Playing politics: Workshop response

1) I think that political stimulation games do have a great potential to be effective communicators namely because of the immense reach of the internet as well as its uncensored nature. For me, Kabul Kaboom was more effective than the New York defender. Playing the New York defender, it just seemed like a really hard game, and one that looks so simple that initially really believe that you can score pretty well on. I just had to keep on trying, it was only when I read the ‘I lose, therefore I think’ article that I realized that the planes increased exponentially according to how many I shoot, and more importantly that the game was designed so that the player will fail. Kabul Kaboom on the other hand brought the message across both effectively and efficiently, it wasn’t a hard game, it was an impossible game, and in an instant you grasp the gravity and insanity of the situation. I think Kabul Kaboom was a lot better at relaying the message.

2) As mentioned above, I think that Kabul Kaboom’s message was a lot more clear and obvious than the New York defender. As to whether or not I would be driven to find out what the game was trying to say, I think that Kabul Kaboom would stir my interest more than the New York defender. Maybe because I’m part of this course, I am already biased, but I keep thinking that if I asked my brother or sister to play the New York defender, they’d just play it, get frustrated, and move on. With Kabul Kaboom, the lines ‘kids remember you can’t win, just lose’ on the opening page already stirs your interest, I can see my brother asking around as to what the game means after that one.

3) For a game, my message would be that of Bush's weapons of mass destruction excuse for the war on iraq and his sights on iraq's oil. I'd use a pac-man game, with Bush as pac man who has to acquire oil barrels (instead of the usual cherrys pac-man has to eat) from the Iraqi soldiers (the monsters who try to eat pac-man). Pac-man would use his own weapons of mass destruction to stun the Iraqi soldiers allowing him to be momentarily immune to their 'bite'. Because he is president and all, he has an unlimited supply of these (instead of the usual 3 or 4...i can't really remember). Admitedly, its not the best game concept, but most of the time, i can just barely play these games competently (except for pac-man). ideally, a clever description and tagline as in that of Kabul Kaboom would be on an opening page, which would help to bring the message of the game across as well.