Games for changing the world

Today's Future Tense (RealAudio - MP3 - iTunes) featured an interview with Mary Flanagan of Tiltfactor Lab, which researches and promotes games designed to promote social and political change.

Just as some filmmakers, novelists, and poets seek to fight social ills like poverty and violence by highlighting those problems, computer game makers, too are beginning to use their medium to promote social and political change.

In a game called Peacemaker, players attempt to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by assuming assume the role of the Israeli prime minister or Palestinian president; Darfur is Dying is a web-based game designed to raise awareness of the humanitarian crisis in Africa; Food Force teaches children about global hunger and humanitarian aid.

Here's a short video interview with Flanagan.