What would political establishment tactics look like in a multiplayer video game?

Let's start with Call of Duty Advanced Warfare. For anyone who doesn't have a clue what the CoD franchise is let me explain... no, there is too much. Let me summarize: it's a first-person shooter combat simulator. The Advanced Warfare title incorporates some futuristic elements to the game such as an exoskeleton (think pseudo power armor, or Matt Damon in Elysium) and zombies. Now picture this with Team Deathmatch. This mode is simple - two teams compete against each other trying to score 75 kills within a 10 minute time limit. Simple enough, right? Now let's inject politics into the mix. One side is the blue party, the other is the red party. The match begins. The Democr-uh, the blue party scores the first couple of kills having gained a terrain advantage; the red team, in turn, mounts a mighty offensive to make up for the lost points during which time two all stars rise from within its ranks - their call signs are Don and Ted. Any similarities to real persons living, or dead is purely coincidental. ;o) These all stars implemented unorthodox techniques that the blue party was unprepared for and began amassing a high kill count, occasionally taunting and ribbing each other along the way. But then they noticed bullets flying over their shoulders from behind as their own team members took aim trying to wound them enough to take them out of the match. One of their members had the audacity to pull the pin out of a grenade clipped to Don's belt - a nearly lethal act of betrayal. The two all-stars found themselves fighting off members from both the blue and red teams in a surprising finale.

Now let's look at Madden NFL 16. For anyone who doesn't have a clue what the Madden franchise is let me explain: it's simulated football. There, now you're an expert on the franchise. Once again there are two teams: the donkeys and the elephants. Wait, why the heck did those animals get adopted as party mascots? I mean really. I don't care what your political views are - why the hell are they calling themselves donkeys and elephants? That's right up there in my mind with lemurs and ostriches. I mean come on... o_O... ahem. I digress. So the... donkeys and elephants are competing in the Super Bowl. The Donkeys have home field advantage. Rising stars in the elephants are #917 DJT and #202 REC. The game is heated with both sides scoring their share of penalties. During the second quarter, however, the crowd erupted with jeers as #917 was nearly sacked by another elephant while #202 was victim to a face mask violation by yet another member of the same. In another stunning display of defiance toward #202 a disgruntled elephant threw an interception to a player on the donkeys. It became apparent by the end of the third quarter that the elephant's offensive strategy involved sabotaging their own star players and potentially throwing the Super Bowl.

The short answer is not a chance. Literally only masochists would want to play a competitive multiplayer game where his own team turns against him in addition to fighting the opposing team. This isn't a Tom Cruise movie. Those games would never see the light of a commercial release day because they would be considered deliberately imbalanced, unfair, and broken (resulting in essentially forfeited matches), not to mention boring as heck to participate in. Who wants to spend 10 minutes watching 6 - 10 players beat up on 2? So why do we tolerate this behavior in our political system with the establishment bases attacking their own rising stars like Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, or Bernie Sanders? It seems like because they can't control these candidates they'd rather throw the election than support them - the fact that they're wearing the same team brand be damned. Whether you're a liberal, independent, or conservative doesn't it make sense that candidates on the same team start acting like they're on the same team? Perhaps we can raise the bar for excellence at the same time.

If your side wins in a fair competition then more power to you, but if your side wins because the game was rigged then what does that say about the integrity of the sport and of its future? What does that say about you if you support it? Just saying.