There's an
editorial in the NYT today, commenting on the World Food Programs's video game -
Food Force...
Food Force is an attempt to make children, who can be fundamentalists about saving the world, aware that one person every five seconds dies of hunger, most of them children. It also tries to demonstrate that concrete steps can help, and that working on hunger is exciting and cool.
"We're looking with intensity at the next generation, trying to engage them early," says Jennifer Parmelee, a spokeswoman for the World Food Program in Washington. "We need people who will stand up and say, 'This is not acceptable in the 21st century.' Right now, this is not a battle we're winning."
I don't have much comment to make upfront, in general humanitarian work is something that I can get pretty much on a soapbox over. I hope that folks will look over the editorial, check out the game, and all.
Last April, the United Nations World Food Program introduced a computer video game that it hoped would teach children something about global hunger. Food Force quietly made its debut at a children's book fair in Bologna, Italy. To the organization's shock, it soon had so many hits that the Web site kept crashing, and it has become the most unlikely of cult sensations.
No one shoots anyone in Food Force. Rebels are negotiated with, not blown away, and the women are sensibly dressed aid professionals - although one character does greatly resemble Lara Croft in Tomb Raider. Yet Food Force has quickly become the second most downloaded free Internet game, after the Army's recruiting tool, America's Army.
More than three million people have downloaded it so far...
I like that - that it is somewhat realistic, it is gaining in popularlity, and that it's running a close second to military recruitment games. I'd like to see this game pass the military's. There's alot more to war than bangs and booms.
If anything, Food Force is unrealistically nonviolent - 60 World Food Program workers have died in the line of duty since 1992, including Paola Biocca, the first person at the World Food Program to work on developing Food Force.
Reality.
...working on hunger is exciting and cool...
"We need people who will stand up and say, 'This is not acceptable in the 21st century.
So...if a game helps, I'm all for it. See ya at the airdrop.