Debateball Turns Presidential Debates Into Baseball Games

In the midst of the 2016 presidential election season in the United States, creator Donna Schillinger has officially launched Debateball on iOS and Android. The political app allows users to score the performance of each presidential candidate during real-world political debates in a baseball format.

With Debateball, players become the umpire in political debate baseball games. As users watch presidential candidates respond to questions in real-world debates, they can score their answers within the app in a number of baseball-themed ways.

The app breaks them down:

• Strike: Really bad answer that didn’t address the question. Batter does not advance.
• Foul: Poor answer that didn’t answer the question. Batter does not advance.
• Walk: Good answer but still didn’t answer the question. Batter advances one base.
• Base Hit: Actually answered the question. Batter advances two bases.
• Home Run: Actually answered the question with a good, even great, answer. Batter advances four bases and scores one run.

The app automatically keeps score as users rate the responses from each candidate during a debate, and presents users with their winning candidate at the end.

While the app’s free version allows users to keep track of their own scores, users can upgrade to the premium version of Debateball for $1.99, unlocking a national scoreboard which allows them to see how the overall community has scored candidates during individual debates, or through the whole season. Premium members can also compare their own scoreboard with those of their Facebook friends.

Schillinger told SocialTimes:

Up until I pressed “confirm” on the ballot on Super Tuesday, I was still trying to make up my mind how to vote. For all voters who take the responsibility seriously like I do, a tool like Debateball helps to deepen the analysis of candidates’ debate performance. Because you’re making play-by-play calls, the game compels the user to pay close attention to what is being said, and make a value judgement on each response. With Debateball, watching debates is not a spectator sport anymore, you actually have your head in the game.

Debateball is available to download for free on the iTunes App Store and Google Play.

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