SAN FRANCISCO, March 9 (UPI) -- U.S. computer users can be political kingmakers in Fantasy Politics, a new online game of political power that borrows from fantasy football, organizers say.
In the game launched this week at a tech conference in San Francisco, players will create teams of 10 political "players" drawn from more than 350 politicians, elected officials and pundits, Politico reported Friday.
The pool of available figures includes incumbent nationally elected officials and what the game calls "sideline politicians," people running for office or who recently held national office.
Pundits -- political consultants, reporters and professors -- can also be signed to players' teams.
As in fantasy sports leagues, players can trade and drop candidates, and once their team is set will gain points depending on 30 different measurable metrics, such as the number of social media followers, polling numbers and fundraising amounts.
The game organizers will aggregate data into a "Power Score," a measure of political momentum, Aaron Michel, the site's founder who worked on John Kerry's presidential campaign, said.
Fantasy Politics is run by a business by the same name with backers drawn from both parties and seeks to be a "huge indicator of how politicians and pundits are trending in influence," Michel said.
It will offer a free league and a paid premium league, and also plans to resell the data it aggregates to political campaigns, its backers said.
The Web site for Fantasy Politics is www.fantasypolitics.co.
