Patent ID: 8277315

Claim:
A video game, comprising: a graphic user interface that presents a user a simulation of real-life events wherein said real-life events include events arising from a conflict between two or more entities; a content database containing a collection of real-life news photos and videos; a simulation engine (1) presenting an inciting event which includes the display of a photo or video from the database and which serves as a trigger and entry point to educate the user about an environment and requiring the user to select a side or position in the conflict, with indicia of the inciting event being displayed on a map of a conflict region, followed by a plurality of possible actions to the user, said possible actions including at least one of military force, diplomacy, renegotiation or reconstruction; (2) receiving a selection of at least one of the actions from the user; (3) identifying, in the content database, at least one real-life news photo or video that is associated with the user selected action; and (4) presenting to the user a result in response to the selection wherein the result includes an identified photo or video; wherein (1) through (4) are repeated to present an additional plurality of possible actions, which possible actions require the user to participate in a decision-making process based on new conditions and feedback to previous user selections until a win or lose state is reached, wherein each of the additional plurality of possible actions are selected based on at least one previous result or user action; a content update module that receives updated photo or video content from one or more content distributors; analyzes the updated photo or video for relevance; creates an association element for the updated content and an available action in the game based on the relevance; and includes the updated content and association element in the content database; and a scoring module; wherein the result of the game relates to both the selected action and the inciting event and includes a simulated event that illustrates a consequence of one or more user-selected actions.