Game Politics

"SERIOUS GAMES" CARRY SERIOUS POLITICAL MESSAGES

In The Nation, Editor Katrina vanden Heuvel reminds us that gaming is about much more than just shoot 'em ups. vanden Heuvel discusses serious games, an up-and-coming genre of games that contain political themes.

Such titles include Escape From Woomera, (screen shot at right) a game based upon perceived maltreatment of political refugees by the Australian government. Escape From Woomera is a downloadable modification or "mod" to Valve Software's Half-life game.

Newsgaming.com is a site maintained by a team of Uraguayan independent game developers who believe in using their small, Shockwave-based products to educate players about global events. Madrid (left) is a small online game that challenges players to keep candles burning in cities that have been victimized by terror attacks, while September 12th offers a message about the war on terror. In the game players stare down upon a stylized graphic of a Middle Eastern town. Civilians bustle about, along with the occasional armed terrorist. Players have the option to fire missiles or not. Although attacks kill terrorists, they also cause innocent casualties and great destruction to the town, or what the military refers to as "collateral damage." When the smoke clears, angry civilians respawn as terrorists. Keep on lobbing missiles and a few terrorists will turn into many. The game's message is clear...

The article also mentions an old favorite, Balance of Power, (left) which I spent many hours playing on my Apple IIGS system back in the day. Designed by Chris Crawford in the mid-1980's, it remains the best real world global political simulation I've ever seen. As President in the game, options included sending foreign aid as well as the 82nd Airborne. Players could prop up their allies and try to destabilize unfriendly regimes through a variety of means, up to and including assassination. As I recall, the idea was to maximize U.S. influence without starting World War III in the process. Remember, the old Russian regime was still in power and the Berlin Wall was still standing at the time Balance of Power was originally published. You can download the game at Home of the Underdogs, but I haven't tried it on Windows XP. If you get it to work, please let us know by posting in the forums.