'Ethical' computer games take on shoot-'em-up classics

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/06/29/wgames29.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/06/29/ixnews.html

Help is at hand for parents worried about the violent computer games their children play. "Ethical" computer games are finding a toe-hold in a market dominated by shooting and fighting.

Gamers used to decimating alien and zombie hordes can now role-play in a Darfur refugee camp, become a peacekeeper in the West Bank, and run the lives of a poverty-stricken family in Haiti. The games are part of a new breed from software designers, weary of violence, who want to create cyberspaces with "real life" content.

Thus, in the game Darfur is Dying, players must forage for food and water while avoiding murderous Janjaweed militiamen. Up to 300,000 people are estimated to have died so far in the conflict in Darfur, western Sudan. In Ayiti, the game simulating life in a Haitian slum, players will see screen prompts such as "Your son has bloody diarrhoea."

"There's nothing intrinsically violent or moronic about computer games," said Suzanne Saggerman, who organized the Games For Change conference in New York, where many of the games are being shown for the first time. "They can have real content, and make a real impact on how we perceive the world."

Sim City
Railroad Tycoon
Zoo Tycoon
The Sims
Microsoft Flight Simulator
Microsoft Train Simulator
Bookworm
Sim Ant

I believe they first incorporated pollution and global warming into the game world in the early 1990's.

You can win a game without ever fighting a single battle. It's difficult to do, but still.

The newer incarnations also accurately reflect the negatives of choosing to go to war; your people become incredibly unhappy and your stock/credibility with other nations is severely compromised.

Can you really make an "ethical" game if there's no choice to be made between good and evil? When you are only offered "good" choices to make, the whole concept of freewill and the idea that you are choosing "good" is completely negated.

Its ethical as Hell

I've been playing PzGII since '96!!!

And CivII & III are awesome, as well.

Visit my anti-war website, www.shockedandawful.com

Grand Prix Legends
NASCAR Racing 2003
GTR

No such thing as peak oil in the sim racing world!

trying to show you what it is like to be a 3rd world farmer. don't know how "ethical" it is since you can choose to grow poppies.

http://www.3rdworldfarmer.com/index_content.html

called BORDER PATROL or something like that...real charming....

Lionhead Studios is one of the largest producers. Though their games often give you the CHOICE of being ethical or unethical (Black and White and Fable are two of the most recognized titles). Which isn't to say that these games can't be violent. But players DO have the option of negotiating their way out of situations or just out-thinking the computer opponents. Even older games such as Fallout and Fallout 2 had a character building system by which you could choose whether to be a fighter or a thinker (and, in fact, the hardest, fastest, and most challenging way to beat Fallout 2 was to either out-talk or simply sneak by the enemies).

The first generation of computer game players are now in their 30s and 40s.

I know some enthusiasts in their fifties and sixties!!!!

http://www.darfurisdying.com/

ON EDIT, a LINK to the discussed game in the article, above.

I have played online games for years now, and at 51, I am hardly the oldest in the game I currently play (EvE Online). I find that most online games will allow you to play ethically if you choose to.

Woots accepted. (inside joke)

You can choose the manner in which you wish to play - you can raise armies if you want, but you can win through diplomacy as well - or through scientific advancement. I've spent days playing this game and never get tired of it.

And I'm still not tired of it either. The new one incorporating religion and its spread is pretty amazing. My favorite way to take cities is through cultural takeovers. Nothing quite like watching cities flip allegiance due to your superior libraries and museums!

It's fiendishly fun.

yes you can kill the evil Sligs and blow up other baddies, but the baddies are corporate bigwigs who turned your people in Mudokan Pops! And your ancestors' bones into beer! So they deserve to die :evilgrin: These games have redeeming social messages tho, as well as great humor and beautiful graphics.

and it defined the RPG genre for a while there.

:hide:

Even though it's been well over a decade since I finished it.

The game itself acheived perfection for what it was.