Since writing my blog on 11-April, I've been looking for more information on the subject of RPGs and money. I haven't found anything yet, but posted some links this morning to an open source game which has some echoes.

Quote form the agoraXchange site:

Thank you for joining us in this preliminary release of agoraXchange, an online community for discussing and designing a massive multi-player global politics game challenging the violence and inequality of our present political system. agoraXchange was commissioned by Tate Online launched on March 15, 2004. agoraXchange will also feature an ongoing conversation about the project between David Ross (New York) and Murat Özbank (Istanbul).

From the French article:

Pourquoi avoir choisi le jeu vidéo comme médium?

Why have you chosen the video game as the medium?



N.B. : Le jeu a le potentiel d'être au XXIe siècle ce que le cinéma était au XXe siècle,

The game has the potential to be to the 21st century what the cinema was in the 20th century,


un mass media avec une portée immense. Un potentiel qui n'a pas encore été réellement exploité,

a mass media with an immense influence. A potential which has not yet been really exploited

parce que son développement dépend de l'industrie des loisirs. Les designers sont contraints de faire

because its development depends on the liesure industry. The designers are constrained to make

des jeux dont ils savent par avance qu'ils vont être populaires et lucratifs.

games which they know in advance that they will be popular and profitable.

Il n'y a pas de culture jeu vraiment indépendante ou underground.

There is no game culture [which is] really independant or underground

I will say from the outset that I am not a game player. The last game I really spent any time on was for an Apple ][ in about 1980, a text-based adventure game the name of which I can't remember. But this is a fascinating and attractive idea: make an Open Source online game where the goal is to restructure the basis of human government, letting the player/participants design the whole thing from scratch.

Here we are at the very beginning of some ideas which are significant, coming from a totally unexpected place. Since it's "just a game", there's not much anyone within the power elite can do at least at this point to stop it; yet the outcome could be truly bouleversant, an earth-shaking challenge to the current political structures. I know how much kids especially get into these games; it can form a significant part of their personal reality. So I for one am going to be watching this as closely as I can.