Rigged mobile game lets you gerrymander political districts to steal elections

Game publisher Hitcents and media site Fusion have launched Rigged, a mobile game about gerrymandering political districts in order to steal elections.

If anything, the free-to-play iOS and Android title is timely as the U.S. presidential election between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton is turning out to be a close race. It draws attention to the real-life practice of gerrymandering, or redrawing the lines of a political district to increase the power of a particular party.

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Players can choose their party in the game and then strategically reshape districts within each state across the U.S. to sway the odds in their party’s favor. You can do so through tapping and dragging. Once a party controls the majority of the districts in a state, the player can move on to the next stage. It shows how easily the political voting system in America can be exploited.

Rigged is a challenging and entertaining way to enlighten players and voters alike on these unethical practices occurring in the United States today. The game release comes as part of a larger investigative effort by Fusion into the ways that elections can be rigged, consisting of a documentary and content on Fusion.net.

“We’re excited because Fusion has been able to experiment with new ways to engage our audience — and potentially reach new audiences — on an important issue through this partnership with Hitcents,” said Sam Ford, vice president at Fusion and head of Fusion Media Group’s Center for Innovation and Engagement, in a statement. “From concept to completion, the Rigged game has given our investigative and interactive teams, and Hitcents’ developers, the chance to think about the potential power of combining nonfiction storytelling with a game.”

The Fusion documentary is set to air Sunday, September 25, 2016 at 8 p.m. on Fusion.

“We’re extremely proud of this project which we believe will help educate players on the practice of gerrymandering,” said Clinton Mills, cofounder and CEO of Hitcents, in a statement. “Working with Fusion has allowed us to create a distinctive gameplay experience that everyone on both sides of the aisle can enjoy.”