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September 19, 2003
Social Commentary in Games
A session back at <a href="http://www.igda.org/blogs/realitypanic/archives/000030.html">SIGGRAPH this summer</a> on mods/art really opened my eyes to some of the really cool stuff being done with games, by artists. Part of that session's look at mods was their ability to serve as an outlet of artistic expression (as opposed to just coding up new weapons and levels). One of the mods talked about was the infamous (and sorely misunderstood) <a href="http://www.selectparks.net/911survivor/index.html">9/11 Survivor piece</a>...
Spurred by a <a href="http://www.igda.org/Forums/showthread.php?threadid=6711">recent post</a> in the IGDA forums by a guy doing a survey on games as social commentary (whom, at this very moment, I realized is the same guy who put up a <a href="http://www.intelligentagent.com/archive/Vol3_No2_gaming_fajardo.html">paper on his Mexican immagration games</a>, which was referenced in this <a href="http://www.buzzcut.com/article.php?story=20030918152841486">Buzzcut posting</a>), I started noticing a certain level of awareness building...
For example, there's an interesting piece at the BBC looking at the <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3201221.stm">politics of Elixir's recently released Republic: The Revolution</a>. Also, the NY Times has a piece exploring <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/17/arts/design/17GAME.html?8br">mods as a reflection of reality</a>. Then we have the hint at Ludology.org of their project of <a href="http://ludology.org/article.php?story=20030916075933908">news inspired game sims</a>.
<a href="http://www.milgramreenactment.org/powerup/pages/prog_index.html">Not that social commentary in games hasn't been explored already</a>, but it is nice to see some further momentum building. Imagine when games/mods are as easy to create as picking up a DV cam...
Posted by della at September 19, 2003 01:01 AM
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» Some Quickies from The Organization
Art Spiegelman (Maus) shunned by US Media. Gah. So depressing. More evidence that games are being used for more then straight entertainment. Actually moving into the realm of social and political commentary. If nothing else games like 9-11 survivor cau... [Read More]
Tracked on September 19, 2003 12:14 PM