Slashdot Mirror
Flash Games as Political Commentary
Clive Thompson writes "All over the net, there are little shockwave games inspired by political events -- from the WTO-style New York Defender to War on Terrorism to even Downing Street Fighter (where British politicians beat each other senseless, Street-Fighter-Style). Sure, like most Shockwave-generated stuff, they may suck as games. But that's missing the point. What's happening here is nothing less than the emergence of the online video game as a form of social comment -- something you dash off in a couple of hours to make a sardonic political point about something. It's a new notepad for communication. Or at least, that's what I argued in this piece in Slate today. In addition to the craven self-promotion of sending it in to Slashdot, I'm interested in hearing what everyone thinks of this issue. After all, courts have recently been arguing that video games cannot be protected speech; these games make it patently obvious that this view is insane." The columnist missed a better example of the genre - the EFF's game of digital restrictions management.
Ummm, I clicked the 'War on Terrorism' link- I might have gotten the game- I don't know because I restarted my machine to expedite the closing of about half a dozen adult site popups. Can we check these out before our friends who might be reading from work stumble into them? I know better than to click on a link in a post, but this was *in the article*.
Eagles may fly, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.
Isn't a sign of the times... and of our continuing infantilism that our political views are expressed through games?
No.
It is no more infantile than scratching crude pictures on paper mocking politicians or political events.
We call those political cartoons, and they are a venerated way of making exactly the same kinds of sardonic, and sometime crass, criticisms of public policies and public politicians. The flash games described here are exactly the same thing, printed in a new medium (the interactive internet as opposed to the passive, one-way old media).
Games and programming in general are obviously speech deserving of "at least the same protections as the print media" to paraphrase the supreme court's opinion in their ruling which overturned the SCA. Things like this are invaluable in driving that point home in terms even non-tech savvy, but non-whored-out-to-the-media-cartels judges can understand. In other words, it won't sway Kaplan, but it will likely sway the supreme court, and it is there opinions which count.
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
Been noticing that over at SF Gate with Mark Fiore's stuff. Heavy handed political cartoonist whose pieces are often presented in a flash game format.
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