Photo: Twitter
Angela Merkel played Farming Simulator at Gamescom, looking pretty bewildered by the whole thing as she stood at the game’s official booth.
The Cologne gaming event was host to the German chancellor yesterday, who held a speech for attendees before venturing on to the show floor and playing a bunch of games. One of those games was Farming Simulator 17, Giants Software’s absurdly popular, er, farming simulation game (duh) that tasks players with driving combine harvesters, cutting down crops and growing potatoes.
The German leader was photographed looking pretty confused by the whole affair, presumably because she’d been handed a PS4 controller in a booth clearly designated for the Nintendo Switch version of the game. How was she playing it? Was someone standing behind her with the actual controller, like when you’d give your baby brother an unplugged SNES controller back in the day and convince him that he was the one playing Super Mario World? I don’t like to undermine Angela Merkel’s gaming prowess, but I assume that as the head of an entire country, she’s probably got bigger things on her plate than the yield of her wheat.
Angela Merkel Played ‘Farming Simulator‘ at Gamescom
It seems that Angela Merkel is having good time playing Farming Simulator 17 at #gamescom2017 pic.twitter.com/qvIAOpTE6h
— Farming Simulator (@farmingsim) August 22, 2017
Merkel also watched a demonstration of Minecraft, with developer Mojang Studios even creating a player-character that looked like her specifically for the event, albeit in blockier form:
Photo: Twitter
Merkel has attended every Gamescom event since the event started in 2009, with her opening the expo for the very first time this year. Discussing her participation in the event, organizer Koelnmesse said:
“With her visit she honors the development of Gamescom into one of the most successful and largest events in the German trade fair system. Gamescom is today the world’s largest event for computer and video games. She emphasises the position of Koelnmesse as one of the leading trade fair organisers worldwide in the digital media and entertainment segment.”
