[lbo-talk] PC game to expose detention of asylum seekers

Grant Lee grantlee at iinet.net.au
Tue Apr 29 23:20:20 PDT 2003


"It's a dose of virtual reality that the Immigration Minister could probably do without: a computer game in which players try to escape from Australian detention centres [for asylum seekers] has received $25,000 in federal funding.

The game, Escape from Woomera, will be modelled on four of the country's most contentious detention centres. It received the money from the Australia Council, the federal arts funding body, last month."

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Television footage, press and radio reports, and the recollections of former detainees and employees will be used to mimic the layout and daily life in the centres, down to meal times, the way guards communicate with each other and "episodic violence".

Players will be challenged to escape using the means at hand - digging tunnels, scaling fences or via the efforts of refugee action groups or sympathetic lawyers.

"We expect people to be upset," said one of the game's creators, who requested anonymity. "But there's been a lot of focus on the victimhood [of detainees] and we really want to focus on the bravery and heroism of these people."

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By Sean Nicholls, Sydney Morning Herald, April 30 2003

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/04/29/1051381951157.html



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