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

[Grant Lee]

"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."

* * * *

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."

* * * *

By Sean Nicholls, Sydney Morning Herald, April 30 2003

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