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Virtual to Real Change
Posted by Hsing Wei on 07-22-10
Mirroring the constant evolution of entertainment games, socially conscious games are likewise experimenting with new techniques and platforms. A recent Adweek article highlights Barefoot Explorers, an iPhone game studio started in 2009 by a former Microsoft executive, as an example of a maturing group of games for change developers with ambitions for production quality and game play that does not sniff of chocolate covered broccoli. Barefoot Explorers’ first game, Panda Hero, is an eco-adventure game where kids save endangered pandas in the digital world and simultaneously support reforestation in the real world. Similar to games like freerice.com, three trees are planted (in partnership with non-profit Trees for the Future) each time a customer downloads the game. Since its release this past April, more than 20,000 trees have been planted. Aside from tying actions to downloads, there are also hints that virtual goods could be a successful bridge to investment in real world change. While not developed as social advocacy games, in just five days Facebook games like FarmVille, FishVille, Mafia Wars and Zynga Poker raised $1.5 million for Haitian earthquake relief by selling virtual goods within the games. What virtual to real change experiments are catching your eye?
Continue reading the rest of this post.Games Among the Winners of the Knight News Challenge
Posted by Hsing Wei on 06-24-10
One of the winners in the $2.74 million 2010 Knight News Challenge, a contest funding ideas that leverage digital technology to inform specific geographic communities, is a games for change project. Ian Bogost (Georgia Tech) and Michael Mateas (UC Santa Cruz) collaborated in the conception of Cartoonist. Growing partly out of research for a book, Newsgames, the project is premised on creating games that revive engagement in local current issues.
“People may have appeared to read the paper for the news, but many bought the paper for the funnies or the crossword, getting the news as a bonus along the way. The comics and the crossword are more orthogonal to current events, but the editorial cartoon offers a more direct vector into civic matters, particularly for local issues that might not be as familiar or visible.” According to Bogost, local editorial cartoonists have been casualties of local newspaper cuts; cuts which moreover accelerate the downward spiral in print news readership. Mateas and Bogost’s proposed solution is Cartoonist, an authoring system for the rapid creation of current event games, playable editorials. The system will allow users to take a current event, define topics and roles, and generate simple games representing the event components’ relationships through game mechanics and visuals. By enabling the creation of newsgames that represent a story as an interactive system, they aim to support online news sites in introducing readers to and deepening their interaction with local issues.
Continue reading the rest of this post.DARPA Healing Heroes
Posted by Hsing Wei on 06-10-10
Army Brigadier General Loree K. Sutton, the highest ranking psychiatrist in the military, gave a moving talk at this year’s Games for Change Festival. While typically peoples’ minds jump to recruitment and training games like America’s Army, Sutton asked how digital games and developers sitting in the audience could address the “unseen wounds” of war, the widespread mental health issues, brain injuries, and affected economic and personal welfare within the military community. She highlighted the challenge, when less than 1% of our citizenry knows what it means to wear a military uniform, how we de-stigmatize issues among the general public and create a cultural transformation from a pathological approach to a community-based, public health approach.
In terms of entry points, DARPA is requesting proposals (due July 13) for a new project “Healing Heroes”, a WebMD of sorts for military members and military families’ specific needs.
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IBM’s CityOne and Aspiring Towards Worldchanging Games
Posted by Hsing Wei on 05-11-10
A recent Forbes article notices movement over the past decade towards “games that can change the world.” The idea that games can do much more beyond addict and amuse (rise to a purpose beyond entertainment) has been circulated, embraced, and acted on. Forbes highlights examples ranging from MiniMonos to Armchair Revolutionary and the White House’s “Apps for Healthy Kid” competition. We now have a growing pool of pioneers to reflect on how to effectively apply game mechanics to spur educational, environmental, and social change.
The potential to enable a more multi-dimensional depiction of a problem, a dive deep into the factors, and engaging experience through a game done right has had some repeated practice. At Impact 2010, IBM introduced a new serious game called CityOne. IBM’s previous serious game, Innov 8 BPM, put IT and business professionals in virtual business unit to understand different perspectives and test their hand at business process scenarios such as evaluating traffic patterns, supply chains, or call center design. Their newest game in the series is designed to help players discover how to make their cities and industries grow smarter in comprehensive ways. Today’s cities consume an estimated 75 percent of the world’s energy and emit more than 80 percent of greenhouse gases. City infrastructures that deliver vital services such as transportation, energy and water, must adopt new information and technologies to meet the needs of their growing populations. According to Phaedra Boinodiris, senior game program director at IBM, CityOne is inspired by games such as SimCity and Civilization Revolution. If SimCity introduced laymen to the world of urban planning, then CityOne looks to take that introduction to the next level and challenge people on how to better cope with complex modern problems. Rather than building cities, players are asked to test the value of potential solutions and efficiently manage a city using business process management methods. For example, one mission involves a city where water usage has increased at twice the rate of population growth and supplies are becoming strained, costly, and polluted. Players must institute a water management system that draws upon accurate real time data to make decisions on delivering a solution to the water issue.
Short CityOne video promo
CityOne is just one of several recent games designed to teach players new skills and solve real-world problems. Previously highlighted ARG Evoke similarly incorporates real world data and information to help players collaboratively discover, weigh, and brainstorm potential solutions. Says Evoke creator Jane McGonigal, “...in game environments we have these really sophisticated ways of working with other people and figuring out what each others’ strengths are, putting together a team where everybody has something important to contribute, coordinating globally in a virtual environment. The idea is to make games that take those sophisticated ways of collaborating and apply those to real-world problems.. .games give us that sense of blissful productivity…. Neurochemically we’re kind of fired up … to take on challenges…. Games take us immediately out of a state of paralysis or alienation or depression and they switch on the positive ways of thinking. They trigger the brain to a state in which it’s possible to do good work. It’s possible to aspire to tough goals.”
More via Gizmodo, Popsci, IBM Press room, Wired
Continue reading the rest of this post.Armchair Revolutionary: banking on mini game mechanics
Posted by Hsing Wei on 04-14-10
Combining notions of crowd sourcing, social gaming, micro-finance, and the iTunes market, Armchair Revolutionary has received a good deal of coverage since its Beta launch. With a goal of supporting “worldchanging” science and technology ventures in getting off the ground, the web-based platform combines several marketplace models into one. Built around a series of eight simple social activism tasks—gifting, VoIP phone calling, e-mailing, uploading, downloading, voting, forms, and quizzes—Armchair Revolutionary lowers the cost of mass participation via micro-tasks and 99 cent micro-donations while highlighting the rewards of engagement with competitive game elements.
The creators hope the social game system’s constantly evolving series of tasks and point system will keep altruistic users hooked in search of the rewards that come with greater participation. Each ArmRev user has a social change dashboard to view his/her progress—level, points, community ranking, and series of available tasks. At early levels, the tasks are pretty quick and simple to complete. As users score enough points and level up, bigger and more interesting tasks are unlocked. Points can also be used to purchase virtual goods, like artwork to customize pages. All transactions are conducted in a virtual currency called Kredz (1 Kredz = 33 cents), developed to facilitate not just gifting to innovators but a virtual goods economy that could support the organization’s costs and keep it self-sustaining.
Currently Armchair Revolutionary’s tasks are oriented around three feature projects: “Make Waves”, a video game that provides users with real-life social activism tools while they manage part of a virtual ocean; “Hack Your Body,” a three-part effort about the “fast approaching genomics revolution” that includes a documentary, the Personal Genome Project, and the development of commercial software for people to analyze their own DNA; and lastly “End of Darkness” the first publicly financed clean energy company that will provide low-cost solar power kits to the world’s poor. While user micro-investments are a big part of the model, tasks provide other ways for members to help out. For example, members can use a built-in messaging system to compose and send e-mails to influential executives advocating for an important innovation, like some new biodegradable material to the head of a big manufacturer. Ultimately, Armchair Revolutionary’s ambitious goal is to engage large number of users,10 million with a minimum of 5% participating on any given day, with manageable tasks and chances to make a difference.
