(Below is the beginning of my latest GameFile column. For the full thing, check out MTVNews.com)
There were times in the last two years that Heidi Boisvert wasn’t sure if the game she was teaching herself to make should be fun. It’s a game about immigration that puts players in the virtual bodies of one of four fictional people not born in the United States. The player’s goal in “ICED“? To not get deported.
The player runs through a fictional city, dashing through icons that represent acts of civic good like planting trees, donating blood or volunteering at a soup kitchen, and answering questions about immigration in America. But if they give wrong answers, a “Grand Theft Auto“-style “wanted” system is activated, sending government agents who are determined to detain and deport. Boisvert said that she and her colleague wanted to be sure that there was “not necessarily a pleasure component, but … engagement with the game as a game at the same time we’re educating people about these ideas.”
Should people enjoy the game? Not really.
“ICED,” which stands for both the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Department and “I Can End Deportation,” launched on Monday, Presidents Day. It was produced by Breakthrough, a group that hopes the game will raise awareness of what it sees as severe flaws in the United States’ immigration program that has resulted in the detention or deportation of hundreds of thousands — possibly millions — of people in the last decade.