Political simulation games

I attempted to play Sept 12th and Kabul Kaboom.

1) Yes, I thought both games were effective; they are both visually appealing (although the themes aren't), Kabul Kaboom has a 'retro' appeal with its early 80's design features. Both games are also short and sharp or to the point, neither would take up a lot of space if you wanted to download the game and send it to friends. Each games instructions give away enough hints to any possible players to flag to them the satirical nature of the game. These two games especially will have a 'quirky' appeal as they are the first mainstream, easily accessible political simulated games.

2) The underlying political message for me was that bought up in Shuen-Shing Lee's article which looks at how both Kabul Kaboom and Sept 12th challenge the "binary win-lose logic of games", I would extend this idea to show the absurdity of the win-lose binary in the two tragedies of human suffering caused by humans portrayed in the games, nobody really wins and everybody loses. One would only have to ask the family of an American soldier killed in Iraq, or the family of a dead Iraqi.
I must admit I have extremely limited technical capability when it comes to game playing not to mention a very limited attention span. However I could still appreciate the satirical and tragic message that both games impart. Although I was limited by my skills (or lack of) I found browsing and reading the games host websites fulfilled my epistemological quest as to what should have occurred had my skill level allowed.

3a) My political simulation game would attempt to portray how much the media influence the public by what they include and what they exclude. I would ignore subtleties of media influence to try and get my message across to a broader audience.
b) I would design a 'game' where the player by performing basic photoshop style functions on a political leader of their choice putting that person in various amusing places and positions. I would have to be aware of the people in questions feelings and possible access to good lawyers. I would also have plausible copies of the front pages of various national and state newspapers, the idea being that the player makes the front page of the newspaper by manipulating an image and adding a caption or a short article. Hopefully the ease with which this is achievable will open the players eyes to the ease with which our 'news' is manipulated as well as allowing to have fun and be creative.