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“Advergames” are an increasingly popular method of bringing commercial messages to the nation’s 117 million or so video gamers. Interest groups are also getting into the action, hooking up with design shops such as Persuasive Games, which, for a mere $40,000, will design a custom game to get out your political message.

Game / Creator	How to Play	Feels Like…	Nice Touch
Airport Security Persuasive Games	Oversee a busy airport security checkpoint, relieving passengers of contraband such as water bottles, toasters, and pants	If the ACLU reissued the ’80s arcade game Tapper	Courtesy announcement: “Please be advised: Security personnel are authorized to use groping.”
Take Back Illinois Illinois Republicans	Lower medical costs, boost civic engagement, and improve schools and the economy	SimCity meets Milton Friedman	Rigged so that you can only win if you freeze taxes or cap malpractice damages
Darfur is Dying University of Southern California students, winners of the Darfur Digital Activist Contest	Play a refugee trying to find water while hiding from Jeeps filled with rampaging Janjaweed militiamen	Sid Meier’s End of Civilization	So you’re sitting on your butt playing a video game about genocide
Border Patrol The Insurgent, a white supremacist website	Blow away Mexican drug smugglers and “breeders” with children in tow as they cross into the United States	Duck Hunt for racists	Score 88 points and win. The number is a neo-Nazi code for “Heil Hitler” (H is the 8th letter of the alphabet).
Bushgame Activist programmer Jason Oda	Guide Hulk Hogan and Mr. T as they battle corporate pigs and mutant Bush Cabinet members in a surreal fight to save the world	Old-school Nintendo, as imagined by the South Park guys	Bridging a gaping chasm with a super-nerdy bar chart of the federal deficit. Don’t fall into that $500 billion hole!