More on the platform here
And more on the 99 cent model here
GDC: Theme Does Not Equal Meaning
Posted by Hsing Wei on 03-11-10
Keynoting at this year’s GDC, Soren Johnson remarked, “Just because you give a game a theme, doesn’t make a game about that thing…” The Civilization and Spore designer drew attention to the separation, and at times the dissonance, between the rules of a game and its theme. At the end of the day, he believes meaning emerges from a game’s mechanics – the set of decisions and consequences the game asks of players - and, especially in the serious games space, when in conflict can lead to significant failures. “Often when you choose real-world themes, you hit some limitations because people come to the game with expectations about how something works… This is why a lot of game developers decide to go sci-fi, because they can twist the game thematically all they want to support the mechanics.” Reflecting on Spore’s lukewarm reception, Soren notes while Spore was billed as a game about evolution, its creature creator had nothing to do with the laws of evolution. Other games like World or Warcraft, where players optimize characters for survival needs, model the theory of evolution more effectively.
He points to the importance of producing meaningful experiences that are uniquely tied to gameplay rather than to the content wrapped around the play. He praised “The Redistricting Game” as an example where the theme and the mechanics were in sync. The game encourages players to gerrymander political districts leading to results similar to the real-world. Perhaps worth debating, overall Johnson encouraged social change game designers to consider avoiding the constraints of real-life. In addition, he recommended focusing on the struggles of an individual instead of modeling societies. More here.
Continue reading the rest of this post.Evoke: World Bank and McGonigal Team Up
Posted by Hsing Wei on 02-14-10
The conversation around the impact of games often focuses on how much transfer there is between a player’s game experience and his/her real life beliefs and behaviors. ARGs (alternative reality games) are often designed to jump that step and move players into real world action during game play. For 10 weeks starting March 3rd, Evoke will be open for free play. The world is introduced with graphic novel influenced illustrations and builds on top of social networks and other ordinary tools like blogs, wikis, and video sharing sites. Through ten quests players learn, act, and imagine social innovations to tackle the world’s toughest problems. The first episode is about a major famine in Tokyo. Players learn about food security and must do something to increase the food security of at least one person they know in real life. Meanwhile, real experts from the World Bank and other fields will watch, mentor, and give feedback.
The game will be open for anyone to play, but the target audience is young people in Africa. Avant Game is working with universities throughout Africa to get the game into classrooms. Ideally young students will work their way through the entire game and get to the point where they have a social enterprise ready to pitch. Players who successfully complete ten game challenges can claim recognition as a Certified World Bank Institute Social Innovator – Class of 2010. Top players will also earn online mentorships with experienced social innovators and business leaders from around the world. More commentary about Evoke in an interview with McGonigal on Worldchanging.
Watch the Evoke trailer here or register to play.
Code of Everand: RPG for Saving Lives
Posted by Hsing Wei on 01-04-10
Moving with their constituency, British PSAs are experimenting with interactivity. The Department of Transportation’s ongoing road safety campaign recently launched Code of Everand, an MMORPG aimed at reducing the number of teenage deaths and injuries from unsafe road crossing. In designing the game, New York based developer Area/Code took inspiration not from other serious games, but rather from kid-focused MMOs such as RuneScape, Maple Story, Dofus, Dragon Quest and World of Warcraft. Linking road crossing with the random battles that happen throughout traditional RPG environments, players as Pathfinders must safely traverse dangerous ‘spirit channels’ where monsters lurk by looking left and right, spotting creatures, battling with a range of attacks/spells, and accruing Concentration Points. Players can earn cash towards customizing their character via an array of clothing, armour and weaponry options.
The design philosophy is not about broadcasting a standardized message, but about expanding perceived control over tools that implicitly reshape understandings about how to engage with the underlying situation. As Kevin Slavin, Area/Code Managing Director explains, “Chess can teach you about logic, football can teach you about teamwork, real-time strategy games can teach you about planning. All games can teach you about how interactive systems behave, about succeeding through discipline and practice, and about creative problem-solving… The opportunity is to harness the ways that games build, influence and reinforce cognitive skills, and apply that to a particular problem or subject domain.”
Death Panel: iPhone Game about Healthcare Debate
Posted by Hsing Wei on 12-30-09
Year-in-review lists are emerging, and the various ways that iPhones and apps have changed the media landscape are among many a top 10 countdown. Rare but present among the growing number of apps that can help you with nearly anything was a free, new iPhone/iPod game that addressed the health care debate. Developed by newbie People Operating Technology, Death Panel puts players on a virtual podium in the role of a local official trying to win constituency points by correctly answering questions about health care from an anxious public. Designed as a fun application to help with the public’s struggle to comprehend the politicized claims, facts, and figures about the health care system, the quiz game incorporates third party facts from sources such as WhiteHouse.gov, StateHealthFacts.org, the bipartisan National Coalition on Health Care and FactCheck.org. and tests player’s knowledge of healthcare reform. Melding in a real-world and social component, players are encouraged to share their scores with friends via Facebook and Twitter. Moreover, an integrated location-based feature also allows players to look up info about real-life politicians and associated money those representatives have taken from health care lobbyists (data from the Center for Responsive Politics). More details here.
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Enercities & New Version of Foodforce 2
Posted by Hsing Wei on 12-17-09
Nicely coinciding with the Copenhagen Climate talks, Paladin Studios recently released a public beta version of a serious game hosted on Facebook, Enercities. Funded by the European Commission’s Energy Agency, in the SIM-like game, players negotiate between People, the Planet, and Profits while building an expanding virtual city. Electricity consumption is the current focus of the game, but other energy topics will eventually be included. The game is also playable via a website, but the developers hope that Facebook will help drive a larger community base, as players compare scores and rankings with friends. Notably, social networks are not viewed as the silver bullet in effectively reaching key audiences. The Energy Agency also allocated significant funds for the roll-out of the game that will encourage schools and teachers to embed the game in classrooms.
Along a similar vein, Foodforce2 has had a quiet release of a version 1.0 for OLPC, Windows, and Mac machines. The game aims to impact the issue of world hunger by helping children learn the importance of food nutrition and self sustainable communities. With OLPC’s reach into developing and third-world countries, its beta release sparked 29 thousand from Sugar activities. More about its improved features and UI here.
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Zynga’s Farmville: Donating with Social Games
Posted by Hsing Wei on 11-11-09
A big investment story this week is the $275+M purchase of Playfish by Electronic Arts. That deal reflects recognition of the significant growth in social games—typically free to play with no expensive console requirements, social games are appealing especially to “casual” gamers. Given the reach of social games with nontraditional players, its an interesting space for social issue game developers to consider.
One of the earliest examples is the popular social gardening game, (Lil) Green Patch, that donates a portion of revenues to funding reforestation projects (good writeup here). A more recent example comes from social gaming start-up leader, Zynga. Within three week, “Sweet Seed for Haiti”, in its most popular game, FarmVille, donated $487,500 towards the welfare of children in Haiti. Players can purchase virtual items as part of the game play in tending their own virtual farms. Exploring the idea of “social goods”, one of those items for purchase is Sweet Seeds, which trigger a donation of ~50 percent of proceeds to nonprofits in Haiti: FATEM.org and FONKOZE.org. “The sheer scope and reach of social gaming to affect people’s lives in a positive way wasn’t even a reality a few years ago,” said Mark Pincus, founder and chief executive of Zynga. ‘Sweet Seeds for Haiti’ is an early step for Zynga with more to come.” Zynga’s YoVille virtual town game with 140 million inhabitants has a similar program raising money for the SPCA by purchasing bulldogs and tabby cats from the game’s shelter. (Tangentially, social gaming companies have also recently received some criticism to increase oversight against scams tied to virtual currency transactions). Read more about Farmville or digital goods>.
