Amnesty The Game: A Facebook game about killing the death penalty

For those who've grown tired of the typical light and fluffy Facebook gaming fare -- here's something a little more serious. The Hellenic Game Developers Association (HGDA) has rolled out Amnesty-the Game -- a stripped-down real time strategy Facebook game designed as a protest against the death penalty.

Your mission is to save the lives of six death row inmates by making sure that capital punishment is quashed in their respective countries (China, Iran and the US, to name a few). Start the process by opening Amnesty International offices in each location, then use a series of protests, media campaigns and petitions to sway public opinion and then get the government to ditch the death penalty for good.

Here's the rub -- you only have a certain amount of time to get the country to change its tune in order to save the lives of the various prisoners (such as Louis Gascone pictured above) and each action requires a certain amount of time to take effect. So you'll need to plan accordingly. There are also random real-time events that can either work against you or in your favor. As for the 'social' part of the game, you can enlist your fellow Facebook friends in exchange for Influence Points, which can, in turn, give you a leg up in changing the public and government's stance on the death penalty.

Tasos Flambouras, HGDA President and Amnesty-the Game Executive Producer says they aimed to create a game that "is still fun and easy to play despite the grim theme." While Amnesty-the Game is certainly thought provoking, I wouldn't exactly describe it as "fun." But while we're on the subject of do-gooder games, how about a turning the Wall Street protests into a game called Occupy Facebook? Any takers?

If you want to try Amnesty-the Game, click this link to get started. Take heed, though. You may be prompted to download and install Microsoft Silverlight and agree to give up additional hard drive space to get started.