Virtual Zuma proves as tricky as the original
WANT to see President Jacob Zuma fall, but annoyed that protests and petitions are not working?
Then a quirky new mobile game may ease your frustration . . . until you discover that even virtual Zuma is untouchable.
Tricky Zuma — a game that allows you to become a “hero citizen” by hitting Zuma’s “legendary” head with pins until he falls — was released on the Google Play Store last month to coincide with nationwide #ZumaMustFall protests.
But those who have downloaded it have discovered that virtual Zuma has “plenty of tricks and will not fall”.
“In our current situation, people want Zuma to fall but do realise that he actually doesn’t want to fall. One would consider it stubbornness and the game portrays how difficult it is to make him fall,” game developer Arnaud Mukenge explained.
The Pretoria-based developer has a passion for “gamification” — the craft of introducing fun gaming elements into traditionally non-gaming environments such as education, politics and social issues.
“I am hoping the president and his party do not feel like they need to attack me afterwards,” Mukenge said.
He believes that if Zuma had to play the game, he “would probably have fun listening to himself laughing when he doesn’t fall”.
Gaming personality Pippa Tshabalala said South Africans were attracted to games like Tricky Zuma as they were outlets to vent their frustrations.
“Many people vent over social media in a ‘safe’ context, but this likewise is a safe space. It’s presumably funny as well, so it provides what we can assume is a satirical take on our current political climate to find the lighter side of all the drama,” she said.
Black Box Theory social media analyst Yavi Madurai said that having control over politicians or being able to remove them from office, even through a game, would render some form of satisfaction.
“We are living more and more in a time where our virtual realities and our physical realities are getting closer — games like this speak to that phenomenon,” she said.
Political analyst Somadoda Fikeni said comedy arising from the current political landscape had become an industry on its own.
“Long before the #ZumaMustFall campaign, given the number of controversies that the president has been involved in, it ON TARGET: The Tricky Zuma game lets you stick pins in the president’s head to unseat him has always been the case that people would make fun of the situation, which is rather serious. This game is just an extension of that,” he said.
Technology market research firm World Wide Worx founder Arthur Goldstuck said computer games had been linked to politicians since the early days of graphics being added. But such games usually died a quick death. “Because they have a political and a topical purpose, they tend not to survive long,” he said.
Other Zuma-inspired games — the Zumalator calculator that solves “Zumatic equations”; JZ Soundboard, which features Zuma quotes, sayings and the sound of him laughing; Zuma Escape, in which players help him flee the country; and Flappy Zuma, in which Zuma flies in his sweet new statefunded ride through charges and legislation barriers — are still available, but have lost their appeal.