Government funded video games include some called Dustborne and Cat Park
You know DustborneThat useless (possibly; I haven’t played it) woke video game that teaches gamers to become activists and weaponize cancel culture and bullying? It was funded by the government, the EU, and the Norwegian Film Institute (which, According to its website“falls under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Culture”) to provide funding to the game and its developer, Red Thread Games, based on ESG and DEI criteria, such as the number of women working on the game. (I'm sure the game being a radical left-wing propaganda tool helped.) Maybe that's why Dustborne an abject failure This does not appear to have any effect on the people behind it; they have received most of their funding from government grants, with the aim being to spread their ideology rather than make a profit. Mark Kern Some details were posted in the X thread:
Dustborn misappropriated far more government funds than previously reported.
The Norwegian Film Institute has funded the game with 14 million kroner, or about $1.4 million. This is in addition to 150,000 euros from the Creative EU grant program.
Dustborn is essentially an antifa… pic.twitter.com/bNQxPqtPlq
— Grumz (@grumz) August 26, 2024
Discerning artist Played the game in full and listed some of its more troubling elements:
Dear @redthreadgames
I've finished your game, #Born From Dust I've found both 1% and 0% panels in two different locations, but I have a question for you.
At the end of the play it is said that words were not weapons, but it was always empathy. Can you please explain to my little child…
— Savvy Artist (@MadamSavvy) August 28, 2024
I think this is an atrocity perpetrated by the European Union and the Norwegian Film Institute. But if you think the United States government is innocent in this matter, I hate to disappoint you, but they have recently started perpetrating this fraud. Stuttering CraigCo-founder of Screw Attack and host Side Scrollersposted a screenshot of an August 2021 “Notice of Funding Opportunity” from the US Embassy in The Hague, revealing that the US State Department granted $275,000 to help finance a “new counter-disinformation game” and inviting developers to compete for the grant:
Everyone is laughing at Norway and the EU for funding Dustborg, but a quick search shows that the US also provided $275,000 in funding for the “new counter-disinformation game” pic.twitter.com/av5G0zXCcB
— Stuttering Craig (Official) (@StutteringCraig) August 28, 2024
That Park Place has a lot more information on the project. This, in large part, appears to be a trial run for funding more such games, the criteria for this being to “develop and implement data collection and analysis methodologies to demonstrate achievement of the project's expected outcomes.” In the guidelines, the document says that the games are “an effective tool in building cognitive resistance to misinformation.” I understand from this that the government wanted/needs to track everyone who plays the games to see if they continue to visit undesirable websites, follow the “wrong” people on social media, engage with posts, etc.
The methodology behind it is as insidious as you might expect, with the game aiming to target people aged 15 and above and teaching them how to identify and avoid “misinformation”, while also teaching them how destructive it is, while promoting “digital literacy” through the “inoculation theory”. And who wouldn’t want the government to tell them how to read and understand information on the internet? The funding comes from the Global Engagement Center, or GEC, which is part of the State Department, and Letter from several Republican congressmen and a congresswoman In a letter to Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, he accused the GEC of overstepping its boundaries by participating in “subsidized censorship of free expression and partisan views.” He identified the GEC’s targets as “American conservatives,” “climate change deniers,” “vaccination skeptics,” and “election deniers” (presumably just one election), drawing from misinformation research at the University of Cambridge’s Social Decision-Making Lab.
As per RealClear PolicyAppears to be a State Department funded game Cat Parkwhich I've never heard of but it fits the criteria for the grant, teaches gamers about the dangers of misinformation and internet memes that mock leftists. (I'm changing the words.) If you want to dig deeper Cat ParkHere's a GEC contractor explaining it:
I don't know what's worse, an attempt to “vaccinate” gamers or the extreme level of embarrassment. One of those character designs is clearly a copy of Carmen Sandiego, and her name is carmen! And calling it a “noir adventure” is a good way to go Razorfist On your ass. I don't know whether to be angry about this or relieved – angry because they're taking money from American citizens and funding anti-American sentiment through art, but relieved because the game looks so horrible that no one in their right mind would play it, let alone be affected by it. If anything, it's so blatantly propagandistic that it will push players in the opposite direction. It's the government's Catch-22; they try to implement these disgusting programs, but they're too incompetent to do it successfully. Nobody wants to play DustborneAnd I doubt anybody wanted to play Cat ParkIt's a disgusting waste of money, but it's better than the alternative.
Let us know what you think of government-funded video game agitprop in the comments, and thank you That park location To put the pieces together!
