As I was not really convinced by the online games I found so far, I decided to play one of the so called "Serious Games", i.e. games that deal with topics like poverty, economic development, living conditions etc.. Usually they are designed as role play games in order to draw you in and make you feel responsible. I came across a game on Haiti. It was important for me to learn about the organizers/producers of the game first: It was created by (U.S. High School) students working with Global Kids - "Global Kids has established itself as an innovative leader in using online games to promote global awareness and engaged citizenship." - aha - and "Global Kids’ gaming programs are made possible through collaborative relationships with the game design company Gamelab, UNICEF, and TakingITGlobal, among others(...)" - I decided to settle for this information for the time being and started to play. The game's named Ayiti: The Cost of Life ( http://www.unicef.org/voy/explore/rights/explore_3142.html ) and in no time I was with the Guinard family, trying to make ends meet in rural Haiti- being poor, uneducated, jobless and in an already shaky state of health! "You have 4 years to help the family" it read and I was wondering if this was a reasonable time span - even more so regarding the far-reaching consequences of my decisions: "If the whole family is dead, you lose." Considering the assumed target group, school children, I thought that might be quite tough on them.
Speaking for myself, after 20 minutes of playing I was in a terrible mood: "My" family had lost a son (cholera), I couldn't manage to pay for either school uniforms or school fees and the rest of the family was seriously ill as well. But I must say, despite the mercilessness of the situation, I value the attempt to create empathy by making gamers understand these kind of vicious circles.
Other issues I thought worthwhile to reflect upon would be the question of the assignment of roles (helper vs. victim etc.); authenticity (here and there you will find phrases in Haitian Creole like "Bon chans!" or "Sa k pase?" or some real life photos - is this enough ?).
Andrée