Global Arcade is still a prototype and is seeking funding to complete and launch the site.

Global Arcade educates young people about social, cultural, economic and political globalization, and inspires youth to take action by raising awareness about its impact on society and individuals. Through innovative use of the internet, we strive to de-mystify terms such as the MAI, free trade, immigration, maquiladoras, sweatshops and transnational corporations in the style and media familiar to today'Œs youth.

Filled with cutting edge entertaining internet games, lively discussions, and informative stories, Global Arcade critically examines current trends of corporate multinationalism, labor practices, economic development, grass roots organizing, and other policies that directly impact global citizens.

Additionally, Global Arcade is an on-line resource center and hosts a forum for discussion and networking among youth and organizers. Global Arcade forms partnerships with groups working on global justice issues in order to develop stories, essays, game concepts, and other researched materials.

Concept

Global Arcade reaches youth by maximizing the full potential of the internet. Presented with fun and accessible games and graphics, Global Arcade users are encouraged to think, discuss and play an active role in effecting change. On-line games are supplemented with discussion, stories, and other resources to better present today's multi-faceted and complex socio-political phenomena.

The site includes the following elements:

For example, we have developed a game called Maria Sisters, in which the player controls a character named Maria, an immigrant worker in a Silicon Valley hi-tech manufacturing plant. The game is designed to be the third game in a series which follows the Maria character from her home country to the American factory. Maria Sisters is an action game patterned after the classic video game Mario Brothers, but the setting has been changed to a chip factory - game elements have been replaced with realistic depictions of conditions in the factory. Through role-playing, the player learns about the issues and factors that force people from an agricultural independent life to urban sweatshop labor and then to US immigration. The web site will include real-life stories of immigrants, explanations of the various social and economic factors behind migration, and action campaigns on sweatshops, labor rights and global trade and finance.

Status

What you are looking at is the initial version of Global Arcade. It includes the basic features the web site, along with several games that we have already developed using Shockwave, a technology for interactive media on the web.

The site is freely available to anyone with internet access. Once launched, visitors will be encouraged to return periodically to play the latest games and to read the newest articles.

This will be an ongoing project, with new games and information added on a monthly basis, in order to broaden the scope of the issues and to keep current with the latest news and events. We will form partnerships with more non-profits to bring new content and ideas to the site.

We were awarded a grant for a month-long artist retreat at the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada to begin the prototype of this product. In addition, Tactile Pictures has been donating its own time and resources to plan, develop and raise funds for this project since June, 1998. However, our resources are limited and additional funding is required to continue this project to the next level.

How You Can Help

We are actively seeking funding from foundations, private individuals, other non-profit organizations and other art and educational agencies.

As the site is developed, it will able generate some income via other promotional sponsorship and fees from educational institutions for the curriculum kits.

Here are number of ways you can help Global Arcade grow: