Campaign Rush

Campaign Rush is like Disaffected! meets Howard Dean for Iowa. The former was a satire of Kinko's and the latter an earnest campaign game paid for by the Democratic Party. Campaign Rush is a satire of campaigns paid for by CNN, who apparently are unclear yet as to whom is putting on whom.

The game involves clicking around to answer phones, deliver campaign literature to these callers, making copies of said literature, and of course drinking regular coffees. The game is on the verge of being fun, in a manner reminiscent of Diner Dash, but then something goes wrong. There are too many phone calls coming in, and there's a sense of meaninglessness associated with their trappings.

Instead of a smiling customer radiating hearts, you get an "economic policy, ahem" and then "alright, here you go" over and over again. The guy begins walking slowly, too slowly, so you lose in the must frustrating way possible. You're way understaffed, whose idea was it to have one guy run the whole office? And the pathfinding seems to intentionally meander, wasting time in wavy motions, taking less efficient routes. It's as if someone spit in your Big Mac.

I once asked Ian about the Dean game and compared notes with a pro-Ron Paul design I had drafted one Saturday afternoon. He commented that he's done with electioneering games, and is only interested in titles dealing with the procedural implications of actual policy (as if somewhere in his mind there was a glimmer, just a glimmer of hope, that the US election process isn't a big focus group for Facism Inc.). Guess what happened? The funding opportunity to do a really policy-oriented political game didn't come up, but CNN was willing to let them tackle the campaign process itself. So now, coming at it with no partisan funding strings, being more directly paid by the media guardians of manufactured truth, we get this game. It reeks with revenge, and is perhaps a triumph of game design that it leverages a fine, measured sense of frustration to make a point quite deeply. The game itself is a farce, and sadly reminds me of so many office jobs. Before I was ok with the idea of going to the States to speak or go on TV or do a business meeting, but this game makes me want to take off for Patagonia and never look back.

The Obama poster that oddly reminds of Che Guevara is a nice touch.

(Update: Bogost has published an article relevant to this vein of design.)