The World Food Program has produced a game to teach people about fighting hunger and how to respond to a crisis. It has been fantastically successful. The game is called Food Force. The game allows people to see not just the challenges facing identifying and responding to a crisis, but the logistics and requirements to resolve hunger over time.
The game is a clever mix of narrative, education and various hand eye co-ordination puzzles and exercises. The game is big so if you want to download it get ready for 245 MB file. If you have broadband no worries.
Food Force takes only 30 minutes to play. Food Force has been highly successful in that there have 3 million downloads. I like this approach to education, fun informative and engaging for people of any age.
I work with 2 great people who used to design games for Sony Online Entertainment. I think it is quite a creative pursuit to create a structured environment that can engage, but not overwhelm, something that can entertain for as long as a game does. The line between simulation and game is getting thinner all of the time.
If you get a chance give food force a shot, it is pretty interesting to see. With 1 out of 5 people undernourished, it probably never hurts to understand a little more.
The only critique I would have of food force is that it responds after the fact. As stated earlier in the blog. According to Amartya Sen the Nobel Laureate, "there has never been a wide-spread famine in a functioning multi-party democracy". Thus my only critique of food force is not identifying the causes of famine a little more effectively.
My big hope is that we get games that teach about "democracy" and human rights. Then food force could more of a game and less a reflection on an all too prevalent reality.
