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Sitting in Minority Media’s studio in Mile End, I have yet to shoot at anything.

It’s an unusual state of affairs for me – as a video game aficionado, I’ve been playing a lot of Grand Theft Auto online lately.

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Instead of tearing a sociopathic swath of destruction through a fictionalized version of Los Angeles, I’m following Chiwatin, a young Cree boy, as he wanders through a lush environment of trees and snow.

Chiwatin is the main character of Spirits of Spring, Minority Media’s new game for iPad and iPhone. In the game, Chiwatin and his animal friends Bear and Rabbit find themselves being attacked by their enemies, the Crows. The game is designed to be fun and tell a story, as most good games are, but both are in service of teaching gamers a lesson.

Rather than pulling out a Glock and solving the problem à la Call of Duty, Chiwatin instead learns about his enemies and why they act as they do. While Spirits of Spring is a metaphor for bullying, the message is less about standing up for yourself and more about learning to see things from the point of view of another, even if that other is your tormentor.