Political Games Workshop:

The games that i played were September 12th and DonkeyJohn.

Question 1) Would the games have been effective in communicating their political message with people via the internet?
September 12th: Upon reading the press release for this game i realised how much it hadn't communicated anything to me. I didn't think about the civilians i might be killing in the process of protecting the towers nor did i think about the US terrorism strategy, however this is just me and perhaps it would have been more effective around the time of September 11th and not 4 years later.
DonkeyJohn: I think that once it was found this game had great potential. More people began to play it and political discussion surrounding the game increased. I think that combined with the rules it effectively communicates it's message despite its simplicity, though whether or not it would increase political activism in real life is questionable. It is a game and as such individuals might be reluctant to accept the reality of what it represents.

Question 2) Was the political message immediately obvious? Were you driven to find it out?
September 12th: for me the message wasn't immediately obvious and i wasn't driven to find out the political message because (if i wasn't in the tute) i wouldn't have known there was one. This is probably because i'm politically apathetic and as much as i should take note of policies and such i simply don't.
DonkeyJohn: only having read the rules would the political message of DJ obvious, if it was on the screen with no rules the it would be difficult to understand who we were as a character and what the barrels were- or maybe i'm just too unaware of the oil crisis.

Question3) My political simulation game;

The point i would try to make would probably be something to do with the lack of bulk billing available in australia.

the game would be arcade style, maybe like pac-man and you would have to collect money to pay for your doctors consultation without being trapped/killed by private health insurance monsters, or something like that :)