Playing the game of politics

The original power play - but not the only one

Politicians and hacks are not the only ones who are revelling in the election, writes BBC News Online technology correspondent Mark Ward

Could a toddler win the election?

You might not think so, but computer games maker Infogrames does.

The company has just launched a general election computer game that gives the people the chance to show party politicians how it should be done.

The game is suitable for anyone aged three or over, but as grown-ups are not exactly gripped by the election, it is hard to accept that kids will be either. Especially when they are more likely to associate red, blue and yellow with Pokemon rather than politics.

But if a toddler could win, could I?

The general election game plays out the polling battle on a computer controlled board that is part-Monopoly, part-Trivial Pursuit.

The main screen displays a map of Britain divided into 61 regions, each one of which holds some of the 659 seats up for grabs.

Regions are selected randomly and then the parties fight over them. Not all regions contain the same number of seats. Some, like Borders, have only 2 seats, others have many more. Strathclyde, for instance, has 32. Win a few of the inner city regions and you could be on your way to forming a government.

Ah if only it were a game

The electioneering is done on the board surrounding the map. Most of the squares on the board have an event associated with them. Landing on these squares can pitch you into a press conference, make you answer manifesto questions, deal with leaks of information or set up telephone canvassing campaigns and challenge opponents to head-to-head debates.

Up to six parties can play the game. I chose four to represent the diversity of the current parties.

In a cruel Stalinist coup I declared myself head of the Sensible Party (slogan: A Sensible Party for a sensible nation). The opponents were the Patronising Party, the Blackguards and Doomsayers Party and the Liberal Democrats.

After choosing our manifesto issues, campaigning colours and being allocated an election war chest of £10 million, we were off.

The Blackguards and Doomsayers got off to a bad start by landing on a newsflash square which resulted in the authorities outlawing its party political broadcast.

And I hereby nominate Ms L Croft duly elected...

Playing your party political broadcast wins that seat straightaway. Each one costs £10 million, and you only get £5 million for doing a circuit of the board, so the loss of the broadcast was a bitter blow. Good.

By contrast the Sensible Party enjoyed early success in Wiltshire. Our deft handling of a question about the politician who recently celebrated 50 years at the House of Commons (it was Ted Heath) convinced the voters.

But the Lib Dems did better. A few lucky questions during press conferences meant that they were building up a lead, taking some big seats, like South London, and quite a lot of smaller ones with seven or eight apiece.

The Patronising Party plodded along in third, picking up a win here and there, but not really challenging the front runners.

Then the Sensible Party hit a good streak. We struck a deal with an unnamed media mogul and won a free party political broadcast. Swiftly we aired the broadcast in the key West Yorkshire region. We were winning. The puce campaigning colour of the Sensible Party was slowly spreading across Britain.

But politics is a cruel mistress. The Lib Dems went into a head-to-head debate with the Blackguards and Doomsayers and came up smelling of roses, or whatever bloom represents them, a wallflower perhaps. It meant the Lib Dems won North London and a whopping 24 seats.

Then the Sensible Party suffered a series of disasters. We were rocked by an internal memo being leaked to the newspapers, a veteran activist making a gaffe on radio and we lost a series of bruising head-to-head debates.

I gambled that the computer would randomly choose the responses to questions I posed the other parties giving me a better chance of winning. Sadly I lost every debate and the seats with them.

And so it went on. The game does a good job of capturing some of the grind of campaigning. After fighting 61 regions I'm very glad the game makers didn't force us to fight all 659 constituencies.

The Liberal Democrats capitalised on their successes and gradually built up an unassailable lead. Soon it had enough to form a minority government and was declared the winner. I played on to see who would be the second power in Westminster. You'll be glad to know that, in the end, Sensible Party policies came a strong second.

Now I just need to work out who to put in the cabinet. Any takers?