The Invisible Hand of the Free Market has a joystick, yo.
For Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), 76, the 2012 Republican primaries are probably his last tango with presidential politics. But the aging libertarian will still achieve his life-long dream of crushing the nation’s Federal Reserve banking system… If a Houston-based video game developer is successful, that is.
Daniel Williams, 27, recently published a fundraising appeal for a forthcoming video game based on the candidate’s exploits. With the help of crowd-funding website Kickstarter, he hit the goal of $5,000 within a matter of days, based upon the commitments of just 40 backers as of this story’s publication.
Speaking to Raw Story on Wednesday, Williams said his main inspiration for the game was the 1992 8-bit classic “Krusty’s Fun House,” where Krusty the Clown from “The Simpsons” has to set traps for mice and capture them.
For the Ron Paul game, instead of mice it’s delegates. And he collects gold coins — lots and lots of gold coins — naturally. And who could forget the most epic political video game cover art of all time, featuring candidate Paul and his wife Carol in a “Star Wars”-like pose in front of a giant screeching eagle, the Statue of Liberty and exploding red fireworks?
“Faux hipster retro crap-ass crowd-source funded schlock based on one of the worst NES games ever made” so perfectly encapsulates the entire Ron Paul experience on so many different levels that it really is hard for me to imagine that it wasn’t tried before. Blimp versus Helicopter Ben writes itself. Kinda sad I didn’t think of it first.
No, seriously. It’s this awesome.
<iframe width=”480″ height=”270″ src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/-ydrfs8bpBY?feature=player_embedded” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe>
Cole will totally put down WoW and ME3 and stuff to play this.
gaz
hahahahaha. LOL
You know if these clowns got their way, the next “game” will be a Fallout 3 knock-off. Fitting, you know.
Catsy
But if EA publishes it, IGN will still give it an 8+ rating.
ETA: I suddenly have a vision of hundreds of enraged Paultards descending on IGN and trolling/DDSing the comments until the reviewer changes it to a 10. I think that would have me rooting for injuries.
handy
This is really going somewhere! Look out moochers and looters!
gaz
@Catsy: heh. EA – where once great game studios go to die.
I’ve hated EA since at least 1992. Their games sucked then, too. Which I suppose explains why they are now the McDonald’s of the video game industry.
Oh, and sports games (EA’s bread and butter) suck, also too. That’s why they are at pawn shops for a buck. Pick up a goddamned ball, FFS
the Conster (f/k/a Cat Lady)
I can smell the Cheetos from here.
marduk
@gaz:
Speaking of Fallout and Kickstarter:
Wasteland 2
Epic Greatness
Catsy
@gaz: Yeah, as a gamer for decades myself, I hate EA with the fire of a thousand suns. They are one of the most appalling bad actors in the entire games industry, just the worst when it comes to intrusive DRM, unskippable intro ads and anti-consumer practices.
For me the last straw was making all their big franchises require their Origin service. There’s a bunch of games I’d much rather play on the PC, but which I’m either getting on the PS3 or skipping altogether simply because I hope their unnecessary “service” is a humiliating financial disaster.
Zandar
Now don’t get me wrong,@marduk: Kickstarter is awesome. I’ve already donated to both the Wasteland 2 and the Shadowrun Returns projects.
But man, there are some projects that just should die unremarked.
Forum Transmitted Disease
EA is what Paul wants to turn workplace America into – a terrordome where people work 100+ hour weeks with neither benefits, retirement, or healthcare, until they literally die in their chairs.
Match made in hell, this is.
Ash Can
Oh, good grief, have a heart. It’s too early, and I have too much crap to do this afternoon, to start drinking now. At least wait until Happy Hour to post this shit.
jl
” Blimp versus Helicopter Ben writes itself. Kinda sad I didn’t think of it first. ”
Make the blimps gold armored zeppelins, and I’m in for that project.
But I will insist on a better music loop.
gaz
@marduk: I suppose… It seemed exciting at first, until they said top-down RPG with turn based combat.
In otherwords, final fantasy III (us) with radiation poisoning.
I like FFIII, but seriously. It’s 2012. If you aren’t making a 3d game, you may as well make a facebook game. Seriously.
Fallout 3 was brilliant in that it incorporated 3d real-time gaming with a sort of “turn based combat” system (VATS).
Anything short of that – to me is a yawn-fest. Sorry.
signed, an RPG nut.
Richard
It’s hard to think of anyone I respect less than Ron Paul, other than those who were trying to portray the race bating conspiracy theorist and religious right dicksucker as some sort of progressive.
