They start from a worldview and a bias, usually on the “left” or “progressive” side, and they spring fullblown from there, articulating all those memes and prejudices to try to shovel them at people, especially unformed and vulnerable children. That’s naturally repugnant. All their efforts to come up with the token “hate on Iran” or “Rapture” type of game on “the other side” as a counterweight look absolutely lame, given the overwhelming presence of “games for change” made by liberals and progressives, even in government (especially in government, as they are Clintonites in the wilderness, a lot of them).

I *have* come to see any kind of game agitprop as lying and bad precisely because often, in its “persuasiveness” it brooks no dissent nor admits any ambiguity, and I also see how thin-skinned the defenders are (paging Richard Bartle). Those “using rhetoric to persuade” aren’t interested in all in any kind of debate and enlightenment on a set of issues, they merely want to propagandize their viewpoint which they believe ardently to be “the truth”. At least when I do that, I say I’m doing that, I don’t claim to impose it as a system (remember, we’ve been through all that, please) — and I’m not trying to spread myself in the schools or institutionalize myself. See the difference? This gameprop is pretty repugnant precisely when you can see ample information that *it isn’t* the truth.

It would be one thing if these games were more neutrally helping people to think through complex issues, and to see the plusses and minuses of an issue like immigration; after all, despite all these evils referenced here in the immigration system, lots and lots of people keep coming, keep staying, and not all of them have these awful experiences — although of course they are present in the system and documented well.

But they don’t. You are supposed to emerge “persuaded”. Ugh. Overturn these money-changing tables in the Temple of Gaming, please.

BTW, waiting for somebody besides me to notice the irony of Jane “Fix Reality” McGonigal speaking at the tony $2000 New Yorker conference, she of the World Without Oil PC game, being sponsored by the government of *Dubai* of all things. I guess it’s about selling the rope.

[...] and worm its way into education in a new way every day. I recently saw an interesting post on a game developers blog about ICED, with discussion about the fine borderline between propaganda and education. ICED is about a youth [...]

@Michael
It’s the Redistricting Game.

About “propaganda,” this is a dire word. It has taken on a connotation of “lies” (much like rhetoric), but once meant something much more general, more like information in support of a particular position. Raph knows the difference, but it’s unfortunate that some see any kind of work with an opinion as a Bad Thing.