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Flash Games as Political Commentary

Posted by michael on from the subtlety-unnecessary dept.

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.

4 of 215 comments (clear)

  1. Watch those links by sandbenders · · Score: 5, Informative

    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*.

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    Eagles may fly, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.
  2. Good Lord by El_Smack · · Score: 5, Funny


    Someone, somewhere has cloned Jon Katz.

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    There are 01 kinds of cars in the world. The General Lee, and everything else.
  3. One social commentary game... by Chagatai · · Score: 5, Funny
    that has grabbed my attention is Dance Dance Karnov. This game has changed the way I think about fat, naked, Russian, ex-carnival persons in our society. For example, what is the impetus of having large sweaty men wear tassles on their nipples? How would the size of a mutant Godzilla-fish thing impact the stock market? This requires further analysis.

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    --Chag
  4. Analogy by Orne · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Printing Press is to Newspaper as Flash SDK is to Flash Program
    In my humble opinion, it's just another method of providing content to a viewer. Not everything printed in on paper is protected speach, just as not everything found on the internet is protected.

    Suppose I make a game where the goal is to go around shooting politicians; its just as poor taste if I decided to print "paper dolls" of the pol's along with text encouraging you to cut them into pieces. What is the point that you are trying to make in either case?

    But, suppose I wrote a game called "Fur Fighters" where the object is to throw cans of paint on people wearing furs? Thats much more aligned with a political message...

    In short, its not the delivery medium that matters, it all comes down to the value of the content.