New York Times publishes U.S. voter suppression op-ed in video game form

The United States presidential election is happening next week, and so yesterday the New York Times concluded its "Op-Doc" series of short, op-ed documentaries with a browser-based game: The Voter Suppression Trail.

This is the first game to be included as part of the "Op-Doc" series and presumably the first game the Times has published in its Opinion section, though it's certainliy not the first "newsgame" the Times has published.

It's also a prominent example of how a game development team might use game mechanics to try and communicate an opinion about what it's like for different people to experience real-world situations and events.

This isn't their first crack at it, either; Voter Suppression Trail is one of many newsgames released by the Brooklyn-based GOPArcade (formerly known as Everyday Arcade) that are tied to the goings-on in this year's U.S. election.

Earlier this year the group tried to release those games as an iOS app, but were ultimately stymied by Apple.