Workshop post: September 12, Kabul Kaboom

1. Do you think the political simulation games you examined would have been "effective" in communicating with people via the Internet?
No. I don't think that the games are particularly good ways of engaging people. Mainly because they don't seem to have the charaters that promote emotional involvement with the games, so they don't really cause you to want to keep playing. I don't see that you can say that the games are 'effective' unless you actually do get some level of personal involvement.

2. Was the political message underpinning the political simulation games you examined immediately obvious? If not, were you driven or interested to find out what the game was trying to "say" (apart from the fact that you have to as part of the workshop)?
The point was made pretty obvious by the descriptions on the opening screens. If the descriptions hadn't been there, I don't think I would have bothered finding out the point of the games. Then again, without the opening screens, in order to make a point, the developers might have been forced to make the games more interesting.

3. If you had to write a political simulation game similar in size and structure to those you examined, (a) what would be the point you were trying to make and (b) how would the game be structured and operate in order to make that point? (Just give a very brief outline)
a) I'd rather not actually. I think games that have no purpose other than to be political aren't really that good. And that simulations of political situations are better done as actual politics, and not issues of public concern. But still. I'd probably actually trying to make a point about the pointlessness of attempting to draw binary distinctions between two groups. Actually, maybe set it up as a series of paired images, of which one is chosen, followed by a ridiculous characterisation of opinions as a result.
b) I'd actually just steal the outlines of an already existent game. Largely because I'm not that competent at designing my own. Maybe something like Planarity. And then just modify the goal of the game to be something incredibly frustrating and pointless.