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Investment in Games for Education and Learning: A Look at Singapore & Wisconsin
Posted by Hsing Wei on 10-29-09
Singapore’s Media Development Authority (MDA) recently invested $6 million to promote games in education & learning. The new initiative will support the development and deployment of up to 24 game titles for school-based education and other domains such as defense and healthcare. A resource center will support developers through access to toolkits, platforms and facilities. Part of the motivation to promote the use of games in the learning sphere is driven by a transformation of the business model to a large-scale distribution model. Traditionally, serious games are developed on a client by client basis, with content highly customized for a single client. With this initiative, MDA aims to co-invest in promising projects which can be “re-skinned” into generic commercial off-the-shelf titles for different clients and purposes.
Domestically, a research team at the University of Wisconsin-Madison was recently awarded $4.5 million in federal (NSF) grants; the most significant portion towards creating a research consortium to develop technology that will let computers teach real-world problem-solving. The team will use data from the play of “Urban Science,” a game where students learn about math, science and technology by working as urban planners guided by adult mentors. The researchers will collect data on what the students and adult mentors do in the game to create computer-generated, artificially intelligent characters in game to coach students. Similar to the Singapore MDA initiative’s notion of leveraging initial investments in development, says Professor David Shaffer, principal investigator on three of the four grants, “Once we know how to create computer-generated mentors for this game, we can provide mentoring as part of any educational game.”
How to sidestep resource intensive, brute force game development is also something that Michael Mateas, a new associate professor at UC Santa Cruz, has been thinking about. He’s working to create an intelligent authoring tool to simplify the level of technical expertise required to create interactive dramas. “We’re at a threshold, just beginning to create a medium that in many ways is as broad as writing,” Mateas said. “Anything you can imagine conveying in writing or film, you can potentially do in computational media in a way that makes it amenable to a level of exploration and reflection that is not possible in those other media… I want to enable everyday people to create games about topics that are important to them without having to hire a big team of experts.” More of his thoughts here.
Continue reading the rest of this post.Funding Social Issue Games Socially
Posted by Hsing Wei on 10-22-09
Funding is an annually recurring topic at the Games for Change (and other) conferences. Aside from sweat equity, behind every games’ development from idea to product is the capital that enabled its manifestation. As with most things today in our crowd-sourceable and socially networked world, potential rainmakers are no longer limited to big corporations, foundations, or governmental sponsors. Borut Pfeifer has an interesting post about experimenting with an alternative way of funding social issue games.
Seeking to create a puzzle/action game in the context of Iranian post election protests, Borut decided to test whether Kickstarter could be a viable source of funding. Kickstarter is a web platform that helps “artists, designers, filmmakers, musicians, journalists, inventors, explorers” connect with pledges to fund their ideas and endeavors. The proposed game puts players in the shoes of a father and mother looking for their lost daughter in a crowd of protesters, police, and potentially violent obstacles. With 48 days to go, Borut has 44 Backers and $2,693 towards his $15K goal. Kickstarter analysis seems to indicate that projects reaching 25% funding have a 94% chance of success. Would be interesting to see more data to better assess whether this could be an attractive option for more indie social issue games to pursue.
Continue reading the rest of this post.Picture The Impossible: Newspaper and RIT Collaborate on ARG to Mobilize Young Professionals
Posted by Hsing Wei on 09-17-09
Across the country, newspapers are worried about falling readership. In an experiment on how to re-engage younger audiences and simultaneously support local issues, the Rochester Institute of Technology’s Lab for Social Computing and the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle have teamed up. Leveraging play as a motivator, the partnership created Picture The Impossible, a community-based, alternate reality game that began this week (and will run for seven weeks through October). “We are looking to see if these tools of engagement will work as a channel to meet our fundamental First Amendment obligations for audiences we currently don’t reach frequently,” says Traci Bauer, managing editor content and digital platforms at the Democrat and Chronicle. “If this works as a way to engage an audience, then it becomes more than a game, it becomes a new set of tools that we can use for daily journalism, and, most important, for First Amendment work. In the community-based games, we’re showing that there’s an achievement based on people showing up at the same place and solving a problem together, [that] the community is going to be willing to come together if they see an achievement at the other end. This time the achievement is a lot of points, but the next time it might be to do something as a community to improve the dropout rate.”
Picture The Impossible is a mix of weekly interactive challenges that appear in the newspaper’s print and online platforms. Each week’s challenge will focus on a different theme related to the history and culture of Rochester – including imaging, social equality, food, music, arts and crafts and “Rochester firsts.” Its narrative storyline developed around key innovations in Rochester’s history and involves a fictional “secret society” known as The Gears, which has included most major Rochester historical figures (George Eastman, Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass). Players join one of three factions competing to control the community. Each faction will be associated with one of three local not-for-profits, Foodlink, Golisano Children’s Hospital at Strong and Wilson Commencement Park. Points are earned by individual accomplishment and by collaborating with teammates to help that faction’s charity receive a larger donation at the end of each week. More than 1,000 Rochesterians had registered for the game by the official launch this past Saturday.
The game’s developers hope to test whether the project can successfully cross platforms — print, online, mobile, and community. “Using extensive research and, more importantly, listening to young professionals, we’re delivering what they’ve asked for most: Opportunities to network and to make a positive difference in our community,” according to Jim Fogler, VP Marketing for the Democrat and Chronicle. Drawing heavily on technology provided by Microsoft’s Bing, participants will use online, interactive and personal skills to search the community for answers to the weekly puzzlers. “We love it! It’s great to have a chance to show what Bing Maps can do in the context of a game, especially one that gets the local community and its newspaper in the mix,” says Betsy Aoki, program manager for Bing at Microsoft Corp.
Read an interview about the project’s development, including initial research at the Games for Change conference and advice from alternate reality game pioneers like Elan Lee here. You can also register to play remotely.
New Release—Global Conflict: Child Soldiers
Posted by Hsing Wei on 09-09-09
Serious Games Interactive has continued its GC series with Global Conflicts: Child Soldiers. Men, women, and children can all become victims of local struggles and wars. The Global Conflicts series focuses on these victims and their stories. The latest title takes players to Uganda, where two decades of brutal civil war between government and rebels forces has destroyed villages, driven an estimated 1.7 million people into refugee camps, caused tens of thousands of deaths, and forced more than 25,000 children to enlist as child soldiers in the conflict.
Based on real-life personal accounts from survivors of the Ugandan civil war, the 3D role-playing game focuses on issues such as the use of children, human rights, and war-crimes in turbulent Uganda. Players work for the International Criminal Court and are sent on assignment to Uganda. Whether or not peace is restored depends on how much information players can gather and how players deploy that information with the rebel leader. “We want players to be able to relate to this terrifying conflict in a more personal way by looking a former child soldier in the eyes and listen to his story,” said Serious Games Interactive CEO Simon Egenfeldt-Nielsen. “The game offers you a unique opportunity to experience the events that so far most people have only been able to relate to through the news.”
