Serious Games

"Games are widely use as educational tools not just for pilots, soldiers and surgeons but also in schools and business."

—The Economist 2005

Expanding The Serious Games Genre

The Sim is designed to inspire a new genre of seriously fun games. We want to assist the game industry in ushering in this new era. To do this, we are providing three things: a role model activism game, a new proven market for activism games, and a new technology that makes human behavioral AI and activism simulation possible and a content library that makes real-world games less costly to make. The more that are made, the greater the library, the more the funding is about making good games and stories and content.

Serious Games Events

There are now some major events where serious game developers meet.

The Serious Games Initiative

GamesForChange.net 

Supporting social change games. 

• Serious Games at GDC

Political Games

Political mini-games like Activism, Staffers, Take Back Illinois and Dean For Ohio reduce political activism to simplistic pong-like arcade games with the space invaders replaced by phone banks and mail. These do however demonstrate the interest of political parties in funding political games.

TheyRule.net

They Rule allows you to create maps of the interlocking directories of the top companies in the US in 2004. The data was collected from their websites and SEC filings in early 2004, so it may not be completely accurate - companies merge and disappear and directors shift boards.

Horde of Directors

”Horde of Directors puts the player in the role of an activist trying to advance a social agenda in the complex world of interrelated corporate and government interests. By creating a simplified experience of corporate interconnectedness, the game embodies the challenges of overcoming corporate and government nepotism in the name of social causes."

"Drawing on data from 2002 Ars Electronica Golden Nica winner They Rule by Josh On, players choose a real corporation or organization to influence, and set to work having heated arguments with those organization’s actual board directors. But quickly, players learn that every board director leads to a whole new network of cohorts, who sit on other influential corporate boards and government organizations. The simple, sometimes repetitive gameplay gives the player a first-hand experience of the Sisyphusian struggle to be heard.”

Newsgaming.com September 12

"The more terrorists you bomb, the more civilians you kill, the more terrorists attack."

—http://www.newsgaming.com/games/index12.htm

“Molleindustria also supplies simple computer games for Reload’s activist projects. The games are politically and socially charged. In Tamatipico, you try to keep your assembly line worker happy by making sure he gets enough rest, enough food, and enough time in front of the television. If your workers not satisfied, he will go on strike... “

“Games like Tamatipico are first and foremost, fun... If you have fun, it tends to drive your attention to the thing that you’re doing, and maybe stop and think about a couple of things that are happening. I think the whole point is to make people aware of what they’re actually living. And to have this, you have to create images, fantasies, idea, fun, things people can recognise easily and interact with easily and get near to you, talk to you, and then decide whether you’re talking bullshit, or things that make sense....games work like a great film - you’re entertained, but you come away with something more.”

“I got a feeling the video game industry doesn’t want to grow up. They keep making very lame games. I mean the medium is so powerful, you can do so many things with it. And yet, you always end up with the same games, shooting people. I think you can do smart games that actually sell well, you have a whole generation of new game designers that have great ideas. And the technology’s cheap, you can do very easy games that have a global view and can actually influence people.”

—Molleindustria http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3707572.stm

persuasivegames.com

"We design, build, and distribute electronic games for persuasion, instruction, and activism. Our games influence players to take action through gameplay. Games communicate differently than other media; they not only deliver messages, but also simulate experiences. While often thought to be just a leisure activity, games can also become rhetorical tools. Think games are just for fun? Think again. "

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/fun.games/11/03/political.games/index.html

www.watercoolergames.org

Water Cooler Games is a site about video games with an agenda. It is about games that go beyond entertainment. Water Cooler Games explores the emerging field of games want to do more than simply being fun: they want to make a point, share knowledge, change opinions. This includes new genres such as advergaming, newsgaming, political games, simulations and edutainment. If you think that video games have a strong potential for communication, persuasion and education, come and join our discussion by the Water Cooler.

BT Better Business Game

“You are about to experience what it can be like to manage social and environmental issues in a business - are you up to the challenge?”

—http://www.btplc.com/Societyandenvironment/Businessgame/

Generic games like this could have the content boilerplated into the situations, choices, stakeholders, etc.,

http://www.chickenfight.com/Chickenfight the game has some clever features. It’s a mock-cockfight game... you have a mic you can play by shouting “PECK” into it. The louder you shout, the harder you, well, peck. Interesting use of audio input. Imagine using a similar gag to get people pumped for a rally.

2004 Everbody Fight!

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/photo/2004/05/09/2003131257

Democracy

http://www.positech.co.uk/democracy/index.html

Democracy is the title of a new political strategy game by Positech Games

Democracy starts with you as President (or Prime-Minister) of a modern country. The country is a run as a simple democracy where you need to get over 50% of the vote each election in order to remain in power. The object of the game is to stay in power as long as possible (there are no limits as to how many terms you may be elected president).

Democracy is a detailed simulation game that is ‘turn based’ where each turn of the game represents 3 months of time. Elections are held every 4 years. The game has a complex internal model to represent the population of your country. A large number of different ‘voter groups’ are modeled, such as Motorists, Trade-Unionists, Unemployed people, Wealthy people etc. The simulation allows people to be in several groups at once, so for example, an unemployed poor motorist will be influenced by the opinions of all 3 groups when it comes to election day.

The player influences the voters and the country by putting in place policies. Policies are things like “Free Health Care” and can be modified using sliders to decide how much money (and effort) is put into each policy. Different voting groups will have very different (often conflicting) views as to which policies are desirable.

The simulation behind the game also models a large number of variables which determine the condition of your country. Your policies might be popular at first, but they might lead to a fall in productivity, increased commuter journey times, increased air pollution... All these variables come back to haunt you, and to stay in power over several terms you will have to think far ahead.

Virtual Reality Therapeutic Training

"The driving vision is a holodeck. If you look at the holodeck, and all the things people do in Star Trek, that's what we'd like to be able to do."

—Skip Rizzo, WIRED Magazine Article

"The greatest fear of all is the fear of our own power."

—Nelson Mandella Quote

This interesting Serious Games article in the New York Times explores using virtual reality as a therapeutic experience. VR therapeutic training shows how people can learn to overcome fears of their worst phobia experience by going through it with no fear of consequences only to find that it goes without a hitch and the fear is an illusion they can transcend.

 

Ambition

http://www.zap.ca/casestudy1.htm http://www.2flashgames.com/f/f-312.htm

Learn negotiation skills as you talk down a psychopath in an interactive dialogue.

Food Force

“The PC-based game, which the agency said was unsuitable for children under 8, takes place on the fictitious island of Sheylan. After an initial briefing on hunger crisis and work in the field, players are required to accomplish six different missions, ranging from piloting a reconnaissance helicopter to count hungry people, to dropping food aid from a cargo plane.” sfgate.com article

A Force More Powerful

Palestinian Israeli Negotiation Game