This strikes me as perhaps the creation, not of a strategic campaign decision, but the voluntary contribution of a college age supporter who wants a career in the field. Probably no one in the party has looked seriously at this

You can just hear some geezer saying "What? A computer game? Yeah, all the kids are playing those things, sure, go ahead."

That may be true. But I'm trying to give them the benefit of the doubt. Right now I am in talks to create another game for a major political group this election cycle, and I can tell you that they are definitely taking it seriously.

At the same time, this is ON the GOP website. So even if it isn't a strategic campaign decision, it still represents official, endorsed campaign speech... that's why I'm so enamored that Bush's head shoots things.

Yes, I agree with Ian. The GOP needs the benefit of doubt. Still, it is true that seeing the GOP approving a game with W. firing shots from his head is quite surprising and risky. Just like the previous boxing game, the production on this one is simply lame. And the rhetorical approach is, well, how to phrase it, amateur (of course, aren't we all in this new genre?). I would have DEFINITIVELY included, say, an elephant rather than W's head. The tax blocks are way too abstract (what about a Donkey Kerry Kong on the top of the screen throwing tax barrels? At least there you could see Kerry producing the alleged problem). Here I am, again, giving free design advice to the Republicans. Shame on me :)

Ok, giving them a great big benefit of the doubt, I can perhaps see this working if someone viewed it not as a "game", or as much of an informational piece but more like a traditional political cartoon, with all the history of outlandishness they carry.

It ABSOLUTELY tells me that there is need for well thought out advocacy games that are not demeaning to both the presenting and oppositional parties at the same time.

Good luck, both sides need your help!

A few notes on the similarities of political cartoons and games like Tax Invaders. Gonzalo has often called his Newsgaming project represents a convergence between videogames and political cartoons, so there is clearly some utility in thinking about these media forms together.

The problem with looking at John Kerry Tax Invaders would be a lousy political cartoon. Political cartoons often expose internal inconsistencies or ironies in political situations (here's one from Matt Davies, who just won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning). The GOP is probably correct; John Kerry would increase taxes as president. What's missing from Tax Invaders that might make it a reasonably decent cartoon is an interpretation of how the tax increase would affect individual citizens. In its most archetypical incarnation, Space Invaders is a struggle to protect humankind from the destructive Other. This is where something like Donkey Kerry Kong -- or Kerry as the mothership of the tax aliens -- makes sense: show Kerry imposing the tax increases, and then show how those tax increases afflict the citizen. This is also where a technical failure of Tax Invaders really undermines the game's effort: if you wait long enough, the tax invaders just move off the screen and don't pose any more trouble.

In the static political cartoon version of Tax Invaders, however, the videogame is just a red herring, a frame for representing a conflict of any kind. There may be a way to use such a figure effectively in an editorial cartoon, but it's certainly not the most rhetorically efficient means of doing so.