It's a virtual location in the massively-multiplayer Second Life, and if you play, you'll be able to visit it in a couple of weeks to see USC's Center for Public Diplomacy announce the winner of its Virtual Worlds game competition on May 8.
I won't be on the Island, since I'll be at the ceremony IRL. A couple of friends and I designed a pretty elaborate public diplomacy MMPORPG on paper and entered it in the competition. Our concept wasn't chosen as a finalist - they seemed to be much more fully fleshed-out, as you'll see below. But I'm very interested to see how the finalist games work and how many people wind up becoming regular players ...
Public Diplomacy's a pretty interesting arena right now - it's essentially the art of winning hearts and minds to your side in international relations.
The Center's been doing some interesting work along those lines, including drafting Cory Doctorow and staging this competition. Here are the finalists:
Our Finalists: The finalists ranged from virtual cultural exchange programs to strategy games about the Israel and Palestinian conflict or international water rights. Listed below, in alphabetical order.
Exchanging Cultures Exchanging Cultures, a diplomatic game built inside �Second Life,� was created to facilitate the creating virtual communities and relationships based on the exchange of cultural items like: dances, art crafts, food receipts, architectural models, clothing, cultural routes and images of real original places for travelers and explorers. http://interactive.usc.edu/members/jmfernandez/2006/02/exchanging_cultures_ec_game.html.
Global Kids Island: Fostering Public Diplomacy Through Second Life Global Kids, Inc. envisioned a Public Diplomacy program within Second Life where the youth in the after-school program will spend the month learning about a global issue, experience an interactive and experiential workshop designed to educate about the issue. Their demonstration will be shown at the awards ceremony. For more information on the organization: http://www.globalkids.org/olp/index.jsp.
Hydro Hijinks Hydro Hyjinks is a class project designed to promote discussion about international water issues and to educate players from around the world about sources of international conflict over water rights. Watch the video tour of the game at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JS2JT9IV3CM .
Peacemaker PeaceMaker is a cross-cultural political video game simulation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict which can be used to promote a peaceful resolution among Israelis, Palestinians and young adults worldwide. More information, please visit their website:http://www.etc.cmu.edu/projects/peacemaker/ .
Posted by: Mack_Reed on Tuesday, April 25, 2006 - 05:07 PM
