Posted by Derek Yu
Wed, 04 Jun 2008 22:31:00 GMT
Sandra Day O’Connor, the first female Justice of the United States Supreme Court and all-around badass (now retired as the former), was the keynote speaker yesterday at Games For Change, a three-day festival for “social impact” games held at Parsons The New School For Design (that is an awkward name) in New York City. In her keynote, O’Connor revealed a project she’s working on – Our Courts, an “interactive online civics curriculum” (otherwise known as “games”) that will educate students about the United States’ legal and judiciary systems by letting them tackle real world problems. The project will launch in 2009.
When asked what her favorite video game was, O’Connor paused very briefly before closing her eyes, leaning into the mic, and whispering, “Cave Story.”
(Just kidding, but that’s still pretty cool, innit?)
(Source: Chris Baker, via Game|Life)
Posted in Browser Games, Social Impact, Community, Previews | 23 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Mon, 19 May 2008 19:49:00 GMT
Execution is a short, experimental game from Jesse Venbrux about the consequences of one’s actions. I’ll leave the discourse for the comments (don’t read them if you don’t want to be spoiled).
(Source: Jared, via Puppy Buckets)
Posted in Social Impact, Windows, Freeware | Tags JesseVenbrux | 83 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Sun, 20 Jan 2008 20:14:00 GMT
Harpooned is a socially conscious shoot ‘em up that puts you at the helm of a Japanese whaling boat. It was created by artist Conor O’Kane as a criticism of the Japanese practice of “scientific whaling.” In the game, you shoot whales for their meat, earning “species” combos by killing two or more whales in a row. Protesters and icebergs are your main obstacles. At the end of each level the meat you’ve collected is packaged into pet food and hamburgers.
In 1982, the International Whaling Commission declared a moratorium on commercial whaling. Since then, Japan, one of only three nations which hunt the so-called “great whales,” has begun whaling for science, claiming that the meat which they collect is sold only to offset the costs of their expeditions, and that their lethal and cruel approach (which really does involve exploding harpoons) is necessary to understand the animals. Not surprisingly, it’s an extremely controversial topic.
The game definitely argues its point well for the most part, and its message is bolstered by the fact that its production is fantastic and the actual gameplay is challenging and fun. If I had one qualm with it, it’s that the high scores list includes well-known scientists like Darwin, Einstein, Newton, and Sagan, implying that all science is somehow inhumane (or that these men would condone the mistreatment of animals).
It’s interesting to note that developer O’Kane hails from Australia, which is a staunch anti-whaling nation, and recently ruled Japanese whaling illegal. For more information on Japanese whaling, check out its Wikipedia page, as well as this BBC article (along with the links on the game’s website).
Posted in Highly Recommended, Shoot-em-ups, Social Impact, Windows, Freeware | Tags ConorOKane | 26 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Mon, 12 Nov 2007 16:52:00 GMT
FreeRice is a website that tests your vocabulary, and for every word you get right, its many sponsors (Apple, American Express, Macy’s, etc.) will donate 10 grains of rice to the The United Nations World Food Program. To date, the site has donated 1.3 billion grains of rice, and the rate at which rice donations are growing each day reminds me of the chessboard story.
I always jump at the chance to improve my vocabulary, and it’s nice to know it’s contributing to something good. It’s fun, too! The site automatically adjusts its level based on how many correct/incorrect guesses you make. You viviparous stentor, you.
And coming up next: World of FreeRiceCraft. 10 grains of rice for every goblin smashed. You heard it here first!
Posted in Highly Recommended, Browser Games, Social Impact, Casual | 36 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Wed, 07 Nov 2007 14:36:00 GMT
Changemakers is an initiative set up by Ashoka, an international network of “social entrepreneurs,” and one of the projects they’re working on is an online community that holds competitions to “surface the best social solutions, and then collaborates to refine, enrich, and implement those solutions.”
Recently, they held a competition called “Why Games Matter: A Prescription for Improving Health and Health Care,” which, unfortunately, is practically over (just got wind of it recently). But you can still check out the 14 finalists and 74 total entries. The winners will be announced tomorrow.
All competition finalists will win the opportunity to go to Baltimore, Maryland, in May 2008, to present their work at the Changemakers Change Summit held in conjunction with the RWJF-sponsored Games for Health Conference. Competition winners will receive a cash prize.
The finalists are pretty various, and include the previously covered Ayiti: The Cost of Life, and Persuasive Games’s Fatworld (depicted above in all its childboob glory). There’s also a series of mobile games to bring AIDS/HIV awareness to cellphone users in India. (As well as a massively multiplayer online Bollywood-themed dancing game WTF?)
