If voter suppression was a 70s video game
One of my favorite periods during elementary school was “Library Time.” I’d check out a book, like an awesome picture biography of Jackie Robinson or the ValueTales, and plop down at the Apple IIe with my friends to play Oregon Trail. I’m sure many kids growing up in the 80s played the game, but it was a must for us Oregonians.
The GOP Arcade has tapped the nostalgia button with their latest release: The Voter Suppression Trail. Rather than make it from Missouri to Oregon with your party intact, the goal of this game is to make it to the polls. You can choose to play one of three characters, each who face different obstacles to voting. (Okay, not so much the white dude.)
GOP Arcade’s aim is to inject some fun into the election.
GOP Arcade is an on-going series of lightweight games designed to make all the hoopla surrounding the election slightly more enjoyable.
They certainly take a partisan and anti-corporate stance with past titles including:
- Trump’s Pussy Grabber
- Epipen Tycoon
- Get Trump’s Taxes
- Trump Toss
- Super Trump Out
- Science Fighter
This game has gained a bit more traction by being released as an “Op-Doc” with the New York Times. Op-Docs is the Times short-form “opinionated” documentaries. This is the first video game that has ever been released as an Op-Doc by the publication.
I will admit, the game isn’t nearly as fun as the original Oregon Trail. You don’t get to ford the river or my favorite as an 8-year-0ld, go hunting. But it does highlight suppression tactics that threaten to keep lower income, primarily minority voters from the polls.
The game makers did throw in a few fun callbacks to the original game as well.
Here’s a pro-tip: stay in line no matter what. Don’t worry about your son’s dysentery or picking your daughter up from daycare. Just stay in the line and you’ll be rewarded with a 16bit game where you must avoid the insults being hurled at you by election observers.
And if you stick with it…you just might get to vote.
Remember to get out there and vote. Then reward yourself with a quality Oregon Trail session. Here’s the link to the 1990 MS-DOS version of the game.
(Text “HELLO” to 384–387 or say, “Hi” on Facebook Messenger to find your polling place and make sure you are all ready to vote.)