JGabriel
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The kickstarter video is hysterical. It features a pale, overweight, moon-faced, brown-haired, wannabe-goth programmer in a t-shirt with the caption, “The dead have Risen … AGAIN!” who tells us:
I swear to god, I nearly fell out of my chair laughing.
And that’s just the first 15 seconds. I haven’t been able to go any further yet.
.
MobiusKlein
@gaz: Can I just go back to playing XCOM and Civ II?
jl
And, is it a coincidence that this post, on odd things computer gamers cough up for us to play with, appears on the same day as a thread on the odd things pets cough up for us to play with?
I think not.
What it is, is a glibertarian subliminal marketing campaign for this subversive glibertarian computer game threat (eh Cole, and his eviiiile partner in crime, Zandar?)
Smoking gun evidence that Cole is a gold bug glibertarian mole. Case closed. End of Story. Irrefutable.
Satanicpanic
I will be so glad when this Ron Paul thing finally goes away for good. What a useless old fool that guy is.
Martin
The Ron Paul running around the US map reminded me of Vacation, reviewing the plans for the trip to Wally World and having Pac Man come by and eat the Family Truckster.
ruemara
This idea makes me wanna: Root, Insect Swarm, Moonfire, Wrathx3 (proc), Swarm, Moonfire, Starfall, Starfire. I don’t even want to loot, it may get on my gear.
Suffern ACE
You know, the details of the game don’t seem to involve crushing the fed and I don’t know if even the Paulites consider themselves trapped. Now a multi-level game where Paul gets to go to each regional Fed, imprison Fed officials while kicking corrupt banker butts might actually sell. Maybe a something like the old Street Fighter game. Could start in Minneapolis with the level ending in a fight against a giant and muscualr Narayana Kocherlakota. Then onto St. Louis ending with a cyclops version of Jame Bullard shooting lasers from his eye under the Gateway Arch.
A guy can dream, can’t he?
gaz
@MobiusKlein: play whatcha want.
I’m a huge fan of retro-gaming myself – it’s just that any new games that are retro should probably be web based games so I can play it on my mobile while on the go. Otherwise, whatever, I’ll just fire up one of my emulators and play crystalis or something.
nevsky42
Speaking of games, anyone pick up Xenoblade Chronicles for the Wii?
If you love RPGs, get it. You won’t be disappointed…
redshirt
Politifact rates it: Mostly crap.
gaz
@jl: lol!
marduk
@gaz:
Funny, my thought was basically the opposite. For me top down with turn based combat is the pinnacle of RPG design. Don’t get me wrong, Bethesda’s games are great, but give me a modern update to Planescape or BG2 or Fallout 2 and I’ll die happy.
gaz
@nevsky42: I hocked my Wii when I got Okami on the PS2 instead. Never bothered to pick it up, because frankly, the system kinda sucks, IMNSHO
jl
For my project, I am thinking Tetris, except with funny shaped gold, silver, and platinum bars.
With same 80s mancave twangy guitar sound loop!
Heh? Killer concept! Who’s in? Email me the starter dough.
Or beer.
gaz
@marduk: should be web-based. then I’d be thrilled. There’s no point, imo in NOT making it web-based.
MattR
@redshirt:
So that means its actually pretty good?
Citizen_X
Ur doing it rong.
And WTF, he says “wink” out loud, and then actually winks? I really saw that, right?
Catsy
@ruemara:
You know, I was all set to make a clever comment about how the DOT ticks from the Swarm line would break the root, but then I realized you were talking WOW, and not the very similar-sounding spells from the EQ2 Fury line.
Daulnay
If he’s a true Libertarian, he’ll take the money and not produce anything. And then whine about the bankers and government getting in his way. And how his Galtian genius isn’t properly remunerated by a parasitic society.
Martin
@gaz: If it’s not roguelike, its just lipstick on a pig.
chopper
@marduk:
dang i played the shit out of Wasteland back in the day.
Catsy
@marduk: I’ve noticed that 2D games (using 3D models) and (hi-res) sprites are making a comeback. Indie games like Space Pirates and Zombies, for example.
It was inevitable. The more realistic 3D worlds and game graphics become, the more it’s going to drive home that realistic graphics can only augment good gameplay, not replace it. Sooner or later we’re going to hit–not a ceiling, but a point of diminishing returns for graphical realism.
And I say this as someone who loves me some realistic FPS games.
