Thaindian News

New Delhi, April 24 (IANS) Are you fed up of the corruption around you and want to deal with it? Do you feel like hurling a shoe at the corrupt politician who embezzled crores of taxpayers money or throw a rotten egg at a policeman demanding a bribe? Well go ahead - but virtually!

In a new game “Yes Prime Minister”, launched by gaming site Ibibo.com, a player can build his or her own India, declare himself or herself as the prime minister and appoint one’s online friends as vigilance commissioners in various departments.

Players can punish characters like “Kalmaddy”, “Rajah”, “Mayawitty” and “Karuna Needy” - a take-off on real-life politicians - by either putting them in jail, parading them on a donkey, hurling a shoe or chucking rotten eggs at them.

For each such act the user earns goodwill points helping him to progress.

“By incorporating these interesting aspects we are letting people express themselves and allowing them to punish the corrupt,” Rahul Razdan of Ibibo.com told IANS.

If the feedback of the players of the game is anything to go by, then the makers have hit bull’s eye.

“I feel like slapping these corrupt fools looting our country. With this game I can calm myself, feel good that at least ‘virtually’ I can still throw an egg on their faces,” said 19-year-old Sudipta Gurung, a call centre employee.

“This was our way of providing youth to vent their anger. We have also given them a chance to build a virtual India of their choice,” added Razdan.

The game further ensures that people collaborate with their online friends on Facebook and ibibo to keep corruption out from their ideal India, added Razdan.

The game also got a huge boost during the recent Anna Hazare agitation against corruption and, according to Razdan, the number of players swelled massively during that week early this month.

“It was pure good timing that Hazare’s agitation picked up steam a few days after we had launched the game. A campaign called ‘Support Anna Hazare’ was also incorporated into the game,” said Razdan.

According to Razdan, the game was launched April 1 and the first five days saw 50,000 users playing the game. As word spread about Hazare’s agitation, 100,000 more people registered to play the game, with the total number of users by the second week of April reaching 150,000.

(Rahul Vaishnavi can be contacted at rahul.v@ians.in)