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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?

The article picks on Persuasive’s first game for the NYTs, Food Import Folly, as “a rousing examination of the ins and outs of FDA import inspection” but “less informative than a simple article and less fun than doing the Jumble.” For the author, the game didn’t cause rethinking about FDA policy, or even much ambition to win.

Such bold statements may feel like a slap in the face to the growing number of socially conscious developers seeking to create games with social impact. But perhaps those are exactly the right kinds of opinions/questions that need to be heard by those already on the band wagon. Awards given at this year’s Annual Games for Change Festival considered various game attributes, including those criticized in the article as missing. Primary goals of social change games are to raise awareness and allow more nuanced and experiential interaction with an issue. Unlike casual games, aside from considering questions of playability, there is the challenge of doing justice to the complexities of an issue.

A recent Gamasutra article points out, most social change game developers must produce comparable levels of craft with smaller budgets and resources. Moreover, in the article, various players in the field challenge, “who says video games have to be fun?” The main goal of games can be engagement that touches other kinds of emotional responses—just like how film, books, and other media have evolved to evoke more than immediate gratification.

Alternative emotions notwithstanding, are games for change doomed to be boring and un-fun? Not every shooting game created has been compelling, and likewise not every game exploring social issues created has been addictively fun. Moving beyond “animating mindless, boring repetition” is easier said than done. The question to focus on shouldn’t be where are all the good games for change, but rather, how can we design good games for change. And that is a question that this community hopefully is asking itself and working to answer.

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