James Gary
@Suffern ACE:
….Maybe a something like the old Street Fighter game. Could start in Minneapolis with the level ending in a fight against a giant and muscualr Narayana Kocherlakota. Then onto St. Louis…
Well, what you’re describing would actually involve a sense of humor and some degree of self-awareness. And I’m pretty sure that no Ron Paul follower has either of those things.
David Koch
How dare you attack Ron Paul!
Only Ron Paul has the True Progressive courage to say people without health insurance should die.
Paul/Cenk 2012!
chopper
really they should model Paul’s game after Custer’s Revenge, only with lady liberty as the woman tied to the pole.
Catsy
@Martin:
Now that’s hardcore.
Don’t get me wrong, sometimes I enjoy investing myself in something that’s Nintendo Hard, but sometimes I just want to fuck around and blow up cool-looking stuff.
Comrade Dread
Yes, but will it have a secret bonus level where you get to control the hero having the sexy time with Ayn Rand?
Frankensteinbeck
@Catsy:
But EA brought me a sequel to Alice, which rather than being a cheap ripoff was WAY more fucked up than the original, to the point where I don’t understand why the game hasn’t been banned!
Actually, that’s no defense of EA. I assume they bought Alice off another company. My opinion of EA was formed way back when they bought Earth and Beyond, an MMO truly and utterly unlike anything else out there (and still making decent money at the time) solely because they wanted to repurpose the servers to operate Sims Online.
Also, they did their damnedest to make Alice unplayable. So many bugs, so little support! I finally ran into the solution just randomly poking online to find out what PhysX was.
Judas Escargot, Your Postmodern Neighbor
I hear there are three endings.
Choose “Destroy the Fed”, and all Democrats explode in a cloud of blue smoke. Choose “Control the Fed”, and all Democrats explode in a cloud of red smoke. Choose “Merge with the Fed”, and all Democrats explode in a cloud of green smoke.
In all endings, Ron Paul disappears, and we see a cut scene where Rand Paul, Paul Ryan and Rick Santorum end up stranded on Newt Gingrinch’s moon colony.
Then we cut to the far future, where a little girl and her father are staring at the smoking ruins of what was once Western civilization. “Tell me more about The Ronpaul, Daddy”, she asks, just as the closing credits start to roll.
Mickey
Ron Paul Revolution…the video game. Because none of his ideas could work in the real world.
Catsy
@Frankensteinbeck:
Which was plagued by godawfully tedious, repetitive gameplay that stopped being fun about halfway through the game.
But if I could just watch it as a movie, that’d be awesome. :)
Daulnay
@Frankensteinbeck:
Earth and Beyond lives! Sort of — there’s a pretty solid emulator project that runs on donations and has a dedicated volunteer staff.
EA has abandoned the trademark, too.
McWaffle
Pffft. Anybody who hasn’t played DF since it was 2d is going to have to prove their nerd credibility.
Mark S.
@Judas Escargot, Your Postmodern Neighbor:
And IGN exclaimed, “A fitting end to an epic journey.”
JGabriel
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Judas Escargot, Your Postmodern Neighbor:
Setting up the mise-en-scene for the sequel:
Road 2 REVOLution II: Left 4 Fed
.
Frankensteinbeck
@Catsy:
See, I was being carried by the symbolism, going ‘This can’t really mean what I think it means’ until I got to the ending and found out that it didn’t, because I was UNDERESTIMATING how fucked up the story really was.
There were only a couple of places where I thought the gameplay dragged – the middle of the Mysterious East and some of the platforming sections of the Doll House. Again, I was very much carried by the reward of getting to a new area and going ‘Wow, Alice is a mess.’
Culture of Truth
Laaayyyybertaaayyy !!!!!!!!
Frankensteinbeck
@Daulnay:
I have played it extensively. Absolutely amazing that they did. I was there the moment they managed to put up a public server, and watched progress explode because the devs loved seeing people playing with what they’d made.
Unfortunately, playing with a group of friends is a HUGE part of the MMO attraction for me, and absolutely none of my friends like E&B. So I end up not playing it much these days.
That and they’ve really dragged their feet putting bogeril content back in, and without building solar powered shields and ‘Tape Deck Playing Lynnert Skynnert’s the game isn’t the same for me.
bvac
Come on, you have to admit that it at least took balls to take the hottest property of the time and produce a puzzle game based on a tertiary character.
This guy on the other hand is just phoning it all in.
