OT: Video Game Lets Players Be Immigrants

[devilgrrl]

Video Game Lets Players Be Immigrants
By LAURA WIDES-MUNOZ (Associated Press Writer)
From Associated Press
August 02, 2007 1:20 PM EDT

MIAMI - A Japanese computer science student fails to take a full load of university classes and loses his student visa. A 10th-grade Indian girl is detained because of a high school essay she wrote on the Department of Homeland Security.

These are two of the characters in "ICED!" - a new video game that invites players to step into the shoes of foreigners who run afoul of the U.S. immigration system. It is part of a burgeoning genre of video games that examine major social and policy issues such as the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the situation in Darfur and the Electoral College.

"The game allows you to get into the body of a person, so you can experience what they are going through. There are very few opportunities to get that perspective," said Mallika Dutt, head of the nonprofit Breakthrough, which produced the game and uses new media to highlight social issues around the world.

"ICED!" - a play on the acronym for the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement office - is scheduled to be available for free download next month. It differs greatly from games like "Border Patrol," which popped up on the Internet last year and exhorted players to kill illegal immigrants as they entered the country.

More: http://enews.earthlink.net/article/nat?guid=20070802/46b156c0_3ca6_1552620070802-918785356