Friday 11 November 2005

Serious Game for a Serious Problem

800 million people are in hunger NOW. The world is spending 900 Billion dollars a year in arms, if less than 6% of that (50 Billion) is used in helping the needed, these 800 million people need not die because of hunger or hunger related illness.

Yesterday, I wrote about the sub-100 laptops. Such program will help the poor by giving them the tool to create wealth. But the effect will be long term. It does not mean that it is not worth-doing. In fact, it DOES.

However, before the biological needs are satisfied, any higher level desire does not matter. When people struggle to find the food for the day, it will be unthinkable for these people to think how to build a future. Without food, the future is NOT there!

Postcard From The Serious Games Summit: How the United Nations Fights Hunger with Food Force describes a game for 8 to 13,

Structured as a race against time in the fictional country of Sheylan, the game is divided into six missions that fairly accurately represent what the WFP [World Food Programme] does in the real world, despite its fictional setting. The six missions are:

1. Air surveillance
2. Food formulation
3. Food acquisition – buying and selling food
4. Air drops from helicopters
5. Ground missions involving driving trucks through sometimes hostile territories
6. Future farming – establishing self-sufficiency


The game is a fairly large download (about 200M) available for both Windows and Mac, and it is free. Once downloaded, you can put the file on a CD and give it to your friends. So go ahead, help distribute this wonderful game. Meanwhile here is a trailer to give you a taste of what this game is about.

There are teaching resources in the website too. Don't miss them.

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