Pol parties are showing interest in investing in ads on these sites

With election fever rising by the day, politics is turning out to be the focus of attention everywhere — even in the world of virtual games. Information technology ( IT) companies specialising in developing online and mobile gaming are busy churning out games where political characters are seem playing a variety of games such as tug- of- war, swimming, running, shot putting and javelin throwing.

One such site is www. onlinerealgames.

com . Some of the characters seen playing in the games on the site include Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, Bharatiya Janata Party ( BJP) leader L. K. Advani, Bahujan Samaj Party ( BSP) chief Mayawati and Telegu Desam Party ( TDP) president Chandrababu Naidu.

One of the games, christened Political War, has Manmohan Singh and L. K. Advani sweating it out in a tugof- war. The site has a whole lot of other politicians too, playing various other games.

“ It took us around three months to get the semblance of the political figures,” said Maruthi Sanker, managing director, 7Seas Technologies Ltd. The company has so far developed 12 games – six each based on national figures and on Andhra Pradesh politics.

“ As election dates in particular states draw closer, we will be introducing more statespecific games,” said Sanker.

“ Our revenues were generated through advertisements,” added Sanker.

Interestingly, even political parties are showing interest in investing in advertisements on the company’s website, he added. “ We even got a couple of requests to model games based on actual political situations.

However, we wanted to restrict the games to just some fun,” said Sanker.

Nazara Technologies Pvt Ltd, developer of games, primarily for the mobile phones, is also looking to enter this space. A source privy to the company’s plans said, “ We are looking to launch the games by mid- April.” In one of the games developed by Nazara, there are two central figures – one from the Congress and the other from the BJP. According to the gameplan, each political character gives a speech and every time the politician utters an unsavory remark, you get to throw a tomato at him/ her. The game is being made available by mobile phone operators including Airtel and Vodafone.

“ The only way we can earn revenue is thorough advertisements on our website.

And we are looking into it,” added the source.

harini. subramani @ mailtoday. in