Essay Outline

Thesis Statement: While Darfur is Dying and Packman may attempt to portray a serious message, the humor tends to outshine the severity of the situation.

Outline:

Intro:
Brief discussion of the two games and thesis statement

Body:
What is Darfur is Dying?
What is Packman?
Breif discussion of the gameplay.
What message are they trying to explain?
Why are these games so funny?
Where did they go wrong or were they intended this way?

Conclusion:
Explanation of why these games are funny and what they are and are not.
Also, warp-up the thesis statement with a claim backed by evidence.

Packman

Does America really have a problem with its garbage? Are we really to be shunned for a wasteful ways? According to the persuasive game, Packman....yes. Packman is a new take on an old game - Pacman - although it is not innovative in any way. Persuasive games are meant to persuade the gamer into thinking a certain way. While Packman tries to do this, it comes off almost like propaganda. The game tries to tell you about wasting paper products from South America on packaging for food, games, music, etc. After completing one level, the game brings up a "fun fact" page describing what we waste and why it is so bad. A rather harsh tone is used when speaking of these issues which does a poor job of persuading anyone. As the definition of a persuasive game, Packman fails. As a game itself, why would you turn a classic arcade game into anti-fast food propaganda? Epic fail.

Click 4 Obama

A "serious game," as defined by wikipedia, is a software application developed with game technology and game design principles for a primary purpose other than pure entertainment. Does not sound like too much fun, does it? Click 4 Obama is what you would call a serious game - yes that means it is not very fun. This game is designed to test your knowledge of not only Barack Obama but the United States and its government. For each question answered correctly, 500 pixels are donated for ad space sponsoring Barack Obama for president. In addition, each correct answer generates a more difficult question and vice versa for an incorrect answer. As a serious game, this game works: it is not entertaining, but it is informative and slightly challenging. Its not something to be enjoyed everyday, but it gets its point across. This is exactly the kind of game I would expect to find directed towards anyone visiting a political website. Informative, straight-forward and boring, this is the definition of a serious game.