Zidane, Bush and Cheney walk into a videogame...
AddictingGames.com (part of Viacom), just created a newsgames repository for web games based on current news events. Games include the Zidane game we blogged back in June, Cheney's Fury, Bush Backrub and Darfur is Dying.
The company expects most of these games to come from users of the site (aka, free labor!), with game developer Persuasive Games filling out the offering where needed.
Persuasive Games founder Ian Bogost is characteristically academic (and characteristically right) about the venture: "the news is constantly changing, and games give us a new way to understand current events."
This idea ain't new (see The Guardian's The Role of Play from May 2004), but that doesn't mean it's not worth pursuing. Here's to hoping that they'll bring us a mix of goofy content like the Zidane headbutt game in addition to more serious, impactful games like September 12 (from which the post image is taken) or Madrid.
