Videogames of the Oppressed focused on many ideas but one interesting point was the lack of video game simulation of social and/or political context. The article itself was written back in 2004 so the author might be surprised by the ongoing maturity of video games. While many big blockbuster video games of late focus on saving Earth from intergalactic villains or running over pedestrians, online flash games and indie games have show unique story-telling.

Two flash games, whose names are impossible to find current, come to mind. One of them has the user playing as a soldier escorting a citizen through a beautiful South Pacific landscape. At the end of this lengthy walk similar to that of Passage, the user must decide whether or not to kill the citizen or let them free. If the user allows the citizen to live, his character returns back to the village to be killed. The purpose of the flash game was to educate about the horrors of genocide that also took place in the South Pacific in the 1970′s. Another game starts off as man getting ready for work. The player plays as a middle-age man preparing for work in New York City. The player can make a wide variety of small decisions throughout the journey. However, no matter what, the player arrives at work only to realize that the date is September 11th, 2001 and the man works at the World Trade Center. Both games has the user active participate in the simulation of the game; however, the ending of both games has the user sit back and critically assess life. Whether it is about the tragedies of genocide and war, or the fragility of life and how short it can be,  the user is forced to come to a conclusion about his or her own life. As games continue to mature as well as the progression of the modern day gamer, it would not be surprising to see simulation and critical thinking to fully merge in the future.

These are the words crooned by doo-wop sensation Rudy West on The Five Key’s track of the same name. The phrase is an idiom about how something can be so easily dismissed if it is not in direct view. This idiom is brought up in modern times because of a little place in China called Shenzhen.

I never really thought, nor cared, about the original origins of my many electronics. I always had the fantastic dream of little robots carefully crafting, ever so precise and diligently, the very laptop, phone and iPods in my possession. My dream was not ruined until recently thanks to a short segment on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Stewart used his comedic charm to shed a light, while a humorous one, on a very serious topic. I was fully surprised by the report. I typically thought manufacturing plants for electronics were housed with numerous robots. I also thought sweat shops were located in the tropical Pacific in old, ruined wooden shacks. I never realized I could imagine something so completely wrong. After a few quick glimpses of their living arrangements, I believed that they were being treated very well. A beautiful neon city with better-than-expected living styles. Then I heard the details. Twelve hour shifts. Non-existent breaks. Constant work days. Hopelessness. Suicides. I was appalled that such things could happen. Even now, revisiting the subject and listening to the shocking details, I am still engrossed as to how this could happen.

Then I remembered, “ignorance is bliss”. I never cared about where things came from as long as I could have it. All I wanted is the new iPod or the new gaming console, not thinking of the consequences. A sick feeling comes over me at the idea that some part of this tragedy is partly my fault. Even if it is a little bit. I think the worst part is I will forget this and continue the vicious cycle of consumer goods. Hopefully, I can be like the character at the end of Five Key’s song in which Rudy West sings,

“Out of sight, but not out of my mind.”