Daulnay
@Frankensteinbeck:
Not much of the Bogeril stuff in yet, but it’s supposed to be coming soon. I’m impressed that they added the three classes that were missing in the live game. They’ve added some new content, including some very challenging/frustration Progen missions that are trying to give players the flavor of actual R&D.
JGabriel
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bvac:
Like ET, The Video Game?
.
Culture of Truth
Are we still talking aout Ron Paul?
PaulW
I’m too busy respeccing my builds on Star Wars The Old Republic after this recent patch update to version 1.2 “Legacy”.
Frankensteinbeck
@PaulW:
I can’t play that. Got in on a Beta and tried it. As I mentioned above, playing with my friends is the biggest joy of MMOs for me, and those newbie zones where you can’t mix different classes in a group are so insanely, ridiculously long. I felt stifled, like I couldn’t get to the part of the game that interested me!
EDIT – Told them as much too, on the survey things they provided at the end of the Beta. They gave me a chance to play it early, they deserved to know what I thought the one crippling flaw was.
bvac
@Culture of Truth:
You see what I did there?
Interrobang
If you made a game called Wall Street Fighter, where you were actually getting to kick banker butt, that would sell.
...now I try to be amused
I remember when EA was one of the good guys. That was the time of M.U.L.E. and Archon, before the computer game industry went Hollywood.
Karl The Crap Blog Detective
GOP politicians “debating” with Obama impersonator, Glenn Beck building a fake Oval Office so that he could playact as President, and now Ron Paul videogame. There seems to be a common theme to all those things…
Frankensteinbeck
@…now I try to be amused:
That was before EA bought EA to pimp the brand.
Comrade Mary
Fuck Ron Paul. Let’s talk games.
I never cared much for any tower defense games, but holey moley, does Kingdom Rush ever kick serious ass. You set up your defenses and start the game to see how well they work to hold off the invaders. But unlike every other TD game I’ve tried, you don’t just sit on your hands and wait several minutes for things to play out. You get credits as invaders are held off and as time passes, so you can use those credits to reinforce towers, bring down rains of fire, add temporary reinforcement troops, and re-deploy your permanent troops around their barracks. Once you are out of the first few challenges (they do ramp up newbies slowly), it’s hectic (or just a comfy pace, if you’re ADD like me), but exhilarating.
The challenges are, well, reasonably challenging (there’s an Easy mode for newbies), the art and animation are excellent, the sound effects are great, and best of all, it’s FREE.
In fact, I’ll go play a game right now.
Walker
There is already a video game that is a commentary on Ron Paul’s economic ideals.
It is called Bioshock.
Sentient Puddle
Talking about games?
I’m late to the party on SpaceChem, but that’s what I’m playing now. Before it, I don’t think I’ve ever experienced anything that simultaneously makes me feel really smart and really stupid.
GeoX
I notice that this Ron Paul game blatantly rips off sprites from Earthbound–I assume other games, too, but the Earthbound ones were the most noticeable to me. What’s this bullshit? People are supposed to give this guy money to steal stuff?
gaz
@Catsy: for me it’s not the graphics but it IS the gameplay. And 3d open world adds more than just fancy looks. It’s about the immersive gameplay – particularly mastered by games such as fallout 3, which I play on low settings with a junk video card.
I think web-gaming and HTML5 are going to bring 2d back, but again, I simply don’t see the point of not targeting 2d games to the web now that it is more than up to the job. It hits more target devices, and is more available on mobile devices + the online play aspect is practically built in.
Wasteland 2 could be produced by Zynga. And maybe it should be. And I quite like the Fallout, and Fallout 2 games. I like many games of this age – and even still enjoy Final Fantasy 1 once in awhile. However, I think it’s a mistake to create a traditional binary game of this style these days. Time to wake up and smell the javascript. it’s 2012. you don’t need to tie yourself to traditional platform binaries for this type of undemanding gaming platform these days.
gaz
@GeoX: Not sure. I haven’t looked, but very often game-engines are created by a 3rd party and used by several different games.
Back in the day I played around with the renderware engine and the stuff I made looked and felt quite a bit like the ps2 era of the grand-theft-auto series. Sometimes, that’s sort of baked into the engine.
I’m not sure in this case, but I’m just saying that it’s quite possible that it’s not a rip-off, but simply a game that uses the same engine.
gaz
@Walker: Win.
You speak the truth man.
GeoX
@gaz: No, I mean some of the character sprites in there–the people with the signs–are *the same character sprites* that are used in Earthbound. It’s not just a “same engine” thing. Dude used some sort of editing software to just rip them straight out of a ROM image, I would guess.