Gamifying Social Change Advocacy

          If the buzzword of Internet 2.0 is interaction, then the path to social change can be helped by online gaming.  www.GamesForChange.org is a website devoted to showcasing the hundreds of games developed by organizations whose humanitarian missions benefit from improved awareness, increased participation of new members, and multiplied donation funding. The Information Age is oversaturated with media online and being exposed to content with a positive agenda is refreshing and possibly quite necessary to capturing the attention of the masses.

I spent some time and looked at dozens of the games links to the website's database and only cracked the surface of the massive amount of content they share.  The games are sorted by theme/cause.  Most are free and streamable, others are older links which may be flash based or require downloads.  A few games on their site come at a cost, but all of them are hosted by others. The site even hosts contests and a conference for developers who are using gaming for good.

However, discussing GamesForChange allows me to explain how a game could ever promote social change along with providing the list of some of the favorites I discovered, which seem to promote social change so well. Balancing a serious message with compelling gameplay is tricky business, finding a loophole that encourages donations or volunteer involvement is the overarching goal in most cases.   Awareness is not enough without soliciting real world action.

So games make money for the cause in several ways. Adding a banner or frame that includes a donation link is a great way to keep your message in view of the player.  Former successes like Zynga, paved the way to normalize in-app purchases for people with non-charity games like Farmville.  Charities found that not everyone is opposed to paying for a click and sometimes includes these options in their games.  The most direct method to solicit is by asking people to purchase the game outright in the Itunes or Google Play store.  Offering a game app or online game is a great way to get your cause visibility with target groups who may spend more time shopping for games instead of reading the news or researching noble causes.

Sidekick Cycle is available on both Itunes and GooglePlay and for a small one-time fee you can download the game app which lets you race your bike, do tricks and level up by buying "sidekick" character animals that help you in the game. The funds raised from the game go to buy bikes for kids in third world countries who use them as primary transportation to improve their quality of life.

Sites like GreaterGood.com's The Hunger Site and www.FreeKibble.com operate on the premise that encourages viewers to visit their site each day. By clicking the "donate" button daily you are contributing to the cause. The site has advertising sponsors that pay them based on the number of site visitors and clicks they get each day that are exposed to their ads.  This is similar to the setup for the trivia game freerice.org that shows lots of ads in the margins, but that is how they get their cause sponsored.  Advertisers are happy to pay charity sites for your time and views. GreaterGood even has a shopping portal where online stores pay the charity for referring you to their products.

However a lot of charity games do better jobs of educating site visitors and increasing public awareness of their cause.  Just posting a picture of a colored ribbon and the name of your charity is great for branding, but it’s more superficial than the conversion you get when you offer in-depth information to your audience.  The goal is to encourage interaction, not just passive receipt of information.

Games that improve awareness and educate people about the cause are more common than fundraising games.  How a developer influences positive social change takes many shapes in the game world.  Some gamers will livestream their sessions and ask their viewers to sponsor their time online using www.charitylivestream.com This is much like a marathon runner or jump-rope user who solicits donation sponsors ahead of the event to multiply the money raised by the time they spend on the activity.

More often you find game storylines that feature the charitable cause liberally within the plot. Some sites prefer to use embedded educational videos along the route of game play to solidify their point.  There are even games that make their points in conceptual ways using non-traditional narratives to lead the player to understanding. These are more effective that simply slapping a logo on a game and branding it with your charity's name, which would require the player to exit the game and research to seek out information on your background cause.

One of the best games I found on GamesForChange was www.playagainstallodds.ca which is hosted by the UNHCR Refugee Agency and allows the player to experience some of the difficulties of the refugee experience in a gamified way.  The UX on the game is very simple and can be played in multiple languages.  There 12 sequences of gameplay divided by 3 major scenarios, (1) escaping the country and avoiding arrest, (2) finding sanctuary in a border country (3) trying to settle and find work in a new country.   The game is filled with different, unique minigames such as a timed exercise where you must fill the limited space in your backpack and escape out of the window before time runs out and the authorities capture you.  If you forget important things like shoes, money and identification papers your escape can be derailed.  Hard survival choices like leaving behind wounded friends and avoiding predators at the border make the reality of the refugee situation more relatable and real for the player. The animation in this game is top notch as is the plotline.  The differences in the minigames really keeps the gameplay interesting and adds difficulty to keep you engaged.

Other turn based simulation games like http://playspent.org tackled the reality of living paycheck to paycheck and lack of emergency funding that sends so many Americans spiralling into homelessness. One civil resistance simulation game http://peoplepowergame.com is intended both to spread awarness but more importantly to offer scenario projections for organizers who are interested in launching large scale projects for social change and want to consider different risks and options.

The variety of ways to use gamification to influence social change is astounding. Games like Never Alone, increases awareness of native foodways and honor oral traditions of First Nation indigenous people instead of objectifying native people in games. 

Other games approach social change issues related to poverty by offering multiple games designed to improve the players budgeting habits and financial literacy. Https://financialentertainment.org/games had a a half dozen games that had unique gameplay, including one that helps you not waste your tax refund, and a truly addictive game where you learn more by playing as a vampire nightclub owner who is saving up for retirement.  This game isn't selling retirement products, it is trying to educate people in a way that prevents poverty in senior citizen populations.

Games can be addictive for some people, their draw often undeniable. If you are a game developer, it is a worthwhile use of your talents to donate services to humanitarian charities and help them build engaging content that helps them tackle the real world problems that undermine our society.  If you are a charity seeking innovative ways to keep people engaged and inspire activism for your cause, consider creating a game. As our society evolves to the pressure of technological change, it is important that we consider all avenues for financially supporting positive innovation and educating the public to inspire a better world.