They may not discover the solution to the nation’s fiscal quagmire, but aspiring student economists who devise a video game to deal with the economic downturn have a shot at a $10,000 prize in an mtvU contest.
MTV’s college network, mtvU, has partnered with the Peter G. Peterson Foundation to create an “Indebted” campaign to build awareness about fiscal responsibility among college students. As part of the campaign, the “Indebted Digital Challenge” offers individuals 18 to 28 years old, or teams of people in that age range, the chance to devise a video game aimed at coping with the current fiscal crisis, and individually to take action to deal with it.
“It’s no secret to anyone that we’re in the midst of this crisis,” said Ross Martin, senior vice president of programming for mtvU. “But we don’t often hear about ways in which we can protect ourselves or how things got this way.”
MtvU’s purpose here is to give college students a chance to play the game and gain a sense of what the current crisis is all about when mtvU makes the winning submission available worldwide. The deadline for submissions is Jan. 7.
More information about the contest is available.
MtvU plans to help launch the “Indebted” game on the Web sometime in the second quarter of next year, Martin said.
The game challenge follows the video game concept mtvU has employed in “Pos or Not”, a game based on the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and “Darfur is Dying”, a game intended to educate students about the genocide in Darfur.
MtvU is spreading the word about the contest both on air and on its Web site, and through affiliate Web sites. It’s also publicizing it through its 750 college campus affiliates.
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