Video Games Finally Harnessed for the Power of Good
Ever since 1996, children have been playing video games to kill zombies, pilot futuristic spacecraft and connect gems of the same colour in a line to make them disappear. "And what we've seen is that children go out into the real world and do these things" Greenfield explains. "Scientists reckon that video games are more powerful than influences from parents, peers and even television".
"So rather than control them to manage a house of people as in the Sims or identify Pokemon footprints as in Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Explorers of Time, we've harnessed that power so that children will do better in life by playing this game".
The new game called The best you could probably do given your socio-economic background will launch ready for the Christmas period on every platform except the PS3. It is a rather unique game in that players choose their character and then the character will automatically run around stabbing people, eating junk food and getting teen pregnant. Players have to hold down buttons to stop them from doing bad things that we see every day on the streets in the United Kingdom.
In the hands on session we had with the game it seemed to be very promising indeed. The level we played was set in an inner city playground populated by families and drug dealers enjoying a Sunday afternoon. Following the opening cutscene the player immediately went to pick up some broken glass to put in the sandpit. By holding down Y, the character instead collected the glass and put it in the recycling bin. In a later section, holding down both buffers stops our character from having unprotected sex with a minor behind the Oxfam bins. One of the most memorable scenes on the game is a rhythym action action game which decides the fate of your characters money. Miss the cues and you see your character heading towards Costcutter to buy some Diamond White. Perfect the timing an he insteads posts it as child support money to one of the mothers of one of his children.
Before we left Greenfield confided in us "For far too long video games programmed by know nothings have been controlling people to do bad things. This is my video game and I've written like four books so it must be betterer".
The best you could probably do given your socio-economic background comes out in December this year and could well fix all the problems we have in this country. Certainly one to watch.
Comments
Post a Comment