Didn’t see this coming — but then I’m not a gamer. Here’s a World of Warcraft ad with a UK Fairtrade Fortnight tie in that, according a Strange Company press release, “tells the story of a poor Troll who, rather than using the game’s normal Auction House system, is forced to work through the same system that exploits third-world farmers”:
There’s a cheesier ad using The Sims 2 for fair trade too:
I kinda want to try playing the World of Warcraft scenario, if there’s a chance of escape from exploitation at the end….
This project — called Fair Games — was co-funded by HandUpMedia and Strange Company.
Cheesy, yes, but oddly enough, I’m doing a presentation on gold farming and so on tonight, and I hadn’t seen this yet…thanks for the link!
Comment by Jenn — March 14, 2007 @ 10:21 am
I just posted about this, too! :) Cool idea.
Comment by Jasmin — March 14, 2007 @ 12:19 pm
Interesting use of Machinima (creating “films” by using video game rendering engines.) If it gets some of the 6 bazillion World of Warcraft players out there to fuel their gaming with FT coffee, then I guess it’s a cool thing…
Comment by Demian — March 14, 2007 @ 5:10 pm
Dang! And I just canceled my WoW subscription! :(
Comment by Maria — March 14, 2007 @ 9:59 pm
I recently watched eXistenZ, which makes me curious about checking out these games –
Comment by Siel — March 15, 2007 @ 5:56 pm