Playing Politics workshop response

I inevitably ended up having a go at all four of the games put up, and i found that the most effective in terms of delivering the political message across to people via the videogame format was 'September 12' and ' New York Defender'. I came to this conclusion by trying to play each game without any biased- that is, without having read any of the notes linked to each game. The two games mentioned were easy to understand and the poignancy of the message they were putting forth was far more quickly established than that of the other two games.

The most engaging for me was ' New York Defender', and as i played the game and more and more planes kept flying towards the twin towers, i found myself getting more and more frantic, and actually felt my heart start to thump in my chest, faster and faster. It was almost as though the game had become real, like it was up to me to save the towers. It was a surreal experience because in all honesty, i have never been one to play videogames and have always thought they were dumb and pointless, but trying to shoot down those plans suddenly brought back the horrors of September 11. I remembered what i was doing when i found out about the situation watching in horror as the events unfolded throughout the day and seeing the now infamous footage of the planes hitting the towers and sending them crashing down. Prior to playing the game, i would never have believed that a videogame could have that powerful an impact on individuals in terms of delivering such a meaningful political message. With the ' Donkey John' game however, i personally didn't really feel convinced of the political message it was trying to put across and i don't think i would have bothered going further and doing any research to find out the actual meaning of the game.

Unfortunately, i am not political nor am i brainy or particularly imaginative or wearing my video game- creating hat so i can't really give a witty example on a politically- inspired videogame of my own.... sigh