In an unprecedented move, the White House has launched multiple arcade browser games that support President Trump's policies, but some have now faced online backlash for various reasons. US politicians have traditionally resorted to video games as a means of promoting their pre-election campaigns, as seen with Barack Obama's in-game advertisements during the 2008 election. But what Trump's administration has done with arcade games is a first in US history.
On September 4, the official White House account on Twitter started promoting "Trump Arcade," a brand-new extension of the WhiteHouse.gov website featuring five free-to-play browser games. But two of them, titled Build the Wall and Rio Run, quickly sparked online arguments.
An anonymous art collective created a politically charged, satirical arcade game and placed it just outside the D.C. War Memorial for everyone to see.
In Build the Wall, which is basically a replica of Tetris, players try to block the passage of "zombies" attempting to cross the southern border and enter the United States. Rio Run, on the other hand, is a game like Snake where the player must "patrol the line along the river and pick up every crosser" to deport them. Both...