Teaser video and English and Danish versions of Global Conflicts: Child Soldiers are now available for download at the Global Conflicts website
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One Hen: Virtual Beads for Real Microfinance Loans
Posted by Hsing Wei on 08-25-09
Microfinance is not a usual topic for children’s books or games, but one author thought it could be. She wanted to inspire kids to understand that even at their age, they could take steps that could have impact on their town and even other countries’ towns. One Hen: How One Small Loan Made a Big Difference is a 2008 children’s book about a boy from Ghanda who gets a small loan and then parlays that loan into a business, food for his family, tuition for school, and eventually loans for other entrepreneurs. Its associated interactive website, http://www.onehen.org, offers interactive games where kids can play to earn and donate beads, virtual currency which triggers real loans to real micro-entrepreneurs from One Hen, Inc. field partners Opportunity International and Microplace, an ebay company. Attempting to weave into schools across the country, to date One Hen has donated $50,000 to entreprenuers in Africa through the virtual beads earned by kids. Watch a short clip about One Hen here.
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NYTs Multi-tasking Game
Posted by Hsing Wei on 07-28-09
The New York Times has designed an interactive game ““Gauging Your Distraction” that lets their readers simulate the topic of several recent in-depth articles, the dangers of driving while distracted. Studies say that drivers using phones are four times as likely to cause a crash as other drivers. In general, when people multi-task while driving, they are putting themselves and others on the road at risk. Exacerbating the problem is the disconnect in perceptions; driver often overestimate their own ability to safely multi-task.
Developed in consultation with two experts, David Strayer, a University of Utah psychology professor, and David E. Meyer, a University of Michigan psychology professor and multitasking expert, the game puts players behind a wheel and challenges them to make it through rapidly approaching gates while texting on a cellphone. “We weren’t trying to be an exact simulation of driving down the highway or the road — it’s not realistic to have all those gates and people often text in shortened words,” says Times web producer Danielle Belopotosky. “It is a game to give you a sense of how a distraction can decrease your ability to react quickly.” My own performance proved the point. I was 0.13 seconds slower and missed gates 19% more often while texting. Test your own skills and their point with the game here.
Continue reading the rest of this post.A Growth in News Games?
Posted by Hsing Wei on 07-13-09
Since its April release, Swinefighter has been played more than a million times. Older flash based game, Sock and Awe has had more than 94 million pixilated loafers land on target. A number of games inspired by current events have been created and played on topics ranging from swine flu to Sully’s successful Flight 1549 landing on the Hudson River, and the Iraqi journalist who threw a shoe at President George W. Bush. “Though news games may never reach the same status as popular commercial video games such as ‘Grand Theft Auto’ or ‘Halo,’ Ian Bogost (who has been studying news games for the past nine months with a grant from the Knight Foundation) remarks, “there is an opportunity for video-game developers to see the news media as a creative, interesting outlet.” While Sock and Awe was sold for about $8K, the developers of Swinefighter decided instead to place a Red Cross donation button on the site.
“Games like these generate buzz,” says Kate Connally, vice president of AddictingGames, an independent gaming site that has developed numerous news games. These games are entertaining, and in some cases, also inform and educate. Ian Bogost describes two emerging types of news games that have gained the most traction. “Tabloid games” – quick, simple, news-driven games often designed in Flash - require some knowledge of the current event, but rarely teach the player anything about the issue. The other big category of news games are more journalistic in nature - informative and deeper diving - such as how to balance the budget in a recession.
The trend of using news games hasn’t taken off with many news outlets, says Eric Newton, Vice President for the Knight Foundation Journalism Program. “There hasn’t been a breakthrough in terms of a digital news game the way that the crossword puzzle was a breakthrough for the daily newspaper 100 years ago,” he says. “That hasn’t happened yet, but it will.” To stimulate that potential, the Knight Foundation has invested in studying and developing news games. Impact Games, based in Pittsburgh, Pa. was the winner recognized during the Knight News Games Award (developed with Games for Change for the 2009 GFC Expo) for “Play the News”— which uses a series of mini games to change news consumption from passive reading to active engagement (links to additional news game examples on the Knight Foundation blog and the Games for Change news game channel). Recently, ImpactGames indicated its exploring the potential for projects that can leverage Play The News for teaching new forms of journalism and discussing the future of interactive journalism. Several journalism schools have already been challenging their students to experiment with engaging users in journalism in ways they haven’t encountered. This past spring at the University of Nevada, journalism students built simple games around the theme of the environment.
More coverage on the topic of news games here
Continue reading the rest of this post.Food Force 2 Beta Release
Posted by Hsing Wei on 06-29-09
Belated posting on the beta release of Food Force 2. This open source sequel of the World Food Program’s Food Force game aims for a more holistic approach to educating and motivating people to solve world hunger. Taking on the role of an Indian village administrator; by constructing facilities, upgrading facilities, and trading resources, the player aims to make a village self-sustaining in terms of nutrition, housing, health, education and training (nice screen shots on their wiki). While able to run on almost all platforms, Food Force 2 has been under development for the XO—an aligned channel since OLPC reaches out to developing and third-world countries.
Documentation of deployment testing at Delhi Police Public School provides an initial picture of the strategy game’s potential ability to impact children and teachers on how to achieve self sustenance. ”... One could realise this thing with a very simple statement of theirs, one of them questioned ‘Sir, How can I increase the money in my village’ the feeling of belongingness that the children were able to get with the game really made me feel that we have done something which can lead to the betterment of a child’s future.” Also visible in the documentation is the value of initial play testing, where feedback included a desire for more of a Help Menu. In general, the Food Force 2 wiki which summarizes the game’s learning goals and implementation is a useful overview.
The code for downloading and trying the game is here. The team is seeking suggestions.
Continue reading the rest of this post.Youth Tackling Debt via Games
Posted by Hsing Wei on 06-02-09
A few games at this year’s GFC Expo Night reflected a topic on many people’s minds, the recession and our growing national debt. One such game was “Debt Ski”, an online game developed by mtvU and the Peter G. Peterson Foundation as part of their Indebted Campaign. “Debt Ski” is part of a growing line of games sponsored by mtvU dealing with serious world issues (previous games “Darfur is Dying” focused on Darfur refugees and “Pos or Not?” on HIV positive patients). The game aims to teach youth how to identify/manage debt and cope with tough financial times. As Piggy Banks, players jet ski through various obstacles to maximize his savings, limit his debt and keep him happy while buying daily necessities such as food and housing. Along the way, Spending Taunamis, like increases to the cost of living or emergency medical bills, may strike. When players lose, debt management information is provided. Ross Martin of MTV360 reports, “Early data shows that there are high replay numbers, which means the audience is spending time on the site and playing the game multiple times—increasing the odds that the core messages are coming through and have the potential to make an impact.” Fuller story here.
Aside from free online game models, another company is looking to push games on financial literacy via in-classroom software. EverFi’s software tutors students to acquire new financial literacy skills and then use those skills to play a SimCity-style game; in which they control their characters’ spending habits and experience the good and bad consequences of their choices. Customers so far include The D.C. Chamber of Commerce Foundation (purchased 1,250 licenses to launch the Financial Scholars Program, an educational initiative for the city’s youth) and PayPal (bought 500 licenses for students in cities near their company offices). EverFi hopes to enroll a total of 20,000 students in the program and generate $4 million in sales by the end of 2009. Read more here.
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Games Win at DML Competition
Posted by Hsing Wei on 04-23-09
From a field of approximately 700 applications, nineteen projects from around the world were awarded funding in The Digital Media and Learning (DML) Competition. Now in its second year, the $2M competition, sponsored by the MacArthur Foundation, is designed to find and inspire novel uses of digital technologies to change the way people learn and participate in daily life. Last year’s DML Competition winners included Let The Games Begin: A 101 Workshop For Making Social Issue Games, which we will reprise at this year’s festival on May 27.
2009 winners included several games-based projects:
Doers and Talkers, co-founded by G4C Board Member Alan Gershenfeld, is a platform that will allow at-risk teens and young adults to learn about entrepreneurship through games that integrate real world learning. Focusing on areas of interest to youth (fashion, music, games and comics), the first release will feature gameplay that seeds ideas and inspires players to design and sell personalized apparel and gear. Players will get feedback from successful entrepreneurs, be connected to local mentors, engage in peer-to-peer learning, and leverage social networks to bring their visions to life.
