Building Crisis Awareness Through Games

Few of us here in the affluent West can even begin to imagine the horrors of the civil war now raging in the Darfur region of Sudan.  MtvU, a subsidiary of MTV Networks serving college students, is betting that it can raise awareness of the crisis through an online game.  Darfur is Dying is a browser-based game that allows the player to role-play one of several Sudanese villagers who must forage for water and help their people survive, all while avoiding militias.  It's a creative way of educating people about -- and soliciting donations for -- one of the world's great travesties.

Tags: Darfur, Africa, games, MTV, education, humanitarian