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It's the UN World Hunger Video Game!
Posted: 2004-08-16 10:38am
by Mayabird
The latest in edutainment. I kid thee not.
From the Beeb
UN creates game to tackle hunger
By Alfred Hermida
BBC News Online technology editor
Make your way past rebel checkpoints to deliver food
A forthcoming video game aims to teach children about global hunger.
Food Force is the brainchild of the World Food Programme (WFP), which last year fed more than 100 million people.
The UN body seeks to capitalise on the popularity of video games to educate youngsters about hunger and the work of the aid agency.
The game is due to be released later this year for the PC and Mac, and will initially only be available in the US as a free CD or download from the net.
Mission critical
Food Force is being developed by Deepend, a computer design studio based in Rome, and game developers Playerthree in London.
"The game itself is somewhere between a game like Tomb Raider and a lecture from the WFP," explained the game's designer, Mike Harrison.
"It starts with a short movie that explains a crisis in an imaginary country due to drought and civil war, two of the main reasons for people being hungry in the world," he told the BBC programme, Go Digital.
The challenge for players is to complete a series of missions, guided by a team of WFP characters.
The missions range from dropping food parcels from the air to a Sim City type game where players use food aid to rebuild the country's economy.
But there is more to the game than just fun. At the end of each mission, players are shown a short video explaining how the aid agency would have dealt with the situation.
Children can also compare their scores with other players across the world on the Food Force website.
Free for all
The people behind the game are confident that it will be a hit with the target audience of children aged between eight and 13 years old.
"We did a number of testing sessions here in Rome with different age groups and the response has been very good," said Mr Harrison.
"From the feedback sessions we had, the kids are remembering 75% of the information about what the WFP do."
Food Force will be free, either as a CD or as a download from the internet. The WFP is also looking at distributing it in schools as an educational tool.
Initially the game for the PC and Mac will only be available in the US.
It even has a trailer.
Posted: 2004-08-16 10:43am
by General Zod
. . . .you've gotta be shitting me, right? this is even more sad than the noah's ark shooter they had using the wolfenstein engine for the SNES. . . .yes, they really did make a shooter game based on noah's ark.
Posted: 2004-08-16 10:56am
by Keevan_Colton
Darth_Zod wrote:. . . .you've gotta be shitting me, right? this is even more sad than the noah's ark shooter they had using the wolfenstein engine for the SNES. . . .yes, they really did make a shooter game based on noah's ark.
Gib two of every animal?
Posted: 2004-08-16 10:59am
by Ghost Rider
Still this like many a Jesus/Moses/Angel game will fail simply because...well it's likely not entertaining...and lectures the kids.
Yeah like kids don't get enough of this as is.
They need to make an FPS wherein one can smite the heathens, y'know old testament stuff...and then insert subliminal messages about Jesus is your God!!!.
That at least would be a step in the right direction.
Posted: 2004-08-16 11:02am
by Keevan_Colton
Hm, you know...I do wonder how close to reality the game will be.
Will you, for example, be able to trade sexual favours for food between local children and third rate soldiers from shithole nations?
Will you have to hide your people in safe zones to keep them from getting killed by the other player in multiplayer mode?
Posted: 2004-08-16 01:36pm
by SWPIGWANG
If it wheren't so politically loaded, the idea can be made into something fun.....
Posted: 2004-08-16 01:44pm
by General Zod
Keevan_Colton wrote:Darth_Zod wrote:. . . .you've gotta be shitting me, right? this is even more sad than the noah's ark shooter they had using the wolfenstein engine for the SNES. . . .yes, they really did make a shooter game based on noah's ark.
Gib two of every animal?
instead of a gun or any type of dangerous weapon you were given a slingshot and apples to render the animals unconscious. something lame about animals going out of control and needing to restore them to order. i downloaded the rom a while back just for shits and giggles. pretty awful.
Posted: 2004-08-16 01:47pm
by Datana
Darth_Zod wrote:. . . .you've gotta be shitting me, right? this is even more sad than the noah's ark shooter they had using the wolfenstein engine for the SNES. . . .yes, they really did make a shooter game based on noah's ark.
Super 3d Noah's Ark. The sad thing is that they didn't even modify the Wolfenstein 3D maps for this game and simply placed "log" textures over the original walls, while the enemies only recieved a sprite change. It couldn't even be started on its own -- you needed to plug a real SNES game into the S3DNA catridge first to bypass the console's copy protection mechanisms (which rejected S3DNA as unlicensed). Rumor has it that iD licensed the game only to get back at Nintendo for heavily censoring Wolf3D.
Posted: 2004-08-16 04:23pm
by Col. Crackpot
Keevan_Colton wrote:Hm, you know...I do wonder how close to reality the game will be.
Will you, for example, be able to trade sexual favours for food between local children and third rate soldiers from shithole nations?
Will you have to hide your people in safe zones to keep them from getting killed by the other player in multiplayer mode?
don't forget the bonus level where you get to slaughter hundreds of civilians within useless UN safe zones.
Posted: 2004-08-16 04:30pm
by neoolong
Col. Crackpot wrote:Keevan_Colton wrote:Hm, you know...I do wonder how close to reality the game will be.
Will you, for example, be able to trade sexual favours for food between local children and third rate soldiers from shithole nations?
Will you have to hide your people in safe zones to keep them from getting killed by the other player in multiplayer mode?
don't forget the bonus level where you get to slaughter hundreds of civilians within useless UN safe zones.
Well you have to fit in that Tomb Raider somehow.
Posted: 2004-08-16 04:54pm
by Utsanomiko
Ghost Rider wrote:Still this like many a Jesus/Moses/Angel game will fail simply because...well it's likely not entertaining...and lectures the kids.
Yeah like kids don't get enough of this as is.
They need to make an FPS wherein one can smite the heathens, y'know old testament stuff...and then insert subliminal messages about Jesus is your God!!!.
That at least would be a step in the right direction.
They kind of already did.