Political Simulation Games: Melissa's Response

1. I think that Donkey John is effective in communicating with people to a certain extent. In exposing people to political issues it is helping to fight ignorance. However, I think it is likely that once players finish with the game they would not go out and try to find out more about the political situation. I think that the game is aimed at people who do not know much about political issues and while it may expose people to these issues, I think that most players would remain indifferent to the whole political situation.
I do not think that New York Defender was effective. The game offers people the opportunity to “go beyond your powerlessness and use your mouse to fight back” but it does not deliver on this promise. The game is unwinnable, so players are left feeling powerless. While this appears to be the intention of the creators, it does not really seem to be communicating a valuable message. Shuen-shing Lee argues that the unwinnable nature of the game forces people to think about the hopelessness of fighting terrorism. However, people would have felt hopeless before the game, so it does not offer anything new.

2. The political nature of both games was immediately obvious, but the political message that the creators were trying to get across was only obvious once you played (and lost in the case of New York Defender) the game. I think that both games effectively drew people in to discover their respective messages. Being games, they would interest people in a way that articles on the same issues could not, because they offer something interactive and fun. In the case of Donkey John, the caricature of John Howard would also serve to draw people in and in the case of New York Defender, the media hype surrounding the September 11 attacks would have made this game appealing.

3. The point that my game would be trying to make is that the Australian government is trying to keep refugees out of Australia at all costs. To make my point the game would begin with a little caption coming up explaining how you had seen your family die around you, so you sold everything you had to get a boat ride to Australia. Then the game would start. Basically you have to move your boat towards Australian waters (there would be a line representing the divide between Australian and foreign waters and the line would slowly move further and further away and there would also be moving obstacles – sharks, patrol boats). It would be very difficult to get to Australian waters but if you make it, you would immediately be caught by a patrol boat and a caption would come up saying that you will now be sent to an Australian detention centre for an indefinite period.
It is based on the same sort of premise as New York Defender where the unwinnable nature of the game makes the player contemplate deeper political issues.