As Everyone Else has blogged, newsgaming.com has launched, starting with their game September 12th.
Newsgaming.com, headed by Gonzalo Frasca, editor of Ludology.org, looks to use games as an explicitly critical tool.
I haven’t had a chance to play September 12th, but the premise calls to mind the critical game version by Natalie Bookchin of Borges’ The Intruder. Bookchin’s game only allows the player to progress by doing harmful things to the female avatar on screen (dropping her into manholes rather than allowing her to leap over them, for example). The player implicates him/herself in the demise of the woman in Borges story, sealing her fate as the player must shoot at her from a helicopter in order to finish the tale. A really amazing use of a game to provide a critical reading of a story…
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Strange game . . . the only way to win is
not
to
play.
If it were only that easy, eh?
Yes, well . . . I was thinking of _Wargames_:
“Wouldn’t you prefer a nice game of chess?”
Argh. I hate when I miss hacker movie references. *sigh*
Clearly a screening is in order.