After viewing the discussion on transmedia storytelling, I had a couple of thoughts I wanted to share. The first is on whether video games can have a social impact. There’s no denying the popularity and huge influence of video games. I think the new Grand Theft Auto game made more than $800 million in sales in the first 24 hours. However, I don’t think gaming is the best medium to bring about true social change. For most hardcore gamers, video games are an escape from real life. I believe the majority video game consumers would much rather blast through hordes of aliens than be educated about real-world issues. This isn’t to say that the so-called “games for change” don’t have fans, but I think there are better avenues than video games if you want to bring your message to a wider audience. That’s just my two cents. What do you folks think?
I also enjoyed this article from The Independent on the subject:
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/can-videogames-really-be-used-for-social-change-8193654.html
The second was on the shelf-life of stories, and I think one of the presenters mentioned something about the best stories having the most staying power. I completely agree with this. An example that comes to mind for me is Christopher McCandless, the subject of Jon Krakauer’s “Into the Wild.” Although he died in 1992, his story lives on in a book and (excellent) movie about his life. I think I read an article in the last month or so that sheds new light on the cause of his death, as well. His story is incredible and it’s one that will continue to fascinate people for years. Can anyone think of another example of a story that doesn’t have an expiration date, so to speak?
To your video game inquiry. I think video games can create a buzz and in some ways impact our lives. The difficulty is, as you pointed out, that most games are designed as an escape from reality and they also thrive off the pleasure parts of our brain. The trick for social change is finding a topic and having a compelling story line to engage the player while still delivering a lesson. It has to entertain while it educates. SimCity seemed to do that long ago. I don’t play too many video games these days but I have noticed the quality of the plots and stories have greatly improved so the idea of a game that drives social change seems very feasible.
As for stories without real shelf lives – I think there needs to be a sense of mystery or a lack of conclusion allowing future story tellers to continue the story or guess at what may have happened. An example I always get a kick out of is Jimmy Hoffa. This Teamsters leader not only lived a fascinating and edgy life, but his very end is still under debate. Was he killed by the mafia? If so, where is the body? The missing body has gone from news print to urban legend and an ongoing joke when opening a closet, attic or trunk where the contents are not known. His remains are still in the news today nearly 40 years later. Just this summer the FBI dug around a farm in Michigan following up on a tip. So this story not only lives on in film, news and urban legend, but out of our wallets to the tax dollars spent each time a new search begins.
Completely agree re: video games, and I think you’ve hit a critical distinction in separating fans of games-for-change from the wider audience. There’s a fanboy niche for every kind of game, but that doesn’t mean the medium is efficient for spreading change and awareness among those not already predisposed to take an interest. I won’t completely rule out video games as a means to effect social change, but why on earth would that be your first option? I imagine Bono sitting with a smattering of charity board members wondering how they can make making-a-difference ‘cool’ among the kids.
Philips writes that the Scribe center’s video projects aren’t meant for broad public consumption, where they’d compete with more polished products. That’s because their content and purpose has a specific purpose and a narrow target audience- in fact, many videos aren’t even meant to draw in new viewers on their own, but are meant to be used as educational tools or bases for facilitating community dialogue, reflection, etc. If producing video games were more accessible, I’d say the Scribe center model of focusing on a narrow, “warm” audience might work for games.
Then again… Chipotle’s got that awesome new ad with the scarecrow out (http://youtu.be/lUtnas5ScSE), accompanied by a video game for the kids- and it’s (ostensibly) all about refocusing on sustainable, healthy food cultivation. Unfortunate that it takes a giant on the scale of Chipotle to muster video games as a medium for social purposes.
I agree with K also when it comes to the video game topic, in that it does have to “entertain while it educates.” The Darfur is Dying game seemed overly simplistic based on the description, and probably wouldn’t be engaging to too many people. While I understand that most people who play video games do it to escape reality, I don’t think that means they would turn down the opportunity to learn about the struggle of poverty through a video game instead of the more traditional means of a book excerpt or a movie. I guess it’s different in terms of teaching, when it’s easier to say to a classroom, “OK, today we’re going to learn about poverty. Your choices are to read 4 chapters of a book, watch a movie, or play a video game.” The kids could then learn about the issue in a way that might be more interactive and help them think more critically about the issue. However, if you are trying to get any general member of the public to participate, you will have to bring out the big guns (possibly literally) in order to get more people to play the game, so in essence, you would need a large driving creative force in order to make it happen. But is it feasible? I think so.
People love an underdog story so I think any video game that teaches about inequality through a hero within a revolution/rebellion could still get the message across to a gamer. I look at films like Elysium that deal with social inequality but through the action sci-fi lens. It is possible but the creator has to balance that entertaining format with effectively getting a message through and not making it an after thought that gets buried along the way. It’s all about being creative and engaging. The Kony campaign during the 2012 election process (http://invisiblechildren.com/kony/) was a unique method to get a real issue out into the forefront of social media and traditional media. How effective it was, I’m not sure – but it was certainly creative and engaging.
I haven’t tried any of the games for social change. I am not into games really at all and never have been. But, my husband is a high school social studies teacher. And I wonder whether the games would be a useful teaching tool, just a little something extra and different to add to an overall lesson about inequality, or current events, etc. I told him about the games for social change and some examples I had read about, and he plans to check them out and see if any fit into other lessons he is teaching this year. Perhaps in that way, they could make a small difference. I think that any effort to create progressive social change can have a positive ripple effect, even if it is difficult to measure or has slightly different outcomes than you expected.
While gaming may not be the best medium for catalyzing social change, it definitely has promise. Some popular games have already been repurposed as learning tools. Take Minecraft, for example. Originally released in 2009, it’s an open world game in which players build structures out of cubes for various purposes (including, I might add, surviving zombie attacks).
Now, according to the Bits blog in the NY Times (http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/15/minecraft-an-obsession-and-an-educational-tool/?_r=1), it’s being used to teach kids about everything from science to city planning. There’s even a school in Sweden that uses it to increase their students’ awareness of environmental issues. (Incidentally, I read this blog while on the way to visiting a friend in Mexico. Upon arriving, I also met her nephew, who was learning English… by playing Minecraft).
As games get more social and more communities develop around them, ancillary benefits such as these will become more commonplace. Imagine using World of Warcraft (or some similarly massive online roleplaying game) to increase awareness for the issue of your choice. The potential is definitely there: you spread the word to your online community, which they in turn proliferate throughout their offline communities… und so weiter und so fort.
I agree that computer games seem to be a pretty shallow medium to bring about meaningful social change at this point. Their multi $million budgets are geared towards experiential escape or recruiting impressionable kids into the US military with delusions of Rambo-esque granduere. Facebook’s Farmville also seems to be a gimmick that gets you to waste more time on things that don’t change anything while exposing you to new ideas and marketing schemes.
Rather than changing the world through video games, what can we do to get more people to turn them off and go outside?