mtvU's Durfur Is Dying Expands With New Localizations

MTV's college network mtvU has announced that it will be expanding its USC developed serious/political awareness game Darfur Is Dying with new translations into Chinese, Arabic and Spanish. The game, which launched in April of last year, was designed to engage users and provide a window into the refugee experience -- offering a faint glimpse of what it's like for the more than 2.5 million who have been internally displaced by the crisis in Sudan. Calls to action are a fundamental part of the game and the user is presented with several opportunities during game play to become involved: write or e-mail the President, petition Representatives to support the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act, start a divestment movement on campus, and most importantly, spread word of the genocide in Darfur to others. mtvU says that the game, playable via its official website has been played 2.5 million times by more than 1.2 million people. Said mtvU general manager Stephen Friedman, “College students helped establish the crisis in Darfur as a front-burner issue for governments worldwide, and as the genocide continues unabated, we felt a responsibility to offer up this student-developed game as a resource for a much larger global audience. Darfur is Dying has already touched more than a million people and we’re proud to join with MTV channels everywhere to continue spreading the game’s message of awareness and action.”