A Force More Powerful [Review]

Each scenario offers a simple Sim-City style visual depiction of its urban center that allows you to plan tactics and assess trends, but everyday events are usually planned and occur within the game’s menus, charts, and lists. Some scenarios offer maps that depict infrastructure, agricultural, or natural resources that can be targeted. There’s a ton of information to process, and despite readily available color-coded charts and descriptions of individual, group, and community stats, it’s often quite difficult to see the big picture. This is remedied in part with simple system that allows the player to poll all the movement’s leaders prior to scheduling any tactic, and consider their input. Their advice isn’t foolproof, but for the most part, they’ll steer you in the right direction.

AFMP isn’t a pipe dream of a game that rewards shallow idealism or encourages martyrdom. Instead, it challenges you to apply resources thoughtfully, reasonably, and realistically. It wisely avoids hot-button political topics, instead focusing on basic civil rights. The only overt bias it demonstrates is a built-in intolerance for violent action. In every case, nonviolent tactics are always more successful. Fortunately, this never really seems like a contrivance, because each scenario is thoughtfully crafted to portray a situation in which nonviolence seems like an appropriate path. — Adam “The Fly” LaMosca —A Force More Powerful [Review] (Gamers with Jobs)

This fall, I’m going to ask my “New Media Projects” students to create a new media object designed to teach a social or moral principle. (That’s just the midterm project… they’ll be welcome to create ars gratia artis, or ludus gratia ludorum, for their term project.)

This would be a good game to use when we examine what form such a game might take.