Online Store Offers Free Games To Furloughed Government Employees

Today in Dumb Yet Hilarious Publicity Stunts, here’s online gaming store Good Old Games honoring the U.S. government shutdown with a special sale.

GOG, which specializes in selling digital versions of classic games, is marking 50% off government-themed titles like Capitalism 2 and Tropico Reloaded for the next 24 hours. Also, Theme Hospital, because healthcare. And Redneck Rampage, because they hate Republicans.

They’re also giving out free games to anyone who is out of a job due to the U.S. government’s inability to reach a budget compromise:

Finally, we would like to express our condolences to everyone who’s been furloughed by the shutdown. More than that, actually, we’d like to offer you the games pack of our special Shutdown Promo for free. Send an email to [email protected] with your picture holding the official furlough letter you received, before Friday 11 October 2013 at 12:00 EDT and we’ll give you The Guild: Gold Edition, Capitalism, Capitalism 2, Tropico: Gold Edition, Alpha Centauri + Alien Crossfire, Theme Hospital, and Redneck Rampage free.

Okay. Yes. This is a ridiculous publicity stunt designed to get us paying attention to GOG. But any publicity stunt involving the phrase “Thanks Obama” is okay in my book.