What’s it for?

As we prepare for Resilient Games Studio’s first appearance at a conference we took the opportunity to think about what are our games for? Games for social impact, games for change, educational games are probably clear enough descriptions at the outset, but what questions are worth asking to find out more?

The first thing that sprang to mind was what changes are these games trying to make?

Alongside Resilient Games Studio at International Games Day @ Your Library will be DePaul University’s Play for Change. The DePaul group have created eight experiences that hope to make change, and these are as good an example as any to make inroads to answering this question.

Some of the phrases that appear in the game descriptions shed light the goals of these game makers;

Promoting financial literacy and money management skills. Personal transformation. Increase understanding of mental health disorders by providing a space for “shared experiences”. Promote dialogue and alleviate stigma. Aims at ritualizing emotional housekeeping. Use effective strategies to overcome anxiety disorders. The list goes on.

The changes in question are whatever the game designer, author or coder wants them to be. Maybe what’s more important is the growing recognition that games offer an oblique approach to nearly any long standing issue that can be improved through learning or behaviour change. Leaflets, posters, books, lectures and the other traditional media method you were thinking of didn’t work. Try a game.

Ok, so how do you make these changes with games?

For us, this is where is gets even more interesting. Playability. Getting your message across is still the bottom line for games in this sector. Giving the user new information allowing the natural next step of assimilation and learning. As this area of gaming develops, we think the trick is whether the game is playable enough to hold the attention long enough to let redundancy do it’s thing. Game Changer Chicago is one game creator using methods like embedded design in an attempt to effectively do this.

Do they work?

If the goal of the educational game is to change perceptions, there is evidence that this is possible. Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace published research from game designers Tiltfactor. The research found that the game was “successful at strengthening youth players’ associations between women and science and inspiring more assertive responses to multiple forms of social bias.” If behaviour change is the aim, only time will tell if the young people exposed to Awkward Moment, the game used in the study, make fairer or more rational judgements about gender in the day-to-day real world.

What next?

It’s worth asking if there is something that has been created that assists in the change you are trying to make. If you’re looking for a new way to teach the alphabet, you are likely to be spoilt for choice. As the issues become more nuanced your options may fall away.

This may not be the case for much longer. More university labs are working on interventions that utilize gaming, while unexpected hits like Pokemon GO lift the lid on the potential of highly playable, engaging games. Perhaps the most exciting thing to look out for, is the opportunity to contribute to a game that works for you. Authors and researchers seek context, and with so many games coming from academic institutions, the call for participants is healthy.