Playing the pet cat of the popular Iranian prime minister, users can go back through the important historical moments in Mossadegh’s life by “knocking objects off of shelves, scattering his papers, jumping on his lap and scratching him,” as the game is explained. Beginning with his death while under house arrest, players of “The Cat and the Coup” can “coax” Mossadegh back to the 1953 coup d’etat that overthrew him.
“Both Iranians and Americans can ask themselves: Am I Mossadegh’s friend, or am I his foe?” says Peter Brinson, an instructor at USC who came up with the idea for the game.
Brinson wanted to make a conflict-focused game that did not glorify warfare, but still educated players. “I knew early on that it needed an interesting premise, and that’s where the cat comes in,” he says, explaining the cat was chosen because of its incalculable nature. To make the dream game a reality, Brinson teamed up with Kurosh Valanejad, the Tehran-born art director of USC’s innovation lab, and a team of USC students.
Valanejad who has an Iranian father and American mother, says “the inspiration for a project like this” is all the popular protests in Iranian history, including the mass demonstrations following President Ahmadi-nejad’s re-election in 2009. The creators, especially Brinson, hope that the game will inspire Americans and others to learn about the important political figures of other countries, especially when they are touched by US policy.
“Perhaps if this story takes place in a video game, that’s enough to excite someone,” he says. “In fact, we would love it if after someone plays this they go, ‘Hmm, I’m gonna Google this,’ or ‘I’m going to go look it up; maybe I’ll even buy a book.’”
Some avid gamers agree that designers will raise awareness through video games. “These kinds of games are the future of education,” Peter Cizak, a 23-year-old gamer in Slovakia who plays video games for at least three hours a day, told Radio Farda.
What’s the best part of this game to Cizak? “I know that this might sound weird, but the best thing is the creepy utopic background music and the sound effects,” he writes.
“The Cat and the Coup” game, released June 16 to coincide with Mossadegh’s birthday, is available for free at: http://coup.peterbrinson.com