Games become a weapon to promote and criticize presidential candidates

A month and a half before the first round of elections, reelection candidate Jair Bolsonaro (PL) is the most popular character among presidential candidates in games on application platforms. Of 14 games about candidates identified by the report, he is in ten — whether in contexts of criticism or exaltation.

Also presidential candidate and leader in polls, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) is the only other candidate to appear. But in just two games his image is positive.

The games, apparently amateur, use real situations from the country’s recent history, such as Lula’s arrest and the fires in the Amazon, which broke records in the last four years.

The most popular of them, with 1 million downloads on Google Play, is called Bolsonaro Terror do PT. In the game, the player must enter the party’s headquarters to get money, before being surprised by Bolsonaro.

The same producer made Lula Escape from Prison, in which the former president receives a message from his party companion, Gleisi Hoffmann, with instructions to find a key on the floor of the cell he is in and escape from prison.

In Bozonaro, which has more than 100,000 downloads, it is possible to throw oranges at the president and make him run from the “ghost of communism”.

Bolsonaro 2022 — a race between Lula and Bolsonaro, in which the PT takes the lead and must be overtaken — is dubious. While mocking Lula, one of the game’s scenarios passes through the Amazon in flames.

“People produce things that are on the crest of the wave”, says Ivan Mussa, a professor at the Federal University of Paraíba and a researcher on the subject. “That goes for anything. Content producers want to get into a stream of production that people are consuming.”

Although he has suffered casualties from the group in the last four years, Bolsonaro has an important base of support in gamers.

In a survey carried out by the Games Brazil 2022 Research, 75% of respondents answered that they consume electronic games. The habit is common in the daily life of Brazilians, especially on the smartphone, and it is difficult to map the political preference of this group.

The most engaged players, on the other hand, have a more cohesive profile, according to Mussa.

Criticism of taxes, for example, is an old demand from the community, which Bolsonaro captured in the four video game import tax reductions announced throughout his term.

“The games that are sold in Brazil, in general, are very expensive. And this type of audience tends to be male because the games were created in the market to meet this niche”, says the researcher. “Middle-class resentment against a state that levies taxes and doesn’t produce services at the same level ends up flourishing in gamer culture.”

In 2018, the Federal Public Ministry in Rio de Janeiro received a complaint about the Bolsomito 2k18 game. In it, the then PSL candidate appeared as a protagonist in a struggle against feminists, homeless people, gays, blacks and PT.

Recently, Ciro Gomes became interested in the sector. His lives, called Ciro Games, take place in a room with neon lights and a gaming chair. The report did not find any games for the candidate, but, according to the press office, Ciro’s militancy has produced games spontaneously.

“We will make these games available on Ciro’s website to facilitate access to those who want to obtain them,” said the team.

For Mussa, the purpose of these games is not necessarily entertainment — not least because making more elaborate games is usually expensive.

“Amateur games are usually going to be small, simple, even a little rough. They work more like a meme than a game”, he says.

“You don’t send this game to someone to have a Nintendo-style experience, but like a funny video from Twitter or TikTok. The person plays there a little bit, laughs, sends it to the other and spreads it.”