Immersive Journalism

Kuma Wars recreates John Kerry’s Swiftboat battles

The KUMA WAR episodic series of online games are an example of the expository genre of news games. While the game play is adapted from an existing military third-person shooter game engine, the scenes and missions are re-enactments of battles from the war in Iraq and Afghanistan based on news accounts, interviews and DOD reports. KUMA Reality Games positions itself as journalistic and their web banner proclaims: ‘REAL WAR NEWS, REAL WAR GAMES’. They evoke both the power of the medium as well as the story to impart empathy to the player:

During the 2004 election, John Kerry’s military medal as a Swiftboat captain came under fire. KUMA WAR’s game “John Kerry’s Silver Star” lets you be John Kerry and see if you can recreate his feats.  This piece is an interesting example of using interactive game play to portray the controversy that dominated the election.