Game On

Kal Cobalt

Italian game designers Molleindustria specialize in "Gamevolution," a new underground phenomenon that uses games to address "pressing social needs, and to express our feelings or ideas just as we do in other forms of art."

In Molleindustria's most prominent example of Gamevolution, players of The Free Culture Game must herd ideas into the heads of free thinkers, who subsequently produce additional ideas. Standing in the way of this noble pursuit is the copyright vacuum which sucks up free-range ideas, rubber-stamps them, and disseminates them to passive consumers. If free thinkers don't get enough ideas, they become passive consumers. If passive consumers don't get enough ideas, they become free thinkers.

A few minutes of gameplay reveal some fascinating (and potentially unintentional) strategic gems: as ideas are difficult to herd, it's easiest to get them into the heads of free thinkers situated on the very edge of the copyright vacuum's reach. Additionally, the more "unclaimed" ideas are produced by free thinkers, the harder it is to protect them from copyright.

BoingBoing's coverage includes a wide-ranging discussion of The Free Culture Game, including input from Molleindustria.