Tag Archives: Poverty

Gaming With A Cause: Catalysts for Change

Posted by Chad Knick on

Well folks, once again I find myself stumbling upon a game that can actually assist the lives of many. Now I know that I’ve discussed the idea that gaming can actually help form a better world, and you know my deep appreciation for folks like Jane McGonigal. Well, the Institute for the Future has done it again. Today April 3rd they launched a game campaign called:

Catalysts for Change: A Game To Discover Paths out of Poverty.

Now I have my mixed feelings about social interaction games where it becomes a series of blog posts and social interactions between people. The sociological and psychological aspects of this though are so engrossing to me that I had to take a look. Essentially what you do is register to play the game, and then you can start playing cards which are viewable here.

With so many