Those who share an interest in politics and video games appear to inhabit the exclusive centre of a venn diagram.
Of course, politicians have featured as bonus characters in video games like NBA Jam (John McCain, Hilary Clinton, Sarah Palin, Barack Obama, etc) and in the less-well known Seaside Special for the Commodore 64 that featured Margaret Thatcher and several alien 'politikians'; but, why is it that there are so few political video games?
With the success of the many law-based Phoenix Wright games and surgical slash-em-up series Trauma Center, it is clear that people are increasingly willing to have fresh, new gaming experiences.
The more successful pseudo-political games, like Civilization, are typically aimed at wannabe warlords with the ultimate goal of conquering the Earth and causing all other nations (or as many as are represented in the game) to bow down to undeniable greatness. On the other side of the equation are the ridiculous, low-budget Flash games like the mildly amusing Dancing Palin, complete with a range of funky dance moves, music and a caption that says "I just want to be Vice President!" These games demonstrate that an audience for this kind of crossover does already exist in some form.
The range of games mentioned so far shows that any successful political game could take many shapes. It's possible to imagine a game similar to Championship Manager, where the player would take control of a political party, and would try to bring their chosen party into government by the deadline of the next election. This would be possible by drawing up party lists based on the statistics of politicians, picking out an election strategy, and choosing whether to play dirty or fight fair. If you chose the former, you could win by investing in slander poster campaigns, by hiring private investigators to dig up the dirt on your opponents, and by generally being an omnipresent toe-rag. This is just one of many ideas.
With all of this in mind, it becomes curious that while video games cause much political discussion, and while political stories dominate our news media and our television screens, that there has not been a successful political video game. Developers, it's time.