Save The World With Computer Games

Innovations in interactive entertainment to promote social activism are important and deserve your attention. These games thrive on our social instincts, our desire to compete and the challenge players face to solve problems. Eventually someone will turn them into self contained MMOs and then we'll really be combining the two things I always wanted to do simultaneously: save the world and play computer games.

Game makers are becoming savvy to the human mind. Games that tap into our survival instincts, internal reward mechanism and social triggers will win out in the fight to save the world. That doesn't mean we need to kill zombies to ensure impoverished Africans have clean water (somebody make this game please,) but it means that more games will need to be attuned to our brains. In February 2010, Jane McGonigal gave a Ted Talk describing how we could save the world with computer games. In it, she describes her previous works, which amount to online games that remind me of Particracy (a political simulation game.) She talked about something that resonated with me: players enjoy the hero's quest. She explains that WoW players are always on a quest of some sort, why can't we use that for good? If I can save the fantasy world in a game, why can't I save the real world while playing in a fantasy game? Sadly, games like "Healthcare For All: Zombies From Space" isn't a reality yet.

So how have these games progressed over time? They started off with simple games like FreeRice.Com. FreeRice.com creates a direct link between the number of quiz answers you get correct and the amount of rice that is provided to hungry people via the World Food Program. Bored at work? Test your general knowledge and feed some hungry people. Progress has obviously not stopped there. Darfur is Dying was a result of MTV and other's work to end the humanitarian crisis in Darfur. In the game, the player is tasked with finding water, and the player learns just how difficult life is for Darfur refugees when she keeps getting captured, killed (or worse) by the militia. This impossibly difficult game to play sparked a great deal of awareness and a fair amount of activism.

I'm surprised that no one has taken a game like half-life 2, or Oblivion or Fallout 3 and done a total conversion mod that enables the player to be in an environment designed by say - Oxfam, Amnesty international or some other non-profit - I've played some amazing mods and it would be great tool to raise awareness. It is possible that copyright issues may be a problem, on the other hand can you imagine if Steam released a (free?) game called Save Darfur on the Source engine? It could raise awareness sure, but if you tie that in with steam achievements then you could do even more to save the world.

So what is the current state of altruistic and social games? I just read an update on the status of games to save the world ("GSWs"?) in Fast Company . It appears that the future will be based on casual games that reside on social networking sites. I guess they are piggybacking off the apparent success of farmville and others like it. I hope they succeed, but surely we can do better than casual games? Why can't we have a scaling system like EVE online - where you immerse yourself in the game while at home, but while away you can check on your character online or from your iphone. In a similar vein, you immerse yourself in a game to save the world, and casually play throughout the day using your portable computing device. I look forward to more GSWs :)

-Thinkpadius