As some of you might have noticed, protection of privacy and many civil rights are at stake in most western countries. To my knowledge this applies very much to Europe but probably also to North America (at least I get that impression from the news I notice about this issue). Also in many other countries most citizens have never enjoyed these kind of rights. This troubles me very much, and I figure a good way to make people aware of this would be making a game about it. The problem is, I'm a little out of ideas/can't decide on how the game should look. As yet I have two basic designs: - You start in an environment where heavy surveillance and a media controlled by the prominent political parties/powers is already well established. The player leads a group of activists which eventually abolishes surveillance, reinstates basic civil rights and installs an independent media. As soon as those three goals are accomplished the player wins the game. The player looses the game if he gets caught by intelligence service or the police. - You start in environment which looks like a modern western country and pursue your daily life as some kind of employee. Soon after the start of the game the player coincidentally finds out about a big scandal where the head of state is heavily involved. The goal of the game is to get this scandal published on some kind of mass media (newspaper, TV-show, etc.). The player has to cope with surveillance and media influenced by people who don't want this scandal to go public. Like in the other design, the game is lost if the player gets caught. I picture both designs as adventure games with a Fallout-like view, no character development and limited character abilities apart from talking to NPCs to keep the implementation simple and getting the game done in a reasonable time. So far I prefer the second design although I'm not sure If it isn't too difficult for the player to identify with this avatar. What do you think? It is important to me that the message of the game is very clear and not packed into metaphors or something like that. The game should show people how, if the loss of those rights continues, it could affect their very lives. I'm not sure I can really accomplish this with this kind of design. Maybe you even have an idea of a whole new concept? Thanks for your attention, Mike PS: It would be nice if a possible debate about the political issue itself could be led elsewhere.

Quote:Original post by mikesc
It is important to me that the message of the game is very clear and not packed into metaphors or something like that. The game should show people how, if the loss of those rights continues, it could affect their very lives.

A game won't convince people of anything. If that is your only goal, I think you're wasting your time. That said, I think you could make a good game based on this premise. I think that your second idea is more workable for a few reasons:

1. The first idea would require a lot of backstory at the begining for the player to know what is going on. While this is not a dealbreaker, it can make getting into the game harder for a new player.

2. It would be hard to make a game where you are fundamentaly changing how a government works by just talking to other characters. If you go this route, I think you will have a hard time making it seem like the player is really affecting the results, rather than just watch others do something.

3. If you really want to make people aware of issues in the real world, your game world needs to be as much like the real world as possible (which would be idea 2).

I'm always happy to see people interested in making adventure games (since its a bit of a forgotten genre), so good luck with whatever you decide to do.

-Tom

Try this little gem, Liberal Crime Squad.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/?p=506