DevInfo GameWorks is developing a software gaming engine that supports the creation, exchange, and play of games based on UN development data. Putting learners in the position of game creators, young people will tackle wide-ranging global information on the condition of humanity in an engaging, social way.
Play Power: Radically Affordable Computer-Aided Learning proposes to use a $12 TV-computer (TVC) as a platform for open-source participatory design of 8-bit learning games. By using technology that is now in the public domain due to expired patents, Play Power hopes to improve educational access for millions of children in the developing world and create real economic opportunities for adults.
History Game Canada, based on the popular “Civilization” strategy game platform, enhances students’ learning experience by putting them in control of early Canadian civilizations. Players are invited to consider not only the “what was” of historical events, but also to envision “what might have been.”
See all the winning projects here.
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Learning from Spore
Posted by Hsing Wei on 03-29-09
One of the most anticipated game releases of the year was Spore. At the Serious Games Summit, journalist Margaret Robertson shared some thoughts on lessons learned from Spore in the context of serious games.
Despite some criticisms about the accuracy of the science of Spore, the response to the game was meaningful discussion. For Robertson “This is a game that caused tens of thousands of people to be forced to articulate their profound thoughts on who they are and their place in the universe…” While perhaps falling short on science, Spore perhaps fell right on in terms of stimulating thinking about beliefs and decision-making. As Robertson noted, “We don’t talk enough about the potential of games to be valuable as polemics… Spore isn’t god vs. science, but all of this grew out of this. What other debates could we be having… In other contexts?”
Current social impact games usually try to mitigate the possibility of misunderstandings about the issue they are addressing. Usually there is a clear message about what is good and bad. Usually players take on the role of the protagonist rather than the bad guy. Especially for the purposes of building awareness and learning within games, situating players within the role of those facing the problem or seeking to fix the problem is spot on. However, as social change games begin maturing as a genra, will we begin to see more examples of games intended to ignite controversy and debate? The creator of Harpooned recently shared how not everyone understood his game as a satire (end of this video clip). Have a hunch, we’ll be seeing more games experimenting with unexpected styles and uses of games.
Back to Spore. Its release also had some good lessons learned for social impact games hoping to reach children through schools. Some highlights of aspects to consider include: accommodating school schedules (releases that align with school planning), flexibility to classroom needs (ease of integrating into existing lesson plans and class time), and cost (potential of free versions to build buyers). More at Gamasutra.
Simulation to Prevent Drunk Driving
Posted by Hsing Wei on 03-26-09
This month Westchester County students test drove a simulation to help get out the message about the dangers of DWI. Said County Board Chair Bill Ryan. “The simulator lets young people see for themselves how alcohol and drugs impact the ability to drive a vehicle safely. It’s an effective way to get the message across that drinking and driving don’t mix.” Students get a limited number of opportunities to negotiate a virtual driving course, first in a sober condition and then as an alcohol-impaired driver. Hitting other vehicles/pedestrians/buildings, speeding or moving too slowly, running lights, etc. lead to penalties. Vrshell LLC worked with members of the county police and the directors of Westchester’s and Orange’s STOP-DWI offices to incorporate the true life stories of families touched by the tragedies of drunk driving and to provide technical details.
Developed through a grant from the county’s Office of Drug Prevention, STOP-DWI and the NY State STOP-DWI Foundation, the DWI simulator was paid for with money generated from DWI fines; no taxpayer dollars were used. Watch a short preview here.
Continue reading the rest of this post.Games Commenting on Budgets and Bailouts
Posted by Hsing Wei on 02-26-09
Unsurprisingly, a few games about the economy were released this month.
Requoting Kate Connally, VP of Addicting Games, “News events are something that really unite our culture, everyone experiences it together, so adding games into the mix of how people are experiencing major national events is just part of what we do… They’re not just a silly past time. It’s a form of social commentary.” Attuned to recent headlines, Addicting Games released Trillion Dollar Bailout earlier this month. Players are empowered to grant bail out dollars or deliver a slap in the face to troubled homeowners and corporate executives popping up requested aid. While the game’s stated aim is to give players “the chance to experience what it’s like to make a decision about who to bailout and who not to,” the simple game play doesn’t really delve into the nuances. As commentary, however, the game clearly sends a message: help averages Joes + punish high-powered executives = saved economy (+ released frustration).
On the opposite end of the spectrum, Gotham Gazette recently released a news game (a reprise of a similar 2003 game) where players balance New York City’s budget. There is no clear winning or losing. After pushing sliders representing various revenue and spending line items, you can compare your choices against the Mayor’s current recommendations for closing a $4 billion budget gap. The paper is tracking all the solutions that players come up with. The more novel piece is the open source spirit of this news game. Their intention is for the code to be available and accessible to anyone to adopt (as part of the Knight News Challenge). More here.
The tech-savy Obama administration has been encouraging accountability and transparency about the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act budget via the Recovery.gov website. Aside from visual charts and story submission boxes, perhaps they too should consider some game-like elements?
Continue reading the rest of this post.Quest to Learn Opens: Leveraging Games-based Learning for Public Education
Posted by Hsing Wei on 02-17-09
Quest to Learn, a new 6-12th grade public school, will be opening in New York City this fall.
Quoting Quest’s principal, “In an age when low-income urban kids continue to drop out of school at alarming rates, yet research is consistently showing the high levels of engagement youth are exhibiting in various media platforms, it is incumbent upon educators to take notice and indeed redirect teaching methods to meet the needs and interests of students.”
Many educators have been tinkering with the idea of how games might improve public education and prepare students for global civic participation. Inspired by the media-rich learning kids are engaged in outside of school, Quest aims to foster the type of learning that is possible today — learning based on access to online resources and tools from around the globe, learning that supports customized content for every student on demand, learning that is game-like in its ability to inspire and motivate. Its curriculum uses the underlying design principles of games to create highly immersive, game-like learning experiences for students. Games and other forms of digital media serve another useful purpose at Quest: they model the complexity and promise of “systems.” Understanding and accounting for this complexity is a fundamental literacy of the 21st century.
Quest is not a school whose curriculum is made up of the play of commercial videogames, but rather a school that uses the underlying design principles of games to create learning experiences. Says Katie Salen, lead partner and Executive Director of the Institute of Play, “Students today need to know how to connect what they are learning in school with the world and communities beyond its walls. We want to prepare students for participation in today’s global environment.” (The full press release )
The school is currently looking for both teachers and students. Read this “Day in the Life” of a student narrative and visit Quest’s website for a more complete picture.
Continue reading the rest of this post.Playing with (and Changing) Environmental Data
Posted by Hsing Wei on 01-27-09
Professor Byron Reeves has studied the high levels of player engagement with games like World of Warcraft. What does the human behavior and team effort in games like WOW imply for real-life, large social goals like reducing energy consumption?
The Stanford professor has been sharing a hypothetical game that has apparently already piqued the interest of some utility companies and the Department of Energy.
Raid Gaza Advocacy Game
Posted by Hsing Wei on 01-07-09
Matching current news headlines, a recent advocacy game, Raid Gaza, has sparked some conversation. Silly or effective? Oversimplified treatment of a complex issue or appropriate for its target audience and purpose? Snarky and exacerbating stereotypes rather then encouraging thoughtfulness, or a satire that is interpretable? Developed in just a few days, and markedly different from other games on the conflict issue like PeaceMaker, the simple flash game has stimulated some interesting discussion about what makes for a good or bad game.
