[-empyre-] Alternate Realities, Simulated Risks: Games, Politics, Action

[Ulises A. Mejias]

Dear all,

My name is Ulises Mejias, and I am one of the people invited to post to empyre this month (for more info about me, you can check out my web site).

I understand that a recent thread in empyre had to do with video games (I had not joined the list at the time, so I am not aware of what exactly was discussed). I recently curated a series of "serious" or nonfiction video games (games with a social message that seek to educate and mobilize, not just entertain) for the Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival. Below I am pasting some sections from the essay I wrote for the festival in the hope of starting a discussion.

Regards, 

-Ulises

******************

Jesper Juul argues that to play a video game
      is to interact with real rules in an unreal (fictional) world. But if serious games focus on the real
      world—not an imagined one—what exactly are their rules simulating, if not the ways in which
      the real world works?
Congruent with all other forms of media, video games are machines of subjectification. They shape our      identities by providing us with a framework for making sense of the world. Video games—serious or      not so serious—are particularly effective machines of subjectification because they completely      occupy our brains with a framework constituted by rules: rules to win the game. Video and computer      games are indeed a cognitive workout, leaving little brainpower available for thinking outside these      rules.        
       What makes serious games particularly interesting? Instead of disguising their epistemological
      framework behind an imagined world, they explicitly suggest that the logic we apply during play is the
      same logic we should mobilize for promoting social change.
    
    
       In a game like the UN’s Stop Disasters, the solution to saving third world people involves the
      application of techniques such as needs assessment, risk management, resource allocation, and the
      maximizing of efficiency. The first-person shooter gives way to the first-person do-gooder, armed with
      weapons of mass management.
    
    
       But where is the opportunity before, during, or after the game to critique the ideology behind the
      techniques applied to solve the puzzle of global misery? Or to be conscious of one’s own
      privileged position as a player and the accompanying compulsion to do good?
Can video games be used to advance a social cause? If simulations capture everything but the risk, what lessons are we learning by experimenting with      social change in the risk-free environments of serious games and alternate realities? Isn’t the      ability to experience the consequences of our actions a fundamental part of an authentic learning      experience? At a time when individualized consumerism sublimates the thrill of collectivity in      virtually every interface, media form, and interaction, do serious games (often played in isolation,      even if it is a networked isolation) further dilute our capacity for collective action in the      world? Do serious games merely offer a new form of disenfranchisement from real political engagement?      Or are serious games a serious step towards reframing collective action as attractive—and      meaningful?



Here are the nonfiction games I curated for FLEFF:

    
           Homeless: It’s No Game
       www.homelessgame.net
       You’re homeless and alone. Can you survive on the city streets for 24 hours with your dignity      intact?    
           Karma Tycoon
       www.karmatycoon.com
       Learn what it takes to be a social entrepreneur, and maximize karma, not profit, while improving      conditions in virtual communities across the United States.    
           McDonald’s Video Game
       www.mcvideogame.com
       A business simulation that aims to demonstrate the social and environmental unsustainability of the      fast-food industry.    
           Fatworld
       www.fatworld.org
       A video game about the politics of nutrition. Explore the relationships between obesity, nutrition,      and socioeconomics in the contemporary United States.    
           Stop Disasters!
       www.stopdisastersgame.org/en
       A disaster simulation game from the United Nations and the International Strategy for Disaster      Reduction, this game challenges players to create a safer environment for a population.    
           Food Force
       www.food-force.com
       This humanitarian educational video game focuses on the subject of world hunger and the work that goes      into feeding people.    
           Peace Maker
       www.peacemakergame.com
       Inspired by real events in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, this games challenges players to bring      peace to the region.    
           World without Oil
       www.worldwithoutoil.org
       This is an alternate reality game (ARG) that involves the collaborative imagining of how a global oil      crisis might actually pan out.    


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