Review #1 - 2023

Peter Gabriel, the artist, the activist, the appreciator of music from around the world. This CD-ROM experience brings you all 3 of these notions into his interactive point-and-click "secret world", where you'll discover not just his music, but music from around the globe, as it showcases several many artists from his label, Real World Studios, a recording label that provides a means for artists all over the world to record and share their music on a global scale. Not only that, you'll discover WOMAD, yet another opportunity started by Gabriel, that showcases these artists from around the world, live and on stage in a festival weekend setting. Real World and WOMAD are still going on to this day, so it's cool seeing it's early beginnings!

Given his love for world music, you'll learn about different cultures, and the instruments they wield. It's actually an idea I've had for a long time to create a game where you explore a globe, and learn about music and how culture spreads. This game has that going on in a smaller scale, and I absolutely adore what it's trying to achieve.

There's all kinds of oddities to find in this game, so definitely explore your options, and keep an eye out for Easter eggs along the way for you to click on! I will however warn you, that there is a section that brings awareness to the horrible human rights violations that were going on at the time, and really, still going on today. It's a video about his WITNESS organization, a project that aims to bring cameras to people all over the world, so they can film and bring to light the injustices happening on the daily. Just know, the video has some horrifying and graphic footage.

Xplora is a testament to Gabriel's care for the world. It goes beyond the music and culture. He aims to help us get a little bit closer to a world where a culture and its peoples aren't held back by the cruel injustices we see time and time again. The fact that Real World, WOMAD, and WITNESS is still around today, proves that his outreach is doing something good. We should all aim to do something bigger than ourselves to make the world a better place, and I find music to be an incredible tool to do just that.

Reviewed on Feb 01, 2023


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