Poll 2.0: Playing it out successfully on gadgets
Giving a twist to the ongoing poll fight, mobile phone games having prominent leaders as main characters are in great demand.
Even as politicians are sweating it out on ground zero to woo people, the 4G-era voters are ‘playing’ with them on their mobile and laptop screens, virtually. The hordes of mobile phone games and app on desi politics are helping the gaming enthusiasts in fighting the ballot battle on their own.
Giving a gaming twist to the ongoing poll fight, these political games having prominent leaders as main characters are in great demand. These include Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and BSP chief Mayawati.
“While some are helping AAP to capture Red Fort, others are standing with PM Modi in his fight to end Congress rule in all states. There are a few who are aiding Congress upset the BJP poll bandwagon,” says Harshit Jain, a young mobile geek.
From ‘Modi Run’, an action game where PM Modi runs through all states and wins the elections, to many others like ‘Modi Cricket T20’, ‘Election fever’, ‘War of the Elections’, ‘Political Arkanoid’, ‘Modi Yuddh 2017’ and ‘Modi Rahul Kejriwal’, the gamers are opting for a wide range of mobile phone games of varied themes based on Indian politics.
Be it Apple, Google or Microsoft’s official app stores, a number of developers seem to have come up with spin-offs of popular gaming titles with a distinct desi political touch. As the voting days draw closer, the number of downloads of these games promising to “entertain as well as inform” are rising steadily.
“The sheer enthusiasm that the elections generate all over the country leads to a number of games being launched to attract players of all age groups. These fun-based games are for relaxation and create political awareness,” shares Rajneesh Srivastava, an associate professor of Allahabad University’s department of electronics and communication.
He said while the launch of new games picked up in the last three months of 2016 in anticipation of the assembly polls in different states, including UP, new versions of old games were also launched to attract gamers.