Last week was the 5th annual Games for Change conference in New York. An interesting blog post to come out of that discusses the need to localise social issue games. In the post Suzanna Samstag Oh talks about creating a social issue game for Koreans, by Koreans, about a Korean issue. Why not just use an existing game about, for example, the global energy crisis? Because cultures are different and respond differently to crises. They have different social norms about public dialogue, being critical or collective response. Thus to get the most impact out of social issue, or serious, games, it is necessary to fully localise these to a particular culture.

The bottom line: South Africa will need it’s own serious games about xenophobia or unemployment or HIV/AIDS.

Grand Theft Morals, or ultimate role model? is a piece written for Tech Leader, the M&G’s new offering in the Thought Leader stable. In the article I highlight some of the learning outcomes associated with digital games. Then I hold up Grand Theft Auto IV against that light, and see if what we know about digital games-based learning still shines through. In case you don’t know, GTA IV is the most popular game of all time, and is also extremely violent.