Video games have long been a controversial subject among critics, consumers and parents. They have been accused of desensitising children to violence and emphasising that violent behaviour is acceptable. These are valid criticisms. Partaking in virtual violence does have a seemingly realistic feel to it. But it's an aspect that has also of late fostered a distinct characteristic to video games. With game pyrotechnics becoming more advanced, the virtual world has become an arena for social simulation. Computer games have discovered politics.

Programmers involved in the business of turning bizarre ogres, grenade launchers, and unidentified flying objects into computer codes, now find themselves puzzling over banana republics, inflation and political crises.

Take Darfur is Dying (http://www.darfurisdying.com) for instance.The first part of the game requires the player to choose a member from a family of eight (from the father, Rehman, to the youngest child, Deng, aged 10) to collect water from a well near the village. The child must first find the well, taking care to avoid the Janjaweed militia. Success ensures entry to the second part of the game, where the player uses the water gathered from the well to manage resources in the refugee colony. The game was developed by students of the University of South California for the Darfur Digital Activist Contest, organised by the television channel mtvu, the Reebok Human Rights Foundation and the International Crisis Group.

Other games, such as Oil God (http://www.shockwave.com/gameland/oilgod.isp) and the MacDonald's game (http://www.mcvideogame.com) focus on environmental destruction, oil wars or even the fast food culture. The Macdonald's game, developed by the Italian game company, Molleindustria, gives players control over all aspects of the MacDonald's corporation.

In each zone of activity, the player is introduced to the morally ambiguous decisions that the multinational food conglomerate is required to make profits. Its fields are located in San Jose, Argentina, and increasing grazing lands require clearing rainforest, maybe even razing a village. A municipal corporator has to be bribed and cows fattened with hormones to increase the burger supply. Public relations people have to be deployed to manage pesky special interest groups offended by the multinational's actions. And, then children have to be attracted with devious advertising campaigns. The game's satirical tone ensures that at every point, you know the actual impact of your decisions: overgrazing, for example, kills farms forcing the razing of more rainforests. But then moral compunctions have to be suspended for the sake of profits.

Another variety of games tries to educate players about managing emergencies. The Stop Disasters Game, (www.stopdisastersgame.org/playgame.html), produced by the uk-based game company PlayerThree for the un International Strategy for Disaster Reduction casts you in the role of a town planner with limited time to prepare five different disaster scenarios