Can political strategy games like ‘Kursi’ build voter awareness?

How does one play Kursi?

Kursi is a two- to four-player card game where you don the hat of a political strategist to win the majority of seats. Offering a window into the minds of poll architects like Prashant Kishor, Sunil Kanugolu or Amit Shah, the game runs in three phases—candidate fielding, campaigning, and elections—where players must shrewdly secure victory for their party. Like Catan, this is a tabletop game that uses cards to stir gameplay: how one uses them can make or break your campaign.

Board gamers playtest ‘Kursi’ as a tabletop card game. (Courtesy Sidhant Chand)

Focusing on realism, Kursi also chooses to explore the grey areas in every election: apart from basic cards like ‘Candidate’, ‘Asset’, or ‘Rally’, there are ‘Masterstroke’ and (ahem) ‘Media Pawn’ cards in the box. These can be delicately used to collect vote points. How long until someone wins? Roughly 45 to 90 minutes.

‘Subtly nudging player consciousness’

Developers Chand and Anand reveal that Kursi was born out of a desire to push people to think about how politics could trigger social change. On travels across India, they had found that many youngsters lacked an interest or understanding of basic political processes.

Game designer Sidhant Chand; and (right) political strategist Manthan Anand, who collaborated on Kursi. Chand’s other desi games include ‘Lakshadweep’ and ‘Biomes of Nilgiri’.

“I found it worrisome that very few of them wanted to get into the groundwork of politics,” says Anand. “One key point that they miss is that change is actually created through good politics. You can’t separate policy from politics”. Outside industry circles, citizens may not have a well-rounded (or optimistic) grasp of this connection. Kursi, thus, aims to be a comfortable teaching aid, employing a vibrant design to feel approachable. 

“There are systemic flaws within Indian politics which require a good amount of reform,” points out Anand. “By subtly nudging the change into player consciousness, we are trying to show how politics should be inclusive and diverse.”

This idealism is at the heart of Kursi’s design: women make up 50% of candidates, and regional differences are healthily highlighted in the gameplay. Of course, to ‘balance things out’, you will also see stereotypical sketches of candidates. The game provides “an abstraction of the election process without making it too complicated,” explains Chand.

So far, what have players enjoyed the most about Kursi? The final vote reveal moment, just like their real-life counterparts.

Strategy games as a ‘civic sensei’

Gamifying voter awareness isn’t exactly new. Back in 2014, the Election Commission had launched a video game titled ‘Get Set Vote’ to engage youngsters in the democratic process, while MyGov regularly conducts quizzes on the topic. These are direct methods of civic education, but due to their linear (one-way) nature, lack a key component that would boost critical thinking: plotting! This is where games like Kursi or cult hit ‘Shasn’ may serve as better teachers of nuance.

With 1.85-crore first-time voters this year, ‘sandbox’ strategy games (where you have a larger goal, but creative freedom on how to achieve it) are known to build inquisitive mindsets in players; this may eventually become an inventive way of getting more youngsters on board the policy bandwagon.

Political cartoons do commentary, while quizzes do direct trivia. Both are top-down, one-way approaches, unlike the open versatility of a strategy game. (Courtesy shasnthegame.com)

‘Shasn’, a political strategy game by Memesys Culture Lab, deals with four ideological archetypes (Capitalist, Supremo, Showman and Idealist), whom players must embody before taking a stand on divisive social issues. The game has amassed a global following, and is a fan favourite at board game nights for players to clash their wits and manifestos. But how does it compare to Kursi?

Well, Kursi takes relatively less time to play, and is a card game based entirely off India. Focusing on just four parameters: capital, influence, popularity, and reputation, it’s better suited to beginners who have just started exploring politics.

Shasn, on the other hand, unfolds at a more epic scale as you “sell your soul” to earn resources and capture nine different constituencies. Inspired by 2016’s ‘An Insignificant Man’, it deals with universal political and ethical dilemmas, and involves hatching conspiracies, negotiations, territory expansion and advanced strategy. Thus, enjoyment may depend on players already having a fair bit of political know-how.

Kursi and Shasn may both be Indian political strategy games, but they aren’t exactly competitors. (Courtesy Sidhant Chand and shasnthegame.com)

Either way, both games are memorable entrants into the fledgling political board games space, and could play a healthy role in building rational mindsets in an era of disinformation. This particular club has had just a handful of members until now—think ‘1960: The Making of the President’, ‘Republic of Rome’, and ‘Revolution!’. Come June, we’ll know if Kursi has managed to earn a long-term seat at the table!