... or for raising social consciousness.
Games for Education, or Edutainment, is the new buzz-word nowadays. Everybody and their brother seems to be wanting to get in on it.
Most of the time, the games that are produced as a result are not much more than thin multimedia layers over textbook material. I guess teachers aren't usually creative types by nature, and the design-y types don't really care too much for learning, so there's very little cross-fertilization.
However, every now and then, there comes a game which is creative, fun, and still manages to convey a message or deliver some content. I came across one of these recently: Darfur is Dying, a game designed to raise social consciousness about the atrocities in the Sudan.
It was strangely addictive, frustrating and heartbreaking. The sight of the Flash Janjaweed warriors thundering across the plain set my heart racing. The cacophony of the virtual refugee camp grated heavily on my nerves but at least I could turn it down!
If edutainment is to take off, we need more games like this.
Friday, February 9, 2007
Games for Education...
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2 comments:
Why do I get the feeling that no matter what I do, I will always get killed foraging for water? Perhaps that's the reality that they want to convey?
I think so. What frustrated me was just how *random* the process was: sometimes, I'd just "hide", and the truck would pass right over me without seeing me. Other times, I would think I was well hidden but then I'd get caught.
I knew it was just a game, but the anxiety that I felt while wondering how the dice would fall every time a "truck" came by, was actually quite unbearable. If that's what the makers of the game wanted to convey, they did it well.
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