When we think of video games, we usually think of the world of fantasy and fiction. But with everything that is going on in the world, serious times call for serious games. Many game creators have been working on developing a new generation of games which will allow players to immerse themselves into the real world - political, social, and environmental crises and all. One such game is called Peacemaker, a video game developed by a Carnegie Mellon University team headed by Asi Burak, an Israeli-born graduate student. In a recent article in the New York Times, Clive Thompson played the game and described it like this:
Last week, in an effort to solve the Israeli-Palestinian crisis, I withdrew settlements in the Gaza Strip. But then a suicide bomber struck in Jerusalem, the P.L.O. leader called my actions “condescending,” and the Knesset demanded a stern response. Desperate to retain control, I launched a missile strike against Hamas militants.
I was playing Peacemaker, a video game in which players assume the role of either the Israeli prime minister or the Palestinian president. Will you pull down the containment wall? Will you beg the United States to pressure your enemy? You make the calls and live with the results the computer generates. Just as in real life, actions that please one side tend to anger the other, making a resolution fiendishly tricky. You can play it over again and again until you get it right, or until the entire region explodes in violence.
Thompson spoke with Georgia Tech's Ian Bogost about Peacemaker and other serious games and their ability to teach people how complex systems work:
“You could have some big theory about society, but these days it’s like, sorry, people aren’t going to read your white paper on it.” [snip] “Put it in a game, and they’ll discover what you’re talking about themselves.”
Professor Bogost has put that theory in action. In 2003 the Howard Dean campaign hired his company, Persuasive Games, to make a game that showed volunteers how the Iowa primary work was organized . Then the Illinois Republicans paid him to devise four games illustrating their major election planks. In one, you have to ferry sick patients through city streets to hospitals until you discover that the hospitals have become overcrowded. The only way to free more money and space is, hilariously, to enact anti-malpractice-suit legislation. In essence the game takes a cherished bit of Republican ideology and renders it into gameplay.
Read the full article here. Bogost wil publish a book on serious games this spring (stay tuned for more news on this). In the mean time, check out his recent book, Unit Operations: An Approach to Videogame Criticism.