Indian political leaders 'fight' in virtual world

Hyderabad, Mar 18 (ANI): Before the actual battle of seats and votes during elections, political leaders are determining their strength by running races, taking long jumps and swimming in the virtual world in amusing games developed here.

As the election fever grips and leaders are turning to Internet campaigning, 7Seas Technologies Limited, a Hyderabad-based IP-game developing company, has launched the innovative programme related to polls.

The company has developed five amusing games namely 'Who Wins', a set of political Olympic games, Who Wins2, 'Vote Fun', 'Vote a Leader' and 'Political War' in the backdrop of Indian political scenario.

Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Prime Ministerial candidate L. K. Advani and Bhaujan Samaj party (BSP) chief Mayawati, an aspiring prime ministerial candidate, are the main characters in the game.

The main characters in the games dressed as athletes with bulging biceps, are vying for prime minister's seat by competing in tug-of-war, running, javelin throw, swimming, and long jump among other contests.

"Based on the animated characters and caricatures, we wanted to give political awareness and to play a game which is free and encouragement for them to actually select their favourite leader to support them and indirectly make them win over others. So that was the basic concept behind doing these political games," said L. Maruthi Shanker, Managing Director of 7seas Technologies Limited.

A few regional political leaders of Andhra Pradesh namely Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, N. Chandrababu Naidu chief of Telugu Desam, Chiranjeevi, chief of Praja Rajyam Party and N Jayaprakash Narayan chief of Lok Satta party are also used as animated characters in the games.

The designer said that such games are developed approximately in two to three months.

"It took a long time for designing these games because each of these games come with a different type of variety and animation. A rough estimate for these kinds of games, it took around two and a half months," said Abhi Bhattacharya, designer of the games.

Once just outsourcing sweatshops that sketched, painted and digitized ordered content, animation and gaming firms are now aiming high-claiming ownership of their products and sharing copyrights and profits.

According to the National Association of Software and Services Companies, the market is expected to grow to about 1.3 billion dollars this year from about 300 million dollars in 2006, and employ about 30,000 animators alone. By Narendra (ANI)