US government wants help from gamers, contacts Microsoft to develop video game to manage budget

Erskine Bowles, the co-chair of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, has been in touch with Microsoft's chief executive officer Steve Ballmer about creating the deficit-reduction video game that would enable anyone with a computer to take a stab at balancing the budget, USA Today reported.

Kotaku.com speculated that the game could be "something flash-based", possibly a web game. However, the administration did not confirm whether the PC-based game would be played online or be downloaded.

"Perhaps the bigger question about the budget-balancing title is how the government plans to use it. Is the game simply a way for citizens to understand the nation's financial issues or is it a way for the government to find good ideas and put them to use? If the government can monitor gamer decisions and use the collective intelligence of its players, maybe, just maybe, some of our larger issues could be resolved," CNET News wondered.