Playing Politics Workshop Response

1. Do you think the political simulation games you examined would have been "effective" in communicating with people via the Internet?

I played "Donkey John" and "Kabul Kaboom". Both are effective in communicating with people via the Internet. "Donkey John" requires the player to act as "Xanana Gusmario" and beat "Donkey John" (Howard) before John can take all of East Timor's oil resoucres for Australia. Players have to jump stolen barrels of oil and defeat John. The game presents John Howard as a monkey (and thereofre not very bright) and a bully, taking from the little guy to give to the bigger guy. Assuming this game was made by an Australian, the game is effective in showing that not all Australians agree with the government's policies. Putting the game on the Internet, too, is an effective tool for communication, since it's infinitely cheaper than producing the game in a tangible, "real" format.

"Kabul Kaboom" to presents a view different to those we typically hear in the media. The player becomes an Iraqi in Kabul, and has to dodge American missiles in order to get to the "nice American food". You can't win the game, only lose, which makes a very explicit statement about how the creators of the game see the war in Iraq, which differs to the views of John Howard and George W. Bush, who think we will "win" the "war on terrorism".

2. Was the political message underpinning the political simulation games you examined immediately obvious? If not, were you driven or interested to find out what the game was trying to "say"?

Yes, the message was obvious in both cases, cringingly so in "Kabul Kaboom". I was driven to find out more in the case of "Donkey John", probably because I already have some knowledge of the issue, and because a link to more information (timorseajustice.org/background) was provided. There also seems to be less dissent about the East Timor oil issue than the war in Iraq, so I don't feel that it has all been said before, as I do in the case of the war.

3. If you had to write a political simulation game similar in size and structure to those you examined, (a) what would be the point you were trying to make and (b) how would the game be structured and operate in order to make that point?

Ha. I think I'd make a very subtle game about convincing people to vote Labor. You'd have to convince the stick figure people on your screen to vote Labor by trying to click on them as they move around. At the same time, you're playing against the computer, which tries to convince people to vote Liberal. The amount of people left to convince gets smaller and smaller. If you beat the computer, and convince more people to vote Labor, then you get to pay less for your education, have access to better healthcare, and you don't have to move to Sweden!