Sundance Video Game Festival. Hopefully, in the near future, this is going to be a reality and not just some topic of a panel discussion. Anyway, filmmakers at the annual Sundance Film Festival are seriously interested in exploring the evolving video game medium and this was the topic of a panel discussion held recently at Sundance.

The panel was made up of indie game community members and those people who have been playing and keeping an eye on their games from the get go. The conclusion of the talk: The indie game movement is not only changing the gaming industry, but more importantly, they are changing how the people perceive the world.

One example cited was Asi Burak's game called PeaceMaker, which is all about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He mentions that the game is set to be released in a few days. He also hopes that "by including real news footage and allowing players to play both sides of the conflict, PeaceMaker will help players "understand the cause and effect relationships" that are involved and why people on both sides feel so impassioned". Other games who are fast becoming agents of social change are Darfur is Dying and Food Force from the United Nations.

They make socially relevant games alright and they are adding a new facet to the seemingly never-ending "Are video games good or bad" debate. But the situation isn't always peachy as the indie game scene almost always has to face issues of funding, games distribution, and the balancing of expression and marketability.

In closing, game developer of games like Waco Resurrection and Tekken Torture Tournament, Eddo Stern mentioned that games should be more than just fun and should also be able to evoke feelings of anger and even pain. He says that "even though game play is a part of them, fun is a question."

Sundance Video Game Festival. How do you like the sound of that?