Several news agencies (AP link) are reporting today that the game we heard about a while ago has apparently been released. "Rescue the Nuke Scientist," produced by the Union of Students Islamic Association, is being touted as a response to Kuma\War's Assault on Iran. When I first blogged on this, the gist of my comment was that this is an interesting way of using games as dialogue, especially since Kuma had announced creating a further mission in response to the Iranian game.
One thing, though, that now strikes me about that potential for discourse is the means for distribution. Kuma has an established platform and delivers their content for free, whereas the creators of Nuke Scientist plan on marketing it first locally then spreading out from there. The problem is that I don't see either game convincing anyone to change their mind if these games are being distributed to mainly sympathetic audiences. And if we imagine there is a hypothetical, neutral party in the dialogue over Iran's nuclear program, it certainly seems that the US/Kuma voice is going to come across as the louder (and possibly more persuasive) voice.
In any case, I definitely want to play it. I've been hunting for a download, but haven't found one yet. If someone does come across one, please let me know.
So what do you think? Can games be a viable medium for genuine discourse?
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