Week 9: Jarratt Taylor

One of the funders for the projects on Mediastorm is the Alexia Foundation. Their mission is to fund projects that tell “stories that drive change.” In a way these three sites are all about telling stories that drive change. In the case of Games for Change and Mediastorm it feels more apparent because their work tells social issue stories that demand a call to action. In Still Water, the stories they tell are about the ways that ideas are shared, stored, and preserved. Their stories or projects are driving change with respect to preservation, archiving, and searching, as well as initial project development.

I was looking forward to finally testing out Depression Quest on Games for Change. Since hearing about it, and other social issue video games like it, through the Transmedia discussion at the beginning of the quarter, I was intrigued. Though very different than a traditional video game, it was very effective. Working like a “choose your own adventure” story, the player makes choices that a person suffering depression could make. At first I didn’t feel like there were any stakes in the choices I was making as a player. Who cares whether or not I made him do one thing or another? As I got further into the game though I began face a dilemma as a player. Do I want to choose the option that feels “right” in the sense that he is managing his depression, or do I send him further into the depths of the depression because that might be where he would actually go. I wanted him to get better, but I also wanted to see what happened when he got worse. I also didn’t want it to be that easy for him, or for myself as a player. As he got worse though, and as it began to feel important to make choices like calling a therapist or revealing his real issues to his girlfriend, I began to feel really emotional about his experience and the changes he was making. It was really surprising actually. A game that doesn’t rely on an intense visual experience had the power to put you in a position to go through the emotional experiences of the character. It felt like a story that could truly drive change for people who aren’t able to experience what depression is like. Whether or not it would be a useful tool for someone experiencing depression is another question. Maybe through the experience of being able to make choices in the game they would sense their ability to make choices despite a sense of powerlessness.

The interdisciplinary aspect helps add to a project’s ability to instigate actual change. Through coordinated efforts between varied practitioners who all have an interest, the project development can go deeper and reach further. By bringing together video game developers interested in having a social impact with an organization that knows how to strategically promote these types of games, the games have a stronger chance of reaching the right audience.

I’m always a little skeptical of how much change is possible. It always feels exciting to produce and view videos that tell important stories about issues that call for action, but beyond the excitement that comes with production and the emotion we feel as a viewer, does “change” really happen? After watching “Undesired,” I still felt a certain level of despair that Indian society probably won’t change its opinion about female births for a long time, if ever.