It cost the EU £170,000, took over a year to create and, at time of writing, has just one active user: me. The online world of Citzalia, "an animated social networking platform that captures the essence of the European parliament", was never likely to become the next Facebook. But this is just silly.

Think of Citzalia as The Sims: Brussels Edition. You choose an avatar, arrive in the lobby, and wander the abandoned halls of an animated European parliament. You can join debates, write articles for your fellow "Cits" to rate and even draft imaginary EU legislation. If you're lucky, you could even bump into a real-world MEP.

Although not yet. The game is open to the public, but still waiting to be officially announced some time next month. When it is, designers ESN hope Citzalia will be a thriving hub of pan-European political engagement. For now, it's a post-apocalyptic vision of a cartoonish, pseudo-democratic future. That's "the essence of the European parliament", apparently.