Retentitive readers might remember a Chewing Pixels post from a month or so ago when I posted a discussion about mtvU/ Reebok’s philanthropic web game Darfur is Dying. It was so hard to shake those thoughts that I decided to interview the creator Susana Ruis about the game and the wider implications of its existence. Her answers are so concise, clear and illuminating that I really hope they get a fair read from just some of Eurogamer’s passers-through – especially those in the business of game creation. But then, as friend Ste Curran pointed out when I looked to him for some comfort with my mildly egocentric concern that nobody might read furthur than the first paragraph: just about nobody reads anything. Please, just this once, read all of this.

Susana Ruis: We did not set out to entertain but rather to inform, engage and motivate. Early on in the process, we were inspired and driven by what Pulitzer Prize winner Nicholas Kristof wrote for his New York Times column in a piece detailing pro-Darfur activity in American campuses. He writes of the “way generations of Americans acquiesced in one genocide after another – only to apologize afterward and pledge ‘Never Again’. So out of the miasma of horror that is Darfur, something uplifting is taking place. Ordinary Americans are finding creative ways to respond to the slaughter, so that they personally inject meaning into those traditionally hollow words: Never Again.”

“Darfur is Dying” aims to offer a faint glimpse of what life is like for the millions of Darfurians that have been displaced by this genocide. Humanitarian aid workers who advised us on the development of the game have said it is hauntingly real, and we hope that feeling leads those who play it to become involved in helping to stop the crisis.

Furthermore, creating gameplay that is engaging, that informs, and that motivates real-world social change is a grand and elusive goal. As a result of creating “Darfur is Dying”, we learned first-hand that the process of discerning appropriate representational aesthetics as well as appropriate interactive mechanics and play metaphors is a challenging and sobering endeavour. The student team thinks of “Darfur is Dying” as a work in progress and hopes to continue improving and advancing it.

This genocide can be stopped. Our world has the collective resources to end this suffering, but it takes personal and political will that is lacking. We hope “Darfur is Dying” will continue to motivate more individuals to take action to help end the killing and suffering in Sudan.

You can read the rest here