Gumbeat: Fight Oppression with Bubble Gum

Gumbeat: Fight Oppression with Bubble Gum

September 9, 2008

Singapore's The Straits Times reports on an in-development game in which players use the "cheery pink power of bubblegum" to fight government oppression.

Gumbeat is a Flash game being developed as part of a cooperative effort between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and digital media students in Singapore. So how does Gumbeat play? From the report:

...the heroine chews on candy and blows them into big pink bubbles beside unhappy citizens in the unnamed country in which the candy is banned. This cheers them up enough to entice them to join the protagonist in a revolution, mustering enough angry citizenry to overthrow the oppressive government.

 

This is the aim of the game, said National University of Singapore undergraduate Sharon Chu, who presented her team's game to reporters earlier on Tuesday... The game was made to show that games with serious-themes like say, 'political oppression', can be fun, said Ms Chu.

Chu left the issue of whether the repressive country in question was Singapore up to the "player's interpretation." GamePolitics readers may recall that Singapore's government banned Mass Effect for a time last year over a brief lesbian love scene.

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Comments

Re: Gumbeat: Fight Oppression with Bubble Gum
Submitted by Anonymous - September 9, 2008 at 3:00 pm -0500

 Chewing Gum is illegal is Singapore which also makes the game controversial.  They say it keeps the streets cleaner.

Re: Gumbeat: Fight Oppression with Bubble Gum
Submitted by SimonBob - September 9, 2008 at 3:10 pm -0500

Specifically, it's the import and sale of gum that's banned.  The wikip article is a particularly good read in this case.

---
The Mammon Industry

Re: Gumbeat: Fight Oppression with Bubble Gum
Submitted by Anonymous - September 9, 2008 at 3:05 pm -0500

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chewing_gum_ban_in_Singapore

Re: Gumbeat: Fight Oppression with Bubble Gum
Submitted by Dark Sovereign - September 9, 2008 at 4:11 pm -0500

"Up to the player's interpretation"

Right.

Re: Gumbeat: Fight Oppression with Bubble Gum
Submitted by Shadow Darkman Anti-Thesis of Jack Thompson - September 9, 2008 at 9:53 pm -0500

Interesting. This needs to be made effective.

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I AM DOOMED TO HAUNT JACK THOMPSON'S DREAMS UNTIL HIS CRUSADE AGAINST VIDEO GAMES ENDS.

Re: Gumbeat: Fight Oppression with Bubble Gum
Submitted by jasonglades - March 30, 2009 at 7:52 am -0500

Chewing Gum is an illness of the whole nation.

Sociology papers

Re: Gumbeat: Fight Oppression with Bubble Gum
Submitted by Kamil - July 27, 2009 at 10:36 pm -0500

Mars, Inc. Announces Sustainability Commitments for Cocoa This Wednesday, Mars, Incorporated announced a commitment to source 100,000 metric tons of cocoa certified by the Rainforest Alliance annually for use in Mars products. The first product to use Rainforest Alliance certified cocoa will be Galaxy Chocolate in the UK and Ireland beginning in 2010. While Mars refers to the commitment as a “milestone” in advancing sustainable cocoa farming, organizations like the International Labor Rights Forum have been pushing Mars to adopt stronger labor standards to end child labor in their cocoa supply chain and to support organic farming for eight years. For more perspectives on Mars' announcement to source Rainforest Alliance cocoa, check out this press release from the International Labor Rights Forum and the Organic Consumers Association: http://www.laborrights.org/stop-child-labor/cocoa-campaign/2010 Thanks,

Candy

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