Videogame to teach Buddhist
Principles
AKI, March 13, 2007
Bangkok, Thailand -- A new videogame has been
launched in Thailand to help bring Thai youth closer to the
fundamental principles of Buddhism. The religious affairs
department of the Thai government came up with the idea to develop
and distribute what is known as the "Ethics Game".
The main characters in the Thai videogame aimed at teaching
Buddhist principles
The game's creator, Pakorn Tancharoen, is the director of the
office for the moral and ethics development, admitted that he
himself had "never played a videogame" and that he "spent weeks
observing how children played", before developing the programme for
the game.
The main characters in the game are Dharmmahapanyo, an old Buddhist
monk, and three children - Charn, who is considered the life of the
group, Nu Na, the only female child and Paloe, a pudgy boy who has
a lot of fun playing jokes.
In the game, the children follow the monk on a pilgrimage. In the
course of the journey they have to face many hidden dangers where
they have to demonstrate their intelligence and their persistent
goodwill in order to move forward. Any act of violence - even
against animals - will result in an immediate deduction of
points.
The five main principles of Buddhism - not to kill, steal, commit
adultery, tell lies or drink alcohol - are fundamental to reach the
highest level in the game, where they will then be called upon to
teach farmers or peasants the fundamental rules of Buddhism.
The game's creator said that he was inspired to develop the game
after having read a report about a child who attacked his mother
after she refused to give him money to play a videogame.
Pakorn also said that they would like to produce a cartoon inspired
by the videogame as well as organise a children's drawing
competition to design the main characters in a sequel to the
videogame, known as Ethics Game II.
The game was distributed for free and the first 10,000 CDs of the
game were snapped up by children who can also download the game
from the Internet at this website www.khondee.net/game