| abstract | Contemporary computer games are increasingly used not only to entertain people, but
also to “educate, train, and inform” them. Refugee games belong to these so-called “serious
games”: they are serious games that frame refugee issues by letting the player taste life as
a refugee. Refugee games not only have the potential to convince players of the veracity of
a certain point of view or the necessity of a behavioural change; they also help non-profit
organisations such as the United Nations, and commercial enterprises such as Reebok and
the music channel MTV, to reinvent activism for the internet generation. In the last few
years, serious games have addressed all kinds of political problems. The United Nations,
mtvU and Unicef, for example, have launched Against All Odds (2005), Food Force (2005),
Darfur is Dying (2005), Cool Chain Game (2004) and What Would You Do? (2006) as
educational tools for teaching people about the lives of refugees, famine, the genocide in
Darfur, vaccination and HIV/AIDS. |
