Playing with rice bags, white cells or self-esteem

Submitted by tonyplant on December 31, 2005 - 17:04.

Amazon.com has just had its best ever season, but its biggest sellers were iPods and video games rather than books. Depending on whether or not you have ever stayed up all night to watch lemmings self-destruct or to attain a new level of gun-skill, games are to be decried as rotting the brains of The Young or promoted for developing problem-solving skills, particularly in the educational field.

 

What’s unusual about recent releases is the popularity of games with a social purpose or a personal-development slant. There are commercial offerings like The Journey to Wild Divine that use bio-feedback to help the player evolve through the levels until you attain the perfection of the Dalai Lama. However, there are some similarly aspirational free computer games on offer.

The United Nations World Food Program commissioned a game that was intended to teach children something about global hunger. Food Force had a low-key release at a children's book fair in Bologna. Food Force develops awareness that one person dies of hunger every five seconds. Despite this unpromising premise, Food Force has become a cult sensation, with so many download requests that the website kept collapsing under the volume of hits.

Unusally, despite being set on an island ravaged by the twin evils of drought and civil war, no-one blows anyone away in Food Force. Rebels are to be negotiated with, not used as target practice. Players participate in a number of missions, ranging from food drops to rebuilding a community.

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