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Election Day Gaming

Posted by Bob Mackey

If you live in America, it's voting day; and, if you have a the nuanced political view of your average American, voting is a binary choice between good and evil. This blog is hardly the place for politics--and I'm not going to tell you who I voted for (Hint: It rhymes with "I'm poor.")--but, if you are an American who hasn't been convicted of a felony, you should probably consider getting out to vote. Oh, and you also should have registered a month ago. Listen, I can't live your life for you.

Since I have this Election Day off, I have many options: should I start my drinking early, just in case the outcome is less than favorable? Should I continue with the production of my homemade dynamite, in preparation for possible class riots? The answer, of course, is I'm going to do what I do every day: play video games. But today, I'm working on a theme.

In keeping with the general election premise of good vs. evil, I think it's only fitting to play one of the many games that use this time-honored opposition as a core game play mechanic. Luckily for me, I still have Fable 2 sitting around; and while it's certainly an apolitical game, it marks one of the few times I've grown bored with good and decided to try evil on for size--but in no way does that reflect my voting habits.

What I love about the evil path in Fable 2 is how much they make you commit; you start off small by eating like chicks (the yellow, fuzzy kind) and sacrificing a handful of villagers to a cult. But after these two initial missions, you're asked to wipe out an entire village full of innocent citizens single handedly. I gotta admit shooting innocent farmers as they fled from me in terror made me feel a little guilty--but when I discovered I could make up for my 39 murders by doing a little community service, I started wondering if this is a system we could apply to America. I'd wander into a cave of monsters if it meant paying off all of my student loan debt in one fell swoop.

Anyone else working on a loosely-themed political gaming session today? If you're strapped for ideas, you can always check out Mercenaries 2.

Related Links:

Alternate Soundtrack: Castlevania III vs Bush
Barack Obama: Master Debater
Barack Obama's Sweet Ride

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Posted Nov 04 2008, 12:00 PM

Filed under: xbox 360, fable 2, bob mackey, politics, election, morality

Comments

Demaar said:

Mass Effect? Obama is Shepard while McCain is Saren. Spoilers ensue:

Saren thinks he's doing the right thing by galactic civilisation without realising he's just a pawn. Shepard stops him from letting everyone get screwed.

November 5, 2008 8:26 AM

About Bob Mackey

For a brief period of time I was Bull from TV's Night Court, but some of you may know me from the humor column I wrote for Youngstown State University's The Jambar, Kent State University's The Stater, and Youngstown's alternative newspaper, The Walruss. I'm perhaps most well-known for my bi-weekly pieces on Something Awful. I've also blogged for Valley24.com and have written articles for EGM, 1UP, GameSpite and Cracked. For all of my writing over the years, I have made a total of twenty American dollars. It's also said that I draw cartoons, which people have described with words such as "legible." I kidnapped the Lindbergh Baby and am looking to do so again in the future.

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