« | Main | wim delvoye »
October 09, 2007
Darfur is dying
I wasnt really sure what the point of this game was. the only experience that i came away with after and during playing darfur is dying is that i felt like the game trivialized and degraded the situation in Darfur. I thought that the idea of being able to go fetch water and constantly getting caught but it doesnt really seem to matter because you just pick a new person or start the game over again. I just think that informing people about issues like this one maybe should be done in a different format. I dont think that anyone is closer to the experience by playing this game in fact i think that people are possibly more distant simply because the experience becomes about the game as opposed to informing people. maybe the internet in general, a place where thousands of games like this one can come to be and be played by millions is not an adequate replacement for people really informing themselves about issues in a way that makes them feel connected and sympathetic. This is not to say that the internet is not full of valuable resources that do so and after all technology is the means by which the masses get their information but there is something about the ease with which someone can create a game like this one. maybe we just need to be more selective with what we stop and spend our time on while surfing the internet or maybe games like this really do inform to some extent but in this case to me it seemed to be a new level of disconnect and a serious lack of respect and sensitivity.
Posted by elihazle at October 9, 2007 12:13 AM