Venture Arctic Free Until New Year’s

If I were ever to get in a debate with Ebert over whether video games can be art, I would bring a copy of this game as an example of videogames as art in a manner that cannot be duplicated by any other media.

You control the forces of nature in a delicate arctic ecosystem. It’s pretty darn hard keeping a sustainable population of all the species even when the game is on the easier settings. Then you turn on the climate change setting to ramp thing up a bit and go through the motions, only for fall for come to an abrupt and premature end.

“Hey!” you think, “I didn’t have time to stock the depths with plankton! Without that plankton the fish populations will starve, with the puffins not far behind, then this species, then that, etc.” Then you take a sidelong glance at that oil derrick, quietly pumping away, and wonder what kinds of mischief that damned thing will wreak on your carefully maintained ecosystem.

And right then and there, without any preaching, just through having the player performing key components of the energy cycle as gameplay elements, the player has his eyes opened to the dangers of global warming and habitat destruction that a thousand “Day after Tomorrows” couldn’t accomplish.

That’s a new kind of art.

I downloaded it right away when I read this on the forums as it sure sounds interesting. It always made me wonder why I only heard so little about the “Venture” games, while whenever I did it was only praise :)

So he wants you to fall in love with it, and then he’ll separate you from your love unless you pay money? ;)