Thomas Erdbrink, in today's Washington Post, reports
on a cool-sounding new video game from an unlikely place: Iran. "The
Iranian engineering students, programmers and fantasy animators who created"Garshasp, the Monster Slayer"have
not only impressed foreign companies with their product," wrote Erdbrink. "They
have also proved that young Iranians can carve out opportunities for themselves
against a backdrop of international sanctions, domestic deterrents and
anti-government demonstrations."
The game is a fantasy adventure based on Iranian myth and
legend. It was created by a 20-member team of young developers who discovered
they had talents for illustration, programming, music and storytelling: all the
components of video game development. The preview version has won numerous
awards, and the game is set to go live this weekend.
Though our perceptions of Iran are colored by the overhang
of political and religious conflict, the country actually has many of the
characteristics of a rising Young World economy. The median age in the country
of about 65 million is 26.4 year, same as India, and considerably younger than
most European nations. The per capital GDP of $3100 places it solidly in the
global middle class. With a strong tradition of education and high literacy
rates, Iran's population is well-positioned for knowledge economy activity.
Despite these building blocks, Iran is missing some of the
institutional support necessary for knowledge-economy entrepreneurship,
including economic stability and the kind of impartial civic institutions that
constrain risk. Erdbrink writes:
For Iranians, who live with
double-digit inflation, unemployment and constant political and judicial
uncertainty, enterprises that do not yield almost-instant results are typically
regarded as lost undertakings. There are no copyright laws, and music, movies and
computer games can be freely copied, distributed and sold.
"People thought we had lost
our minds," said Jafari, laughing. "Why weren't we building apartment
buildings like other engineers? our parents asked us," Fassihi recalled.
This was a common refrain I heard elsewhere in the Young
World. But the willingness of young creative-class professionals to forego the
steady paycheck and take a risk on a new venture is the hallmark of a
rapidly-maturing entrepreneurial ecosystem.
It's unclear whether a venture like this can succeed in
Iran, given the high barriers and the ambient noise created by Iran's
reputation in much of the West. Still, it's extremely encouraging. The economic
success of knowledge-economy projects like Garshasp
is an important step in empowering an indigenous creative class independent of
the clerics and the existing power-structure. Their success will empower and
encourage similar types of young entrepreneurs who participate more fully in
the wider world, and help melt the barriers that Iran's government has erected.