Playing Politics (Can't do much worse than Latham)

I'm going to focus on 'September 12th' and 'New York Defender'.

1.Yes definitely. Interestingly, what I initially thought was the downfall of these games - their simplicity and brevity, is of course what makes them so effective. You get the point quickly and profoundly, which is crucial for most net users (viewing the game via email attachment or simply having stumbled across it) as you are usually bombarded by millions of distractions and gimmicks while browsing.
I think that both games tapped into many 'ordinary' peoples desire to have had some sense of agency in the nightmare that was brought to the forefront of minds with 9/11. Both these games positions the player as having a reactive role. New York Defender was particularly powerful, given that the visuals of planes swarming towards the WTC was strongly reminiscent of the broadcasts at the time that repeatedly showed the planes hitting the towers.
I think 'September 12th' would have brilliant for many Americans to ‘get’ a simple insight into the ramifications of an excessively aggressive military response (and perhaps into the notion 9/11 was a response to something, rather than just a simple act of incomprehensible inhumanity). News reports made no attempt to depict human consequences of the effects of US bombing, whilst they did produce truckloads of sympathetic homage to those affected by 9/11. Something as simple as this game may have started some sideways thinking.

2. The political message was obvious in both games. The power of the message came from the fact that you had to come to the point through playing the game, and finding it futile and destructive. Both games work because of the way they subvert the traditional understanding of computer games, i.e. as try to ‘win’, have fun, learn from previous sessions and improve on the outcome. (I actually found it very difficult to play Sept. 12th and repeatedly blow up children). They are clever in that they are simple and maybe even boring games to play, the point is that real life situations of war are the not bells and whistles and exciting strategic decisions that most combat games have us believe. Rather they are pointless, futile and a waste of life, time and resources. The more I thought about the analogies of the games the more layers I uncovered – do we view life with that computer game mentality that once the game is over its over and we can start afresh? Have we learnt from our mistakes? ‘New York Defender’s power comes from the fact the towers are rebuilt after every failed attempt – which is followed by another failed attempt. September 12th certainly made me want to more about the reality of the ‘Coalition of the Willing’s (vomit) response, and what it had meant in real terms to the people of Afghanistan and Iraq.

3. I would make a simple game situated in split screen format – one side showing the public school teacher in a state school (the player) the other (the computer) showing a private school. The context is Howard’s education policies. The player needs to juggle different variables shown as icons i.e. govt policy, achieving outcomes, catering for disabled/learning deficiencies/abused/low SES students, professional development, pastoral care etc while attending to students in class which all have different needs which need to responded to tamagotchi style (or they’ll sue). The computer (independent school) will every now and then display *BONUS* Extra Government funding, ex student becomes governor general/prominent politician with clout/donates money. Funding icons will drop down at regular intervals for the independent school – state classroom will need to earn it. Every time a student leaves the class(due to players failings) funding is withdrawn and given to the computer player. Demands on the player’s teacher will become too many for the player to respond to and the teacher will eventually drop dead. The computer players screen will depict a class of homogenous looking students and all will look smug and happy. This game is for Brendan Nelson’s personal education.