ICED Video Game Imitates Immigrant’s Life

Tracy Kronzak

ICED Video Game Imitates Immigrant’s Life

Today I spent some time playing Breakthrough’s ICED video game. I’m not much of a gamer as I am a maven for technology and its uses. But ICED is one of the best uses of the myriad of open-source gaming engines I’ve seen in a very long time. It’s simple, to the point, and abundantly clear that when you’re playing ICED, even when you win, you lose.

ICED plays from the point of view of several characters whose stories frame the game play. In your first challenge, you move through the city picking up points for civic duties, such as cleaning a graffiti-covered wall or donating blood. Correctly answering questions based on immigration facts and myths also helps you gain points, and you lose points for making “bad” choices (which aren’t as evident as they might seem). When you reach a set number of points, you’re granted legal status – but here’s the rub: reaching the required number of points is stymied by the fact that the longer you play, the more ICE agents enter the board and are out to catch you. And, conceivably, if you’ve made too many “bad” choices, you might not actually reach the required number of points meaning that you’ll spend the rest of your time just dodging ICE agents.

If you’re (inevitably) caught by ICE, it doesn’t matter how many points you have. I was Ms. Goody Two Shoes every time I started, and was sent to detention every time. Detention makes accumulating points even harder because the good choices become less clear and the amount of points you need increases. Again, Ms. Goody Two Shoes was deported every time.

I was determined to “win” at ICED, and after two hours of playing the same game, I gave up. I actually did earn citizenship at one point, but getting there wasn’t easy and was more the result of being at the right place at the right time. It’s a simple and dramatic premise: play until you’ve “won,” but you’ll be exhausted, frustrated, confused and angry. And for folks who have never studied U.S. immigration practice and law, triply so. If this story sounds familiar, it’s because Breakthrough’s ICED game isn’t art imitating life, it is a simplified illustration of the life that millions in the United States face every day.

Kudos to Breakthrough for making ICED – it educates the mind and the soul of the player.

Posted at 9:28 AM, Feb 28, 2008 in Immigration | Permalink | View Comments

Comments

So where do I go to try this? Thanks.

From the moment ICED starts up, you know we're in trouble. You see, ICED (which stands for "I Can End Deportation") is a "game for change," in this case one that advocates for reform of immigration policy, its stance being pro-immigrant. During the initial loading screen, voice-over and scrolling text tells us "No one is safe from deportation--the sick and elderly, pregnant women, families..." And so on.

You can go play ICED at www.icedgame.com.

Hi,

Thank you for your great post-- at Breakthrough we are trying to be as you said, "abundantly clear" about immigration.
It is a due process and human rights issue.

It's important that we change the way we talk about immigration. Unfair laws affect ALL immigrants of all ethnicities and status - Our characters represent the undocumented, legal permanent residents, asylum seekers and even students. Unfair immigration laws affects us all.

Keep playing, sharing, and passing along the knowledge: www.icedgame.com

So, this is what we've become now, huh? A game. Our countries in Latin
America (and other countries around the world that suffer from US
imperialism and capitalism) got/are still getting tornished and ridiculed
by this monster that we call the US. Our land is raped, our people are
forced to work in horrible conditions. The US imports capital and leaves
our countries poverty in return. We have to leave our countries in search
of means to eat and live (even though life for most of us in the US is not
easy and we, at times, suffer more than we did in our home countries). We
work hard and follow the laws. Our parents, our uncles, our sisters, our
brothers, our cousins, and friends risk their life by crossing the border
that now our experience has just become a game for you. What is this?! Do
you think our experiences really reflect that of the game? Who will play
this ICED game, huh? What is the massege to immigrants? Not only do we get
to work low paying jobs in awful conditions but now our experiences are
put in game that is suppose to educate people? Please. I appreciate that
you are trying to raise awareness but this is game is very disturbing to
me. As a former immigrant myself who worked the fields, who as a little
boy learned the fear of being taken away, I who is always afriad that my
relatives might be taken away tomorrow find this game to be nothing else
but a "make fun" of our experience. Their are definitely other ways to
raise awarness about immigration and this game just does not cut it for
me. I mean, can you or anyone who has not lived that experience really
know what is like to live in fear?