consumers buy it, you absolutely have to cut corners. Whose side do you choose? The bleeding-heart hippies with the picket signs calling you a monster? The greedy board of shareholders who threaten to fire you if your profits even sag by a nickel? Or is it the customers, mindlessly lining up and trotting away happily with their trays, oblivious to the havoc they wreck on the world?

Airport Security

One lousy high-jacking and the whole world is messed up forever! Clearly this game was made by somebody who just came home from a flight where they were doubtless harassed, hassled, and deprived of various innocent items like toothpaste and nail clippers. The object is to screen passengers for items not allowed on a rapidly-changing list of contraband. It's basically unwinnable, as the game requires you to remember the list with only five recent items shown as a prompt, and either allowing a forbidden item or denying an allowed item causes a hit off your meter; three strikes either way and you're out! The line forms way too fast - I'm still scrutinizing the fourth passenger's luggage when the line overflows and I lose.

Political Message: Airport security is irritating! Gee, really? Thanks for clearing that up! The game's sole mission is to poke fun at our national paranoia, without cutting into territory that would actually offend anybody except the most humorless TSA drone. And the game is too one-sided to allow you to build up any sympathy for the Transportation Security Administration, despite playing from their point of view. It's basically there to allow disgruntled fliers and burned-out security guards to blow off steam.

Ayiti

Finally, a game that actually offended me a little! Ayiti is a "life sim", a very enjoyable game where you have a third-world family in Haiti who have to weather four years in relative poverty, while trying to earn enough to survive, not get so sick that they die, and still manage to get education enough to improve their station in life. Sponsored by UNICEF, so you can imagine the message is pretty one-sided and not very controversial.

Political Message: Again, a very interesting presentation of alternatives. The game makes you choose between different philosophies, both at the outset for picking a strategy, and at the end with a little quiz. There are no wrong or right answers - typically you'll end up with a couple of family members sacrificing themselves to be the earners, while the others manage to scratch out an education. Health is a constant issue - at least some of the time each character will have to be hospitalized. This does reflect the reality of living in Haiti, by all reports.

The game also strives to present many alternatives, giving you some depth to the game play. It delivers its message gently, while leaving you in charge and not judging you for the decisions you have to make.

What about this sweet little game offended me? The implication that you have to go to Haiti to find such grim life choices. So, the parents ruin their health working hard labor for minimal wages in the hopes that their children will have a half-way shot at a decent education to improve their future, all while living deeply in debt? We have that in the United States - we call it "living in the middle class"!

But the game made me think, anyway, and I love it for that.

Against All Odds

"Everybody's had to fight to be free You see you don't have to live like a refugee" - Tom Petty

Well, this is the game that shows you what it's like to live as a refugee - from an oppressive dictatorship. You know you're in for a sermon when the game hasn't started yet and already it's throwing lines at you: "People you see every day... but you don't really see them... imagine if this were you?" And live it you will, as you flee imprisonment and your oppressors, squat in a border country uneasily, or become a permanent citizen of another country and struggle to make your place as an immigrant, you will find the game presenting some very grim realities.

And boy, are you in for a gritty spectacle! Pick the wrong answer on the interrogation form and get slapped and a couple of drops of blood fall on the sheet! Pick the wrong building to hide in and the police slap you right back in prison. Blow the job interview and you can't get work and end up starving. All the way through, the art reminds you of "Through a Scanner Darkly" while presenting the intricacies of political imprisonment with an echo of the "Maus" graphic novel series.

It's more of an adventure game than anything else - with a female protagonist, yet! Definitely a one-of-a-kind. Plus it's open-ended, allowing you to play all 12 episodes in any order.

Political Message: On the surface, it's obviously a testament against oppressive police states. Could playing this game within the border of certain countries get you arrested? Is it censored in some countries? If so, that just proves the game's point.

But furthermore, the game wins huge points for the excellent empathy it generates. Any bigot who has ever thrown a tantrum at "those goldang xxxxs" should have to play this game. It places you squarely in the shoes of the protagonist, then makes you think of angles you never thought of before. Yes, you can run from oppression, but where? If your old country turns against you, where are you to go? And can you make your peace with the new society which does little to hide its resentment of your uninvited presence? Of all the political games I've played so far, this one leaves you thinking the most.