Thesis and Outline

Thesis:

"Darfur is Dying" and "Click 4 Obama" are games that attempt to send a message, but do so ineffectively because of questionable motives, irrelevant information, a bad approach, and sketchy information.

Outline:

Introduction:

Games are one of the best forms of entertainment. The 3 different types of games are educatonal, persuasive, and advergames. "Darfur is Dying" is an educational game that places the player in the role of a refugee in Darfur. It attempts to show how it would be to live like a refugee in Darfur. "Click 4 Obama" is an educational and persuasive game. It's a trivia game that provides information on U.S. history but has th objective to win your support towards Barak Obama. Both games have flaws though, making them ineffective at sending their messages.

P1:

"Darfur is Dying" is a game that lets the player pick his or her character. They can choose from young and old, male and female. The player does tasks in the game such as foraging for water. While doing this though, the player must avoid being killed by the Janjaweed militia. The game provides links that explains the horrors the Janjaweed inflict on civilians. The problems in Darfur are very serious but making them into a game reduces its severity in the public eye. It distracts people from the real problem because they are more focused on how bad or good the game is. A different approach other than a video game is needed to tell the world of this problem.

P2:

The Click 4 Obama game is a very complex trivia game. It asks the player random American history questions and every time a question is answered correctly, the questons get harder. They also give 500 pixels of ad space on the internet for the Barak Obama campaign ads every time a question is answered correctly. The game wants the player to vote for Senator Obama but it doesn't provide information in the questions about him. During gameplay, only about 1 out of 10 questions mention Obama. The game provides to much irrelevant information about American history. Playing the game supports Obama, but the player isn't aware of the policies and views of the canidate he or she is supporting.

P3:

Both games need to take a different approach on sending their messages. "Darfur is Dying" doesn't need to be a game at all. Turning genecide into a game is the wrong way to get out information. "Click 4 Obama" is quite an easy fix. More questions in the trivia game need to be about Obama, his policies and his opposing canidates.

Conclusion:

These games, though enjoyable, are illogical.

Video Games Yellow..

While growing up and even today, I have loved video games. The Call of Duty games can be considered persuasive games because they effectively depict the atrocities of war. The graphic war images and battle scenes persuade players that war is horrible and that maybe they should rethink some of their views on war. As a child I loved sports games. The Madden games franchise is still used effectively as an advergame, probably unknowingly. Madden features recording artists and their songs every year on the game giving the band or solo artist more publicity. Billboards while playing in the football stadiums also advertise sponsors of the game. The game Scene It! is a very fun serious or educational game. It is essentially a trivia game on movies, sports, or whatever you want according to the edition of the game you purchase.

assigment

While exploring the game list, I found the Adult Swim Video Games and the BMW M3 Challenge to both fit into the genre of advergames. Both games or game web pages, fair well in advertising either the respective television show or the vehicle. These are advergames because of the advertisement nature of the games. They are very effective in making the gamer aware of the product but are far less educating than they are entertaining. The purpose for these games is not education which is necessary being that they are advergames.