School of Perpetual Training Edu-Game Series

The first program in the series of instructional training programs exposes the underbelly and not so glamorous side of the digital game industry. The inequitable relationship between the industry's multibillion-dollar profit margin in contrast to actual labor conditions is addressed. By following a mock instructional training program participants learn about precarious employment in the areas of overseas digital game manufacturing and distribution. A virtual "personal trainer" created in Second Life leads participants through a series of training exercises that use motion detection and require full range of body motion to play. The popular classic arcade games Dig Dug, Tapper, Space Invaders and Tetris are recontextualized to "train" participants for jobs in mineral mining, printed circuit board assembly, box build and global shipping. At the end of the training program, participants can gauge their "global market value" based on their performance. The training programs are designed to be viewed on multiple formats: as an interactive public installation; and as an online web cam game that can be played on a home computer with an inexpensive web cam. The motion detection is created with the video object in Macromedia Flash 8.

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• games
• play
• ewaste
• electronics
• sweatshops