I'd like to comment really quickly about my inability to keep a Haitian family of 5 alive. I'm really incredibly bad at survival, even when (especially when) survival is simulated into an internet flash game made by UNICEF. Ayiti: The Cost of Life (hat tip: Peter Lu's note) is this little internet flash game made by UNICEF and Co., and has been acclaimed as one of the best political web games of the year. Peter quoted Slate.com to explain the game, and shamelessly, so will I,
"Ayiti: The Cost Of Life makes the Oregon Trail look like Candy Land.
The game puts you in control of the lives of a Haitian family of five.
You have four years to guide the family through a catalog of privations
and calamities: hurricanes, robbers, depression, illiteracy, and
on-the-job injuries. Ideally, you'll find education, prosperity, and
health, but you'll probably just come down with malaria and die."
It's a hard game. It's a really hard game. Then again, being a Haitian family of 5 is a really hard life. And moving away from the "I'm a privileged know-it-all piece of shit who thinks he can recreate the struggles of a family in a 30 minute webgame" thing, it really does kinda make you more aware about the struggles of other peoples around the globe.
For Devil's Advocate, there are some things in this game I kinda find troubling. For example, there's a very specific strategy to winning this game for the Haitian family of 5. Clue: it involves supporting UNICEF. Suggesting that for every Haitian family of 5 out there, there is a very specific strategy for their lives. Clue: It involves supporting UNICEF. Or something I definitely find troubling, (and this is kinda a strategy spoiler) one of the game's main political messages is that all you really need is determination, and a library full of books, to win (at life). I'm going to take a leap of faith and say that 1) A series of mouse-clicks does not even closely represent how hard it is to find the determination and materials to study on your own while working in Haiti and 2) Determination and a Library kinda seems like an oversimplification to succeeding at life.
HOWEVER, I still think this game is a really great idea, and is really too addictive for me not to beat now so it won't haunt me for the rest of Winter Quarter and destroy my grades and my life. And after I beat the game, yes, yes I do think I will make a charitable, tax-deductible donation to UNICEF to bring libraries, and farming resources to countries like Haiti and families much like those I played in the game.
Because if seeing my family die 4 or 5 times won't haunt my dreams, well, then maybe dreams aren't for me.
Fig 1.1 Jean, Marie, Patrick, Jacquline, and Yves Just Try To Survive in Ayiti: The Cost of Life
I've killed them, what? 4, 5, 6 times now? Shit.
"Ayiti: The Cost Of Life makes the Oregon Trail look like Candy Land.
The game puts you in control of the lives of a Haitian family of five.
You have four years to guide the family through a catalog of privations
and calamities: hurricanes, robbers, depression, illiteracy, and
on-the-job injuries. Ideally, you'll find education, prosperity, and
health, but you'll probably just come down with malaria and die."
It's a hard game. It's a really hard game. Then again, being a Haitian family of 5 is a really hard life. And moving away from the "I'm a privileged know-it-all piece of shit who thinks he can recreate the struggles of a family in a 30 minute webgame" thing, it really does kinda make you more aware about the struggles of other peoples around the globe.
For Devil's Advocate, there are some things in this game I kinda find troubling. For example, there's a very specific strategy to winning this game for the Haitian family of 5. Clue: it involves supporting UNICEF. Suggesting that for every Haitian family of 5 out there, there is a very specific strategy for their lives. Clue: It involves supporting UNICEF. Or something I definitely find troubling, (and this is kinda a strategy spoiler) one of the game's main political messages is that all you really need is determination, and a library full of books, to win (at life). I'm going to take a leap of faith and say that 1) A series of mouse-clicks does not even closely represent how hard it is to find the determination and materials to study on your own while working in Haiti and 2) Determination and a Library kinda seems like an oversimplification to succeeding at life.
HOWEVER, I still think this game is a really great idea, and is really too addictive for me not to beat now so it won't haunt me for the rest of Winter Quarter and destroy my grades and my life. And after I beat the game, yes, yes I do think I will make a charitable, tax-deductible donation to UNICEF to bring libraries, and farming resources to countries like Haiti and families much like those I played in the game.
Because if seeing my family die 4 or 5 times won't haunt my dreams, well, then maybe dreams aren't for me.
Fig 1.1 Jean, Marie, Patrick, Jacquline, and Yves Just Try To Survive in Ayiti: The Cost of Life
I've killed them, what? 4, 5, 6 times now? Shit.
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