Set to the background music of “Close to You,” players take on the role of an Israeli military commander using disproportionate force against Palestinian rocket attacks from Gaza (depicted as meagerly reaching targets). The Isrealis are portrayed as marshalling powerful military weapons and indefinite cash infusions from the US. Congratulations and bonus points are awarded for the successful destruction of hospitals and other large social institutions.
Some quotes from our listserve reflect the diverse opinions about the game’s message and impact.
From Yishay, “In the case of this game, the message it aims to promote is that Israel’s goal is to maximise civilian Palestinian casualties, which is pretty close to suggesting that Israelis feast on baby’s blood. “
From Reid, “I think it says that the reaction by Israel is disproportionate to the actions by Hamas. That’s different than saying Israel’s goal is to inflict as much damage as possible to civilians/babies/cute puppies. Instead, it says the event is insanity and it’s a bizarre world we live in when violence is attempted to be solved with more violence.”
From Conor,“Sure it’s over simplified and it’s in bad taste (you’re given a bonus for destroying a hospital - that’s horrible) but it is raising awareness of this conflict in people who otherwise wouldn’t know anything about it. If it was more complex and involving people would be less likely to actually play it through on their lunch breaks. If it was sensitive and done in good taste then people would be less likely to forward it to their friend.”
From Ted, “There seems to be an implied sub-text that “the Arabs are idiots because they have a comically bad aim”. It re-enforces the image of Arabs as crazed, senseless terrorists… So, the user is led to see that the game is obviously a chunk of over the top one sided propaganda. It’s precisely this observation that short circuits any sympathy generation.”
From David, “I’m somewhat alarmed by the notion that a politically oriented game needs to have a clinical, detached educational value. We wouldn’t expect a painting on the subject to be accompanied by an explanatory disclaimer, so implicit in all this talk seems to be the notion that interactive art is not a valid medium.”
From Elizabeth, “Can we affect people’s assumptions and prejudices by providing proxy experiences that can inform the heuristics we use to make snap judgments, e.g. about what’s going on in Gaza? Would it make sense to construct game worlds in which we can have positive experiences with people of different ethnicities or cultures, rather than focusing on the strife in various ways?”
Kotaku asked whether the game might be taking its tongue-in-cheek look at the Israeli-Palestinian fighting a bit too far (the comment thread may also be worth skimming). Some of the game creator’s personal reactions in this interview.
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Nickelodeon Launches Green-Themed MPOG
Posted by Hsing Wei on 12-14-08
Will play online change actions offline? With ”The Big Green Help Global Challenge” Nickelodeon wanted to a design a game that activated kids to address environmental change in their everyday lives. “With about three quarters of the U.S. kid population actively gaming online, we think our ‘Global Challenge’ game is a great way to connect them to the pro-social issues they care about, like the environment… we hope this game can be the beginning of a kid-led environmental movement.”” said Marva Smalls, EVP of Public Affairs, Nickelodeon Kids and Family Group.
In the multi-player game, the mission is to "green" the planet's last three pollution-free cities. Kids take on the identity of a Nicktoon character (SpongeBob SquarePants, Back at the Barnyard's Otis, The Fairly OddParent's Timmy Turner, or Avatar's Aang) and partner with other players to battle CO2-spewing monsters (like the Carbon Creeper, Waste Whirlwind or Guzzlor). As players move through the nine game levels, they will get tips about how to lower their carbon footprint and will be asked to virtually pledge volunteer hours that they can translate into actionable steps in their homes, schools, and communities. At the end of the game, kids will be directed to an online meter showing their individual commitments and the impact of their collective pledges.
Leveraging partners to support the bridge into real world change, Nickelodeon has linked with organizations (such as the Boys & Girls Clubs, Girl Scouts, National Wildlife Federation, Natural Resources Defense Council) to provide kids with local resources and events to convert their virtually volunteered hours into analog action. Players can follow the fulfillment of pledges through a downloadable widget pledge tracker.
A preview of the visuals in the video below.
Warner Brothers Interactive Launching Free AIDS Prevention Game
Posted by Hsing Wei on 12-09-08
While not yet released, Pamoja Mtaani (“Together in the Hood”) is already receiving a bit of buzz (perhaps reflecting the PR power when a major entertainment company backs a serious game). Being developed by Virtual Heroes Inc. (known for America’s Army), Pamoja Mtaani will be a free multiplayer PC game intended to change youth HIV risk attitudes and behaviors (the website outlines some specific behavior change objectives through immersive gameplay).
As part of the Partnership for an HIV-Free Generation‘s effort to help fight the spread of the disease, the game will debut in youth centers in Nairobi, Kenya. Players can take on the role of one of five characters brought together through unforseen catastrophe. As the players work their way through various neighborhoods seeking to recover what they have lost, they “uncover and experience barriers and facilitators to behavior change.”
Aside from engaging youth on the issue of HIV, the website notes another way the game may create positive impact. Many facets of the game have and will be supported within Kenya. The game features music from “iconic” Kenyan hip-hop artists and may have future IT support needs that will create jobs for local Kenyan people.
We will have to wait and see. For now, here is another pre-preview opinion.
Video Game Organization Lands on List of Top Social Enterprises of the Year
Posted by Hsing Wei on 12-02-08
Hopelab was named as one of Fast Company’s 2009 Social Enterprises of the Year. The list highlights “bold and timely ideas that wow us… the kind of innovative thinking that can transform lives and change our world.”
HopeLab is a nonprofit founded in 2000 by Pam Omidyar to create innovative methods to improve the health and quality of life for young people with chronic illnesses. Initial clinical evidence suggests that their game Re-mission (shooter game where players destroy cancer cells) has positive impacts—patients who played at least one hour per week were more likely to follow their drug regimen. It will be interesting to see the results of a second research study investigating the relative impact of game design attributes (narrative structure and quantity of information content) on impact outcomes. Their current focus with The Ruckus Nation (idea competition) is on developing technology to address the issue of childhood obesity.
Perhaps another game creator will be on next year’s list…
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What Makes An Election Game Good?
Posted by Hsing Wei on 10-30-08
Obama ads are being embedding into major video game titles such as Electronic Art’s “Madden 09” and “Burnout: Paradise.” JohnMcCain.com has Pork Invaders, a custom made Space-Invaders style game. Are either campaigns really taking advantage of the medium?
Continue reading the rest of this post.ARGs Stimulating Change: Traces of Hope and Superstruct
Posted by Hsing Wei on 10-07-08
Two games recently launched Traces of Hope (British Red Cross) and Superstruct (Institute for the Future) where on-screen characters reach out into player’s real worlds. In moving people from thinking about change to doing something about change, what can Alternative Reality Games unlock?
Continue reading the rest of this post.Playing Obama or McCain’s Campaign
Posted by Hsing Wei on 09-30-08
Stardock has released a free download version of The Political Machine. Potential fun and informative therapy for those anxious about the race, in Political Machine Express players create a custom Obama, Biden, Palin or McCain bobble-head and try to get their favorite candidate into the White House.
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Pew Study Released: Relationship between Teens, Games, and Civics
Posted by Hsing Wei on 09-17-08
A recent study by Pew adds positive evidence to the debate about the impact of video games on kids. It is the first nationally representative study of teen video game play and the relationship between video gaming and civic outcomes. The tag line reads, “Teens’ gaming experiences are diverse and include significant social interaction and civic engagement.”
The survey looked at which teens are playing games, the games and equipment they are using, the social context of their play, the role of parent monitoring, and teens’ civic activities and commitments. Key findings included:
- 97% of teens ages 12-17 play computer, web, portable, or console games
- Gender and age play a factor. Younger teen boys are the most likely to play games, followed by younger girls and older boys
- Gaming is often a social experience for teens.
- Most teens play many different types of games. 80% play five or more different game genres
- The two most widely played game genres were racing and puzzle games, played by nearly 3/4 of teens in the sample.
