Serious Game: Dafur is Dying
polycounter lvl 18
Heard about this on the radio today.
I know a few of us here (like Elysium) who are interested in expanding what our medium is about would be interested in this.
http://www.darfurisdying.com/
Done by Susan Reese of the MFA in Interactive Art of USocal. (The type of program I want to go to). She explicity states about using the interactive medium to get messages and education to a wide audience.
I know a few of us here (like Elysium) who are interested in expanding what our medium is about would be interested in this.
http://www.darfurisdying.com/
Done by Susan Reese of the MFA in Interactive Art of USocal. (The type of program I want to go to). She explicity states about using the interactive medium to get messages and education to a wide audience.
Replies
regardless, there is a definite role that games like these could play. the trouble is that, much like such appeals in other media, such as films or literature, delivering the message effectively is a very, very tricky line to walk. we have enough trouble with making games for games' sake relevant in our culture, though that's changing fast with more people having grown up playing games. but a game like Darfur is Dying still faces all the problems and design challenges of a normal game (which are often more than a developer can effectively surmount) in addition to driving home an important point without being overbearing, or without trivializing matters.
the fairly simple presentation of this flash game does a fairly decent job, actually. the first two kids i tried to run for water with ended up getting captured. When their images are ghosted out of the selection screen, it's more than a little creepy, as it should be--these simple characters are in a game, yes, but they are representative of real people, really meeting their demise.
I ended up doing a successful water run with Sittina, which was tough, since once you get overcome the weird choice of player guidance, the trip back to the village is toward the bottom and to the right of your screen, making your run for cover completely blind. it can be argued that some of the design oversights enhance the feeling of futility and possible identification of the plight of people living in Darfur... but I don't think that's likely to cross the mind if the game is shoddy. Not that this one is--all things considered, it's pretty decent at conveying what it intends to.
i think it drives home the point that you're going to need to have a good game first, or people just aren't going to stick around for the message. much like message films have an uphill climb ahead of them: they've got to be both informative but also well-made films to keep peoples' interests.
so anyhow, i think it's an intriguing and obviously worthwhile area worth exploring. i'd be keen on seeing if a more involved game where the player might develop a real sense of identification with a Darfur refugee, because that's really at the core of this issue. people don't care, or at least don't care enough to help, because all those suffering people "over there" just seem human enough. the task is to provide a compelling, humanizing experience.
>Games< have to be fun.
I would argue games simply need to be engaging. How that engagement works, and the target audience are what is crucial. Which would play into the overbearing or not- the target audience may not see it as overbearing, while another audience would not. In other words especially with this medium it can't be all things for all people. The divesity in "serious" games are and will be much more diversified than the simply "lets have a blast".
well anyhow, what i was going to say is that yes, you're right. poor choice of words on my part, by "fun" i mean whatever makes for a good game, whatever positive qualities you would ascribe to "good," as in, well-designed. not pertaining to subjective metrics of "fun".
a Serious game, even moreso than any ol' normal game, ought to have a good interface and well engineered dynamics/controls/etc. because say in the case of Darfur is Dying, it's a game first, and a message second. if nobody plays the game, then they're not going to get the message. that's all i mean--there are lots of different possibilities with the burgeoning field of serious game development, but in many cases, additional burdens and considerations as well.
like in this case, it's obviously a well considered call to awareness about a horrible situation in a part of the world... so presentation becomes very important. i think they've done a great job with it, but it could be easy to make the wrong choices and make a game that is possibly insensitive or seemingly exploitative or offensive... there are some ways to really get it right, but many, many more ways to get it wrong.
on a side note, you said it yourself--this is the kind of thing you said you've wanted to do, ultimately--use interactive format to do something different, deliver a different experience. here's a game that just does that, and while i concede it is obviously well-considered game, it isn't of a greater complexity than your average Newgrounds flash game... what's stopping you from investigating this sort of route specifically?
Sides, I wanna use the 3d systems like the cave system (in example) or that new "human gerbil ball" idea. The people who have used it for art thus far have had no 3d background, and it shows in the works. Awesome concepts, poorly made though. Thats why knowing 3d is soo important.
http://cave.ncsa.uiuc.edu/about.html
If a game set out to have a point and I picked it up for that reason - I wouldn't mind but if I was playing a game and all of a sudden I was given a moral story on how people have to live like this, I'd be pretty pissed off. It's how its done. If its all there the basis of the game and they admit it - its cool with me. But sneaking it in, not cool. The thing for me is, I go into games just wanting a fun experience - not a moral guideline. Saying that I don't just like shooting for the sake of it - I like structure now matter how simple it is (Serious Sam vs Max Payne for instance).
Edit: A big problem is funding. They need these games to be simple as possible to keep the limit funding down and get the funding to the people. People really don't want to pay to play these kind of moral messages just like you wouldn't pay for the TV advertisement on DVD or Video. So to get the message across you want ti to be seen by as many people as possible with such limited funding.