Fantasy Congress Game May Help Engage Younger Crowd in Politics
FANTASYCONGRESS
New London Day
Margaret Stevenson
New London Day
November 1, 2006
WASHINGTON, Nov. 1—“Most people know about the Three Stooges instead of the three branches of government,” said Andrew Lee, creator of new interactive online game called Fantasy Congress.
“This idea has the potential to be another avenue for young people to become interested in learning how our government works, which I think makes it fascinating,” said Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.).
The Web site, fantasycongress.org, was launched last month and already has received quite a bit of publicity and had more than 21,000 users as of this week.
“I like the idea of it,” said Brett Arnold, a civics teacher at Waterford High School. “It can help show students how Congress operates in Washington and the democratic process,” he said.
The game’s Web site, in addressing educators, says, “Fantasy Congress is the perfect tool for bringing home the process of legislation and the role of Congress to your students.”
Lee, the game’s creator, is a 21-year-old senior at Claremont McKenna College in California. The idea of a game involving Congress came to him a few years back when a roommate of his was involved in Fantasy Football, he said.
“If more people cared about government, we’d have a better government,” Lee said.
Just like the popular fantasy sports games, players must make up their teams with real people. However, instead of drafting athletes, participants of Fantasy Congress draft members of Congress of varying seniority.
“One of the upsides to Fantasy Congress over Fantasy Baseball is that you don’t really have to worry about your team being destroyed by injuries,” Lieberman said. “Then again, there probably aren’t many Fantasy Baseball owners who worry about losing their shortstop because he has ties to Jack Abramoff.”
When drafting your team of 16, you choose two senior senators, two junior senators, four senior House members, four junior members and four with mid-range experience.
Points are scored as members move legislation through committees, then to the floors of the House and Senate and finally to the President’s desk. The rankings of each legislator are updated daily according to what progress they have made in the real-life Congress.
As with other fantasy games, you can change your lineup of legislators on the weekends, adding different members to the lineup and benching others.
At the end of the congressional session, the player wins whose members of Congress have totaled the most points.
“This could enhance student interest in government,” said Dan Mello, chairman of the social studies department at Ledyard High School.
Mello said that while his students learn the lawmaking processes in school, the game could help it become more real to them.
“Any opportunity to teach students and give them hands-on experience, like using Fantasy Congress, is a valuable lesson,” said Brett Arnold, who teaches civics at Waterford High School.
Lee, who referred to himself as both a football fan and political junkie, said while he was watching CNN, his roommate was discussing Fantasy Football and he felt like “a lonely political blogger.” He wanted to find a way to get people more excited about politics.
“Fantasy football notes every stat that could occur,” Lee said. “If we did this for Congress, we would have a more effective legislature.”
The idea to create an interactive game to get people more excited and interested in Congress hit him. With the help of three other students, his idea became a reality a few weeks ago.
On the site’s home page, a letter from the creators says, “In this game, we give you the power to draft and manage a team of members from the U.S. Congress. Enjoy our gift to you, o great nation: the power to play politics!”
Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.), said, “Young people have more power than they give themselves credit for, and can affect the agenda in Washington in many ways.”
Todd Mitchell, chief of staff for Rep. Robert Simmons (R-Conn.), said, “Any approach that gets more young people involved in the political process has Rob Simmons’ stamp of approval.”
The site encourages Fantasy Congress players to use their “political savvy” when choosing their members. A legislative tutorial is available on the site to explain how a bill becomes a law.
“Whether it is through Web sites like this one, volunteering on a campaign or, most importantly, heading to the polls on Nov. 7th, our democracy is only enriched by more young people engaging in the democratic process and policies and issues affecting the nation,” Dodd said.
Lee said he and his colleagues received a $5,000 prize from their school for winning a Web entrepreneurship contest and so far have poured $2,000 of that money into the Web site.
“We are thinking about advertising,” Lee said when asked about maintaining the Web site. “Right now, we are still college students, though. We’re more worried about midterms,” he said.
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