- The most popular genres include games with violent and games with nonviolent content.
- The quantity of game play is not strongly or consistently related to most civic outcomes, but some particular qualities of game play have a strong and consistent positive relationship to a range of civic outcomes.
- The characteristics of game play and the contexts in which teens play games are strongly related to teens’ interest and engagement in civic and political activities. Teens with the most (top 25%) civic gaming experiences were more likely to report interest and engagement in civic and political activities than teens with the fewest (bottom 25%).
- Civic gaming experiences are more equally distributed than many other civic learning opportunities. Teens in the Pew study were equally likely to report having civic gaming experiences regardless of race, age, or income; in contrast to previous research findings that suggest high school civic learning opportunities tend to be unequally distributed, with higher-income, higher-achieving, and white students.
The last few bullet points are likely encouraging to the growing number of games for change developers. The notion that context and quality of game play matters is not new to the games for change community. Curious if there had been an analysis of how many teens were playing games for change (like Tiltfactor’s new game about genetically modified crops Profit Seed), and whether any differences would have emerged beyond the broader definition of “civic gaming”.
More news coverage here
Scientific Clues to Better Game Design?
Posted by Hsing Wei on 08-04-08
Aside from play testing, how else can game developers identify areas and methods to improve their game’s design? One nonprofit, HopeLab, is going about it scientifically.
Continue reading the rest of this post.Against All Odds: UNHCR Game Simulates Refugee Experience
Posted by Hsing Wei on 07-13-08
The UK branch of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) recently launched a graphically-rich online version of “Against All Odds” (originally created in 2005) with an associated factual website. The game asks, “Can you flee and survive? Test yourself.”
Continue reading the rest of this post.If Everyone Was a Gamer
Posted by Hsing Wei on 07-07-08
The Guardian references Asi Burak (creator of Peacemaker and Play the News) in a recent, thoughtful piece about the challenges of making games about intellectual issues mainstream.
Continue reading the rest of this post.Channel 4 Game for Disarming Britain
Posted by Hsing Wei on 07-02-08
As part of a special season of programs about the increasing use of violence and weapons by young people on UK streets, Dead Ends is a 3D game that aims to raise awareness by letting people play on both sides of the law.
Continue reading the rest of this post.Journalism Games: Playing with Government Budgets
Posted by Hsing Wei on 06-11-08
As the stock market dips and presidential campaigning comes full swing, folks may be interested in some recently released games that stimulate conversation and understanding around government budget issues.
Continue reading the rest of this post.Playing Journalist: A Game for Amnesty International
Posted by Hsing Wei on 06-11-08
Coinciding with the Beijing Olympic Games, a team of developers collaborated with Amnesty International Canada to create Pictures for Truth.
Continue reading the rest of this post.AMD Foundation Changing The Game
Posted by Hsing Wei on 06-04-08
There is reason to rethink the simple association of private sector interests and violent brain-drain games. This week, AMD Foundation announced the launch of AMD Changing The Game. The initiative is intended to improve critical technical and life skills by teaching kids to develop digital games with social content.
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Spreading Peace Early in Schools
Posted by Hsing Wei on 05-27-08
In the past few years, a good amount of attention has focused on the potential of video games for education. Aside from reimagining how students and teachers engage with math, science, and other academic subjects, various organizations have also produced games to engage youth on social issues.
Continue reading the rest of this post.Pos or Not: mtvU puts Twist on Hot or Not
Posted by Hsing Wei on 05-08-08
Adding a social change dimension to judging people’s profiles, mtvU and the Kaiser Family Foundation have developed Pos or Not, a viral online game that confronts stereotypes surrounding HIV/AIDS while providing information about how to prevent the spread of the disease.
Continue reading the rest of this post.Dissected: Developing an Election Game
Posted by Hsing Wei on 04-21-08
Given the competitive Hillary/Obama primary battle, it’s timely to read lessons learned in developing The Howard Dean for Iowa Game. How can video games be designed to convey political messages? Crafted to be received by the public as consequential vs. trivial? Integrated with the rest of a campaign? An online article reviews the design and production process behind the game concieved with campaign strategists just before the important primary season.
Continue reading the rest of this post.UN Game Delivers Malaria Nets
Posted by Hsing Wei on 04-21-08
Throughout April, partners of the UN Foundation’s Nothing But Nets campaign will donate $10 for each person who signs up to play “Deliver the Net”
Continue reading the rest of this post.Contests Spur and Recognize Games like “Hush” and “Climate Change”
Posted by Hsing Wei on 04-08-08
“Hush” recently won the first Better Game Contest.
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Tiltfactor Lab on Teasing Out the Connection Between Games and Change
Posted by Hsing Wei on 03-29-08
A YouTube video interview of Tiltfactor Lab’s Mary Flanagan with American Public Media discusses the energy around producing games that raise consciouness and real world change.
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Debatable Review on ICED
Posted by Hsing Wei on 03-18-08
Over at Watercooler Games, Ian Bogost wrote a detailed review on I Can End Deportation (ICED) that raised some larger questions for debate about the stumbling blocks and potentials of games on social and political issues.
Continue reading the rest of this post.Deloitte Partnership Creates Virtual Cash for United Way
Posted by Hsing Wei on 03-07-08
Deloitte and Touche, a financial consulting firm, has asked BrandGames to develop “The Virtual Team Challenge for High Schools”, an online simulation in which student teams raise virtual cash for the United Way
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How to/Not to Develop an Activist Game in 4 weeks
Posted by Hsing Wei on 03-05-08
Conor O’Kane wrote a thoughtful postmortem on developing Harpooned, an activist game raising awareness about whaling in Australia.
Continue reading the rest of this post.Borrowing From Shoot Em Up vs. Guitar Hero
Posted by Hsing Wei on 02-13-08
Over at Gamasutra, the design of a new game about the genocide during the Rwandan Civil War, Hush , is contrasted with the design of Darfur is Dying.
Continue reading the rest of this post.Political Games Losing Out to Social Networks?
Posted by Hsing Wei on 02-08-08
Are political games a fad that has passed? Over at Watercooler Games, Ian Bogost posted about his incorrect prediction of the rise of election games in 2008.
Continue reading the rest of this post.Why Charge for Games for Change?
Posted by Hsing Wei on 01-29-08
A few weeks ago, Eric Brown, from ImpactGames wrote a thoughtful post at Huffington about the perceptual challenges in marketing games with a social emphasis.
Continue reading the rest of this post.Video Game Industry to Establish a PAC
Posted by Hsing Wei on 01-21-08
A recent New York Times article discusses the Entertainment Software Association’s forays into political organizing.
Continue reading the rest of this post.ITVS and PBS Publish Game Exploring Obesity Crisis
Posted by Hsing Wei on 01-15-08
Is obesity an individual problem or a collective problem? ITVS and PBS’s Independent Lens hopes that their new online game Fatworld will help Americans understand that the answer to the obesity crisis is not as simple as telling someone to go on a diet.
Continue reading the rest of this post.Debating Games in Election Politics
Posted by Hsing Wei on 01-14-08
How are political games games for change? Is the games for change community an appropriate place to recruit collaborators for games about particular candidates or should games for change mean candidate neutral?
Continue reading the rest of this post.Customer Demand for “Do-Good” Games?
Posted by Hsing Wei on 11-28-07
A small protest against violent video games, outside a Portland Toy ‘R’ Us store, simultaneously rallied for alternative games.
Continue reading the rest of this post.Spreading Peace in the Middle East, Virtually
Posted by Hsing Wei on 11-28-07
The Peres Center for Peace is distributing 100,000 copies of PeaceMaker to Israelis and Palestinians.
Continue reading the rest of this post.UN Game Feeds the Hungry
Posted by Hsing Wei on 11-13-07
Since its launch on October 7, FreeRice has already raised over 1 billion grains of rice (enough to feed 50,000 people for one day).
