Video game teaches Cambodian children to avoid land mines

Chhoun Mina, 15, left, Chob Sopheak, 14, and Chamroeun Chanpisey, 11, test a new video game being unveiled in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, called Undercover UXO, designed to teach youths about the dangers of land mines. (Brendan Brady, For The Times / May 1, 2011)

Undercover UXO, shorthand for unexploded ordnance, uses an engaging platform to educate youths about what to avoid in a nation where decades of fighting left the land filled with hidden explosives.

May 1, 2011

By Brendan Brady, Los Angeles Times

Reporting from Phnom Penh, Cambodia—

"Turn left, turn right, go back!" her friends urge as she leads her avatar, a pet dog, into a lethal trap and the sound of an explosion rings out from the computer.

In the virtual game world, players can always hit restart, but 11-year-old Chamroeun Chanpisey gets the point. "The game is different from real life," she said. "People have only one life."

The video game, called Undercover UXO, shorthand for unexploded ordnance, is a new tool aimed at educating young Cambodians about the dangers of land mines and other explosives across the war-pocked Southeast Asian country.

If a Cambodian version of the "Incorruptible Warrior" game is available, who should feature among the bad guys?

Chinese Anti-Graft Game Proves Popular

08-28-07
BEIJING, China
AP

A Chinese government-sponsored online game that allows players to battle corrupt officials and their bikini-clad mistresses has been overwhelmed by user demand, state media reported Tuesday.

The Ningbo Haishu District Discipline Commission in Zhejiang province launched "Incorruptible Warrior" to show people how to fight corrupt officials, Xinhua News Agency said.

But demand for the game was too great.

"It has been closed so it could be updated as more and more users have registered, overloading the server," Xinhua quoted an unidentified commission official as saying.

Corruption remains widespread among high-level officials in China, despite public anger and repeated campaigns by the ruling Communist Party to uproot graft.

"The game requires players to learn government anti-corruption measures and to kill corrupt officials while avoiding attacks by their henchmen and mistresses clad in bikinis," Xinhua said.

The game was released on July 25 and had reportedly attracted more than 10,000 players by Aug. 1. However, the game server could only accommodate 600 players at a time, according to head designer Hua Tong.

"The game is a new method of anti-corruption education," Hua said.

It is not known when the game would be back online, Xinhua said.