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Social Impact Games

Posted by Zonk on from the game-your-homework dept.

TeachingMachines writes "If you are interested in the cultural potential of gaming you might want to check out Social Impact Games. It's a site that catalogs links to over 200 games that are entertaining but not necessarily designed for the purpose of entertainment. For example, the Monkey Wrench Conspiracy is a first-person shooter game designed to teach mechanical design engineers to use 3-D CAD software. A game titled Incident Commander will model situations that include acts of terrorism, school hostage crises, and natural disasters."

2 of 21 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Social Impact, eh? by KDR_11k · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This game sucks as far as gameplay goes, the story is absolutely ridiculous and the propaganda is thinly veiled. And I'm not even a Bush supporter!

    Seriously, if you want to make a game to get a message out, good, but please make sure the game part deserves its name! I'm not going to play a crap game, no matter how much it's trying to teach me.

    --
    Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
  2. Ultima IV was disqualified, I guess by YetAnotherName · · Score: 4, Insightful

    There's a surprising number of games listed on that site, but no Ultima IV, apparently because its first goal was to entertain and not enlighten/educate/etc.. However, a large number of players took to heart the system of virtues expounded in the game; even to this day I evaluate myself as "high in compassion" but "lacking in spirituality." Social impact? A lot of pimply-faced youths were at least exposed to the concept of virtue and its value to civilization.

    (Incidentally, Ultima IV fans may wish to check out the remake projecet.)