Continue reading the rest of this post.Learning to Fix Real-Life Disasters in a Virtual World
Posted by Hsing Wei on 10-22-07
The I-95 Corridor Coalition (a multi-state, interagency alliance for cooperation and coordination by key policy makers on transportation issues) devoted $1.4 million for the development of a virtual incident management training game.
Continue reading the rest of this post.EA and BP Partner for a More Environmentally Conscious SimCity
Posted by Hsing Wei on 10-16-07
Electronic Arts and BP Alternative Energy will highlight the impact of electricity generation on carbon dioxide emissions and climate change within the interface of the next release of SimCity Societies.
Continue reading the rest of this post.Can Halo Be Used for Social Change?
Posted by Hsing Wei on 10-08-07
A recent NYT article discusses the phenomenon of churches using the popular video game, Halo, as a recruiting tool to connect to young people and the inherent contradictions that practice raises.
Continue reading the rest of this post.Design a Game and Raise a Ruckus
Posted by Hsing Wei on 09-24-07
Folks with a game idea that can increase physical activity among kids have a chance to win more than $75,000.
Continue reading the rest of this post.Examining Immigration Advocacy via Games
Posted by Hsing Wei on 07-10-07
Groups like Breakthrough, a New York-based human rights organization, are making games that promote their advocacy agenda.
Continue reading the rest of this post.World of Borecraft vs Changecraft
Posted by Hsing Wei on 07-03-07
Slate’s recent article, while focused on edutainment, echoes some of the conversation in the Games for Change community—where are all the good games for change?
Continue reading the rest of this post.Immigration Legislation: New York Times News Games
Posted by Hsing Wei on 07-03-07
Points of Entry, nytimes.com’s June news game, lets players dig a little deeper into the recent debate over immigration legislation.
Continue reading the rest of this post.Empowering Citizens To Play Politics
Posted by Hsing Wei on 06-19-07
USC’s Game Innovation Lab recently unveiled The Redistricting Game at the 2007 Games For Change Festival.
Continue reading the rest of this post.G4C Annual Festival Roundup
Posted by Hsing Wei on 06-13-07
Images, transcripts, and opinions of Games For Change’s 4th Annual Festival are on the web for those who missed the event (or who just want to re-live some of the interesting conversations and energy).
Continue reading the rest of this post.Gaming on The New York Times
Posted by Hsing Wei on 05-31-07
Imagine the possibilities if games for change begin complementing the nation’s paper of record.
Continue reading the rest of this post.PBS/ITVS Fund Game About Oil
Posted by Hsing Wei on 05-07-07
Branching out beyond broadcast, PBS funded the recently launched online game by pioneering game designer Jane McGonigal, World Without Oil
Continue reading the rest of this post.Game Lets Teens Try Their Hand at Running Nonprofits
Posted by Hsing Wei on 05-02-07
NY-based nonprofit DoSomething partnered with JP Morgan Chase Foundation to develop a game that helps teens think more about helping those in need - maximizing karma instead of profits.
Continue reading the rest of this post.Virtually Rehearsing The Future
Posted by Hsing Wei on 04-05-07
“Do-overs” in strategies for solving social change issues are a benefit of the virtual over the real world.
Continue reading the rest of this post.3rd World Farmer Game
Posted by Hsing Wei on 04-05-07
Can “experiencing” injustices via digital games, rather than reading about them, stimulate deeper reflection and action to alleviate poverty in third world countries?
Continue reading the rest of this post.Mobile Game Helping Refugees
Posted by Hsing Wei on 03-27-07
Ring tone downloads have become a lucrative business, can mobile social change games similarly raise funds for the subjects they highlight?
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MITs Henry Jenkins on How Second Life Impacts Our First Life
Posted by Hsing Wei on 03-19-07
Do virtual worlds merely provide a fantasy of solutions without fertilizing politics in the world beyond the screen?
Continue reading the rest of this post.A Rise in Games for Social Change?
Posted by Hsing Wei on 03-15-07
Does a maturing game industry offer an opportunity for the development of more games on pressing issues?
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Controversy Over Super Columbine Massacre Role Playing Game
Posted by Hsing Wei on 01-29-07
Are there limits to what social issues video games can/should explore?
Continue reading the rest of this post.Parsons Lab Develops Eco Game for EPA
Posted by Hsing Wei on 01-16-07
An eco-game highlighted during the GamesforChange, New School, and NYC Games Scholars’ salon last week sparked some conversation on how to engage players.
Continue reading the rest of this post.National Science Foundation Funds Game on Global Warming
Posted by Hsing Wei on 01-16-07
Among several projects highlighted during the GamesforChange, New School, and NYC Games Scholars’ salon last week was a game using a systems dynamics approach to engaging students about the issue of global warming.
Continue reading the rest of this post.Public Utility Game about Water Conservation
Posted by Hsing Wei on 01-08-07
Complementing text FAQs on its website, Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) has a game letting citizens navigate through a leaky house to learn about how to save water, money, and the environment.
Continue reading the rest of this post.Better understanding Waco, 9-11, and other political events through games?
Posted by Hsing Wei on 12-19-06
Using examples ranging from The Howard Dean for Iowa game to Balance the Planet and JFK Reloaded , Dr. Ian Bogost, an academic / game creator, digs into why video games are especially suited to engage citizens in politics, activism, and advocacy.
Continue reading the rest of this post.X|Media|Lab’s “Learning from Games” Attracts International Roster
Posted by Hsing Wei on 12-14-06
Leaders from EA’s Innovation Lab, Singapore’s National Institute of Education, Australian Centre for Interaction Design, Parsons, and Futurelab, among others, shared their knowledge during a three day conference on “Learning from Games”.
Continue reading the rest of this post.Billboards about Poverty on Second Life
Posted by Hsing Wei on 12-10-06
The World Development Movement (WDM) has put a large death counter in a prominent place on Second Life.
Continue reading the rest of this post.Fundraising with Second Life
Posted by Hsing Wei on 12-09-06
How much money can be raised for social change in a virtual world? Save the Children will soon find out.
Continue reading the rest of this post.A Strategy Game about Big Oil
Posted by Hsing Wei on 12-02-06
Can a game affect perceptions about oil consumption?
Continue reading the rest of this post.Blogging about a video game to galvanize voting?
Posted by Hsing Wei on 12-02-06
Rather than a normal review, this blogger uses the opportunity to highlight why a game shows that voting is relevant and necessary.
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Creating Games About Poverty in Haiti
Posted by Hsing Wei on 12-02-06
Can video games designed by kids create the next generation of activists against poverty?
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Posted by Hsing Wei on 11-29-06
Hear David Weinberger (Berkman Center at Harvard Law), Gary Goldberger (Ambassador for G4C in Second Life), and John Lester (Linden Lab employee) address the concerns of skeptics.
Continue reading the rest of this post.Summary of Serious Games Summit 2006
Posted by Hsing Wei on 11-29-06
Government officials, educators, game developers, and various cross sector professionals gathered this past October to exchange ideas on serious games for first responders, government, education, health, military, science, and social change.
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Games about Conflict: Palestine
Posted by Hsing Wei on 11-19-06
Can games make people experience, care about, and better understand complex conflicts in Palestine and Darfur?
Continue reading the rest of this post.Game Mission: Eliminate Corruption on Capital Hill
Posted by Hsing Wei on 11-17-06
Instead of slinging bullets, players sling subpoenas in a video game about corruption on Capital Hill.
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August 12, 2010
3G Summit; The Future of Girls, Gaming and Gender
September 2, 2010
Korea Serious Games Festival
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October 21, 2010
ECGBL 2010 conference + NING on Game-Based Teaching
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