Some Very Angry Birds

In a world in which mainstream journalists tend to get their kicks out of tearing down the honest gamer (even a recent BBC article on E3 was full of, ahem, complimentary descriptions such as “Messy-haired video game reporters”), it’s nice to see gaming being portrayed in a more serious light. Indeed, this particular piece of information only came to my attention after being featured on the Al Jazeera news network.

If you’re at all in to mobile gaming, then chances are you’ve stumbled upon Angry Birds. With over 250 million downloads over PC, PSP, PS3 and various mobile phones, you’d be hard pressed to avoid it even if it’s not for you. Even my non-gaming mates (yep, I have a couple) are intrigued by this ridiculously popular game. But where’s the story in that? Well, the story isn’t actually about Angry Birds at all, it’s about the uprising in the Middle East. Using the popularity of Angry Birds as a well placed climbing block, a political view can be demonstrated with such simplicity whilst being amusing and intriguing.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0i9acHS_zQ[/youtube]

Could it possibly be that gamers are interested in the politics of not only Azeroth, but also the lesser known world of Earth? I certainly feel it’s essential to know about the world’s situation, and if humorous gaming vids can bring attention to real-world problems then I’m all for it. I’m sure the Angry Birds clip wasn’t the first melding of the worlds of gaming and politics, and here’s hoping it won’t be the last. It’s a sign that gaming is growing up in the eyes of the media when it is shown on serious news programming. Whilst bringing attention to politics in the gaming scene, it is also very important that the grown up world is being shown how games can be used in this way. It’s a definite step against stereotyping, and isn’t that actually what a lot of politics is about?