Social Activism in Games

Video Games & Social Activism

• Wii

Dance Dance Revolution

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzomMjQPXBU&feature=related

Games towards social activism

• by Jane McGonigal (Avant Game)• and Ian Bogost (Persuasive Games)

Rules

• It’s a real world game

- Find yourself a group- Assassinate other group members- Each member of a group has to carry an item which they have to surrender if they are assassinated- Clues are provided via sms- You have 3 weapons to dispose of your opponnents

• And the weapons are…get this

• Kindness…….wtf?!

Rock, scissors, paper

“welcome beats amazing”“amazing beats gorgeous”“gorgeous beats welcome”

World without oil

• A blogging game of sorts where people would post videosand pictures to simulate a world without oil for the first 32weeks.

Members would then post a blog of their “lives during theoil crsis” and others would respond with suggestions etc

http://worldwithoutoil.org/

Conclusion

• Gaming is one of the most influential and predominant form of media and it can be potentially used to open a few eyes

As designers, games can come in many forms and we shouldn’t just be constricted to what we already know