Students Create Fantasy Congress Online Game

Picking up on the concept behind online fantasy sports leagues, a group of college students have created Fantasy Congress. In fantasy sports, players build fictional teams whose performance is calculated based on the results of the real players who compose the teams. In Fantasy Congress, players assemble a team of U.S. lawmakers who try to get legislation passed. Players compete over the Internet against other slates of lawmakers. Andrew Lee, a senior at Claremont McKenna College and one of the game’s creators, said he hoped the game would urge people to spend as much time thinking about politics as they do about sports. Doing so, he said, would result in “a better democracy.”

Indeed, a recent study estimated that productivity losses among U.S.

workers who play Fantasy Football during the NFL regular season amount to $1.1 billion per week. Lee, who described himself as “obsessed with politics,” said, “It would be better if we had more kids who wanted to be members of Congress.”

CNET, 25 October 2006