Well, maybe they haven’t outright said the game is against Daesh, but the self-described “awareness program,” called "Don’t Be a Puppet: Pull Back the Curtain on Violent Extremism," is an attempt by the FBI to discourage American youth from joining the ranks of extremist groups.
The program includes a series of scenarios that encourage users to “free" the heavily metaphorical "puppet" from radicalization. In one activity, users are given text messages on a smartphone, and must click on the message that was most likely sent by a violent extremist. Options include “What’d you think of the new movie?”, “when are you coming over?”, and “you should come join our fight overseas.” Hint: “what’d you think of the new movie?” isn’t the correct answer.
In slightly more action-packed game scenario, users maneuver a goat (why?) Flappy Bird-style through a field of blocks and “distorted logic.” It's the stuff of Neopets circa 2005 - except this time, there's awkardly patched-together and heavy-handed metaphors about violent extremism.
To be fair, the new program isn’t entirely far-fetched - a number of Americans have left home to join the ranks of Daesh, and militants have been known to prowl online forums for potential recruits. Some recruiters have even tried enticing would-be jihadis with Nutella and kittens, according to recent reports. The US has also faced Daesh-inspired attacks at home, including a shooting rampage in southern California that left 14 people dead in December 2015.
The US government isn't alone in its concerns - its new program for American youth joins the ranks of Australia's "Radicalisation Awareness Kit" and the UK's "Educate Against Hate" - the latter two, however, are a little bit less mid-2000's Neopets and a little bit more to-the-point.