I’m always interested in hearing about the application of games to areas other than entertainment! These kinds of initiatives warm my jaded game-maker’s heart. It still seems like there’s a lot of growing to do, however, before we start seeing some truly compelling “social games.”
Posted in Social Impact, Community, Developers, Competitions | 8 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Fri, 12 Oct 2007 05:00:00 GMT
From the title of the game, you might expect that you’re playing to stop the pedophile priests, but actually, you’re playing to cover up the sexual abuse of the horny paters. This, as you can imagine, changes things quite a bit.
Quote Ian Bogost:
Operation: Pedopriest is definitely disturbing to play, and the cartoony graphics do little to mitigate the how awful it all feels. Which isn’t a condemnation of the game itself, mind you – I’m quite certain this is the exact reaction developer Molleindustria was going for. It does make it quite a mixed bag of gaming peanuts, though – do I even WANT to win at this?
The game mechanics are quite simple, and involve clicking “eunuchs” around to distract adults and police officers while the clergy is molesting children. When things get really bad, you can airlift a priest out of there to go hide out in the Vatican. When a certain number of priests are arrested before the given time limit runs out, it’s game over.
You know, I just figured there wasn’t enough controversy on TIGSource…
(Source: Play This Thing!)
Posted in Browser Games, Social Impact, Casual, Windows | Tags Molleindustria | 87 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Wed, 03 Oct 2007 11:23:00 GMT
A 13-minute excerpt from Danny Ledonne’s upcoming documentary about his controversial game.
Uh oh?
(Source: Play This Thing!)
Posted in Social Impact, Community, Videos, Previews | Tags DannyLedonne | 44 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Wed, 19 Sep 2007 01:38:00 GMT
Created to introduce prospective students to the curriculum of Shibaura Institute of Technology, Grow Island is another fantastic addition to Eyezmaze’s Grow series of games. Um, wow, yeah – sign me up for the class where I pave a railroad in a giant robot!
As usual, a walkthrough is provided by the readers of Jay is Games!
Posted in Highly Recommended, Browser Games, Social Impact, Puzzle | Tags Eyezmaze | 6 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Mon, 16 Jul 2007 15:57:00 GMT
Real Lives is a “life simulator” that puts you in the shoes of someone, somewhere in the world. Who you are, where you’re born, and to who are based on real life statistics, as well as the random events that may happen to you. The interface is quite simple, the most prominent feature being a giant map in the center of the screen. Everything else is text and icons and buttons.
The most important button is the “Advance an Age” button, which you will be using to move forward in your life. As you get older, various choices and options will be presented to you – everything from schooling to finances to who you date and marry and have (or not have) children with. Of course, what you’re able to do depends heavily on where you start out, and at any moment tragedy can strike.
The game, as simple as it is, is incredibly compelling, and very sobering. In my first game, I was quite fortunate, having been born in a middle class family in Slovakia. I died at age 61 of rheumatoid arthritis as a well-to-do police captain with three healthy daughters. In my latest game, however, I’ve been born as a girl to an extremely poor family in rural China, and things are going to be difficult. Being beaten, raped, arrested, or contracting a fatal disease is not uncommon. It’s brutal.
As I said above, the game is based on real life statistics, and as you’re playing you can view those statistics as each event occurs. If you get food poisoning in Slovakia (as I did quite a few times), you can see statistics about what percentage of people like you living in Slovakia get food poisoning each year. The context in which the information is presented makes it so much less dry than if you read it in a periodical.
Real Lives works on a lot of levels: as a game, a simulation, and an educational tool. It also has the incredible potential to increase awareness and human empathy. So it wins pretty hard, all around!
The demo (available as a direct link from this Something Awful thread) is free to play for as long as you like, although if you want access to the character creator, you have to pay $25 for the registered version (via the first link). And here’s a thread I started on our forums for you to post your own “Real Lives.” Everyone should post their first!
(Source: Soldat Movies)
Posted in Highly Recommended, Social Impact, Windows, Sim | 38 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Thu, 24 May 2007 20:57:00 GMT
“Play it before you live it” is the mantra behind World Without Oil, an ARG (Alternate Reality Game) that simulates a world oil crisis. Users submit stories via text, audio, or video describing events unfolding during the pretend crisis, and the game’s admins rank users based on how well their content fits with the reality of the game.
An interesting idea that I’m sure is worth trying! It sounds like a lot of fun… crowd-sourcing a real-world problem through role-playing and creative writing.
(Source: GameSetWatch)
Posted in RPG, Unique / Bizarre, Browser Games, Social Impact, Sim | 19 comments
