Presidential Pong wasn't the best newsgame we've ever done (that one was probably Airport Security, a game about the arbitrary nature of TSA screening). But it was effective enough. Released right around the first Presidential debate, the game was intended both to introduce the primary candidates and to satirize the very idea of debate. In Pong, players return tennis volleys. In Presidential Pong, they return campaign volleys. Politics is, as ever, optional.

Since then, we've been getting regular abusive emails and phone calls from Ron Paul supporters.

Here are a few choice words from emails we've received.

Censorship or Age Discrimination? Check FEC rules on corporate funding of candidates!
one would think that with all the internet hype about ron paul, he would have made it into your game before at least half of the candidates you put on.
stinks! Why cant I put Ron Paul up there and watch him pong with the best of them?
Where's Ron Paul? I know how the business works - you've probably already got paid for it, and it's as finished as it is going to get

The reason, by the way, is that Ron Paul wasn't going to appear in the first debates. So we didn't include him in the game, which was about those debates. CNN has continued to promote the game on their main Politics page, thus the confusion. The phone calls are really best, because they just don't let up. Even when we explain the situation, they just accuse us of being Ron Paul hatas.

Why the ire, fair Ron Paul supporters? How could a peace-loving libertarian invoke such wrath? Perhaps Ron Paul fanciers are just that devoted. Or perhaps Ron Paul is indeed the Internet's candidate, the Howard Dean of '08.

In the game, all of the candidates have a power-up commensurate with their best features as candidates. I suppose if I were to add Ron Paul to the game now, his would unleash a fury of emails and telephone calls.

Presidential Pong [CNN.com]

I love video games and I love the games industry, so I used to worry about this a lot. I wanted my games to find a home in the traditional commercial sector. I wanted to delight or impress my big league colleagues. I even thought that maybe one day my style of game would justify a place on the shelf next to their games. And maybe some day it will.

I still have nothing but respect for my more traditional industry colleagues, but I've stopped worrying about impressing the games industry and its pundits. Or at least, I've stopped worrying about impressing them first.

I gotta give a lot of these guys credit - defending a position gets old - so hopefully this issue will be put to bed for a while. Not every 'edutainment' game needs to aspire to Civilization, and a little more diversity in opinions and creativity rarely hurts.

Persuasive Games: How I Stopped Worrying About Gamers And Started Loving People Who Play Games [Gamasutra]

We expect this competition to shake up conventional wisdom about what constitutes a health game, the market for such games, and the approaches one ought to take in designing great health-related games. We anticipate a wide variety of entries (e.g., existing games, research about games, conceptual game designs that are past the programming stage of development, public or private initiatives for game-based approaches to health and health care, etc.).

Some of the games will likely have been specifically and carefully designed to address health conditions. But, we also hope to discover games that were not originally designed or marketed to improve health but whose application to health and health care has been demonstrated or show significant potential.

Entries close on 27 September.

Why Games Matter: A Prescription for Improving Health and Health Care [via Water Cooler Games]

"I know that comparisons to the film industry have grown tired and overused," [Ian Bogost of Persuasive Games] says, "but indulge me in this one: When you watch the Academy Awards this year, how many films in the running for awards are about big explosions and other forms of immediate gratification, and how many are about the more complex subtleties of human experience?

I don't think we need to take the fun out of video games any time soon, but the point that a lot of these serious game developers is a valid one (especially considering their own healthy dose of self-criticism), regardless of the entertainment value of current offerings. As Bogost says, ""For 30 years now we've focused on making games produce fun .... Isn't it about time we started working toward other kinds of emotional responses?"

Who Says Video Games Have to be Fun?: The Rise of Serious Games [Gamasutra]

Not content to let such accusations about boring games and what amounts to not-very-educational content, Ian Bogost (Persuasive's founder) says over at Water Cooler Games that he thinks "the idea of making games more alluring to people who don't love games is actually something of a noble goal, in my mind, especially as those who do love games become ever more narrow-minded about what a game experience needs to be." I very much doubt the NYT cares one way or another if 'gamers' think Food Import Folly is fun or not, but Peters has a point depending on which part of the market a designer wants to meet. No, not every game needs to be Civ, but it couldn't hurt to have more games like that flittering around.

World of Borecraft: Never play a video game that's trying to teach you something [Slate] & World of Borecraft [Water Cooler Games]

Via GamePolitics, yet another entry into the world of newsgames/edutainment (I hate that word) - this time on the oh-so-thrilling, yet vitally important issue of redistricting (called, creatively enough, The ReDistricting Game). Well, it's not just politically aware, internet-enabled citizens who are finding out the level of thought that goes into "creative" redistricting; it "was recently shown to members of Congress by Rep. John Tanner (D-TN). Tanner realizes that his colleagues are unlikely to be swayed from the practice, which is less politely known as gerrymandering."

NPR's Andrea Seabrook, who talked with Tanner about the game, had this to say: "Maybe if voters play The Redistricting Game and have fun gaming the system themelves, they'll see how the system is gaming them and then maybe they'll demand change." Maggie Greene

Congress Plays Redistricting Game [GamePolitics]

With the press that 'newsgames' have been getting lately, it's no surprise that people are starting to look at 'tabloid games,' too. Newsgames or not? Are they the virtual equivalent of The National Enquirer? Can you really put a 'Paris Hilton is going to jail!'-themed game on the same level as any of the recent games tackling problems like a global oil crisis, peace in the Middle East, or importing contaminated food? Over at Gameology, they have this to say:

... when I call these tabloid gaming, I mean that not only in terms of their content but also their form. These are designed to grab your attention amidst a swirling, debris-filled solar system of casual games on the web. If they succeed in doing so, it's through the audacity or relevance of their hook ....

I'm not sure we should be wondering over the plethora of 'tabloid games' out in the market, considering you can go to any grocery store and have more than a hand full of gossip rags and tabloid papers to choose from. The general public likes reading gossipy articles on the typical tabloid fodder, why wouldn't they enjoy making Paris Hilton stamp license plates? Just as 'highbrow' newsgames have their place, so do the tabloids of the casual gaming market. Maggie Greene

Tabloid Gaming: GSN's The Prison Life [Gameology]

The NYT and Persuasive Games have a new relationship, and Times Select subscribers can now get access to 'newsgames' via NYT's editorial pages. While several newsgames have been getting press in recent months, this marks a first for newsgames really going mainstream. The first game published is called "Food Import Folly," with obvious ties to the current tainted imported Chinese goods headlines.

Ian Bogost, founding partner of Persuasive Games, says, "This is unprecedented, and at the risk of tooting my own horn, I think it represents another important shift in videogames as a medium. This is news/editorial in videogame form, rather than videogames trying to make news fun." Maggie Greene

The New York Times Publishes Our Newsgames [Water Cooler Games]

Ian Bogost writes that his studio, Persuasive Games, just released their latest newsgame, Bacteria Salad.

In Bacteria Salad you have to harvest mass amounts of cheap produce and sell it for as much profit as possible. As you run your agribusiness you have to look out for floods, animal waste and agroterrorists. Ian says they game, which is published by Addicting Games and Shockwave.com, does have some strategy built into it around the question of which is safer, small family farms or big industrial ones. Oh and there's tons of shit, so now you have to go play it. Brian Crecente

Persuasive Games Releases The Arcade Wire: Bacteria Salad [Watercooler Games]