Darfur is Dying

Since 2003, the Darfur region of Sudan has been the site of nearly 500,000 deaths and over 2.8 million displaced people fleeing civil unrest stemming from conflicts between several warring ethnic and tribal factions in Africa’s thirdlargest nation.

From April 2006 to April 2007, over 1.2 million individuals have relived the conflict—or at least, a virtual version of it—nearly 2.4 million times.

Referenced in Chapter 6, Darfur Is Dying is a particular type of video game—a serious game—designed to expose players to some of the details of the war in Darfur. In the game, players assume the role of a displaced refugee family that must fetch fresh water from a distant well and then bring the water back to help keep a refugee camp watered for seven days. In the meantime, players must avoid militia and armed security forces, and if they do get caught, the player is given a narrative account of how Janjaweed forces have been reported to treat their captives.

While the game has been criticized for doing little to actually impact the ongoing civil war, many critics suggested that it brought awareness to a conflict that had previously received little attention in international media. While it remains to be seen if Darfur Is Dying really provided a meaningful exemplar of the refugee experience in the Sudan, such games provide promise that we can learn and hopefully act on a number of social concerns not normally part of our daily lives.

In 2006, NPR’s Michelle Norris sat down for an interview with Susana Ruiz, the game’s creator and at the time, a graduate student at the University of Southern California. The complete interview is available at: npr.org.

What are your thoughts related to using online tools like games this way? Listen to the interview. What did it do for your awareness of the situation in Darfur? Did this change your thinking about using an online game to build awareness?

I think that this game and other games that raise awareness of situations going on in the world are beneficial. A video game of course will not stop the war or end a crisis that is occurring but raising awareness is necessary in order to help many situations. Far too often the news and media sources do no cover many issues that occur in areas such as Sudan. In fact there is currently a brutal deaths occurring in Sudan as citizens are protesting and the news simply not covering this. As a social media user, people have began to change their profile pictures to the color blue to spread awareness of what is happening in Sudan today. Just as these blue profile pictures are not stopping what is happening in Sudan, the video game did not stop what was happening either. Yet both of them are spreading awareness and for many of us that is all we can do. I originally thought that it seemed insensitive to the situation to make a video game showing the horrors of what was occurring in Sudan, but ultimately if it is raising awareness it is doing something beneficial. Anyway that we can share information on the internet that may not be shown by news channels is a positive change.

Video games can be a great way to get either subliminal or non-subliminal messages out because it will reach a younger audience and may educate them about particular issues under the guise of something fun. The way the game "fades out" players may shock children into disappointment first but I think that sends a great message. When someone dies in war, they don't come back; you can't just respawn back to start. A problem I see, though, is I think that our society may be a little too numb to violent video games for Darfur is Dying to really make a difference. But in 2006, when the game was released, things may have been different despite Call of Duty dominating then the way it still is now. I do believe that it is at least getting a conversation started since the interview states that the game facilitates methods to invite your friends to play and, if you do get others to join, survival gets easier. This subtle positive reinforcement I think is pretty innovative because players always want to succeed in their game. It's something Facebook did for their games and it works. At least in this game it's being applied towards a cause worth sharing instead of asking your friends to manage your crops on Farmville.

I've known about Sudan, Egypt, and in the Middle East for a long time because I deployed to Bagram. I saw how ugly it is there. This hasn't really changed my awareness since I was already aware. I just don't like to talk about it. I hope they update this game about other current issues and this spreads again.