Under my guidance, climate change has destroyed the earth and Fred has become sustenance for a very determined wolf. Clearly I fail at games!
My lack of skill aside, Games for Change is a great site! It’s an excellent example of gift economy incubating games for release into the capitalist economy AND a site for social activism. As we discussed in our Foundations for Strategic Communications class, we are wired for games. Second Life, reward programs, even coupon cutting are all structured on a games philosophy. The Games for Change mission statement, “Catalyzing Social Impact Through Digital Games,” makes perfect sense.
I promptly got sucked into Half the Sky Movement a game that includes the phrase, “Any action you take in the virtual world, you can also take in real life! In about six months, the game has attracted 1.1 million players who have donated more than $450,000. The game is inspired by the book Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide. The game is the story of Radkhika a woman in India who wants a better life for herself and other women. A further example of spreadable media: Until the game, I had never heard of the book. Now I want to read it.
…And it was a PBS multi-hour series last year!
Those donation stats are certainly promising! Although all of us human beings may be “wired for gaming,” do you think these games exploring social issues have to compete with the current multi-million dollar game industry, or are they a common ground to explore these issues between typical “gamers” (in this case, someone who devotes a certain amount of hours per week to console or PC gaming) and those who don’t game at all or as often?
Hopefully you won’t stop the flow of such magical material! ταχυδακτυλουργός για παιδικά πάρτυ
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Thanks for sharing Taylor!