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a forum for the uses of videogames in advertising, politics, education, and other everyday activities, outside the sphere of entertainment
ABOUT About This Site - RSS Feed Ian Bogost (editor) Gonzalo Frasca (editor emeritus) SPONSORS
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Israeli Anti-Settlement Game June 17, 2005 - by Ian Bogost
In the game, the player acts as a sheriff tasked with dismantling illegal settlement outposts before they get turned into fully-fledged settlements ringed by Israeli soldiers. As soldiers are taken away from the occupied territories, they greet their return to Israel with a "yeah". But as more and more settlements and roads appear, the Palestinians who populate the playing area become boxed in. At the end of play, a message reads: "Thousands of Israelis and Palestinianians have lost their lives as a result of the occupation. The occupation is not a game."
Zach over at Academic Gamers has also posted a detailed impression of the game. The game play is simple and the visuals are both stark and cartoonish, setting up an effective juxtaposition between the effort of play and the subject at hand, and offering an effective way to caricature the settlers, soldiers, and Palestinians. As Zach points out, the gameplay is essentially whack-a-mole. As Paulo pointed out to Gonzalo and me, the game seems to use what we often call the rhetoric of failure. You don't seem to be able to win the game, perhaps underscoring the gravity of the problem in the region. Gonzalo's Newsgaming.com game September 12 also employed a rhetoric of failure of sorts, and some people thought Madrid did as well, although that wasn't the case. The game was created by a coalition of organizations calling themselves Back to Israel. They describe the goal of the game to be raised awareness about continued construction in the West Bank, and advocacy to persuade Israeli's to support dismantling settlements. According to the creators, the game has had 45,000 plays in the last four days. It is a simple game but I think an important one. (thanks to Michael Rand and Paolo and others who pointed this out) Comment from Gron on July 26, 2005
I'm sure a media empire with repeated and proven anti-Israel record such as the BBC should be the prime source to quote when you're talking about a site in Hebrew you don't understand. Comment from Ian Bogost on July 27, 2005
Gron -- we'd welcome your clarifications if you care to share them. The BBC article was simply the only one I could find. POST A COMMENT
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