Given that smartphones are becoming more and more subsumed into our daily culture, it makes a lot of sense to use them for education and information as well as for pure information. And that's the idea behind the games produced by Auroch Digital as part of its GameTheNews.net project, which seeks to improve general understanding of big issues in the news by creating games about them.
Unfortunately, Apple seems less pleased at the idea, as demonstrated by its rejection of a recent Auroch Digital creation, Endgame: Syria. The game was developed in two weeks, and is based on the war in Syria. The team strove to keep the content in the game as current as possible, so that the player could learn about actual events in Syria today. You play through the conflict, making military and political decisions and experiencing the consequences.
Reportedly, Apple rejected the game because of its guidelines against games that “solely target a specific race, culture, a real government or corporation or any other real entity”. You might think that rule is to prevent prejudice rather than content specific (yet neutral) to one subgroup over another, but apparently not.
If you want to try Endgame: Syria, you can still download it free for your Android device on Google Play or play the HTML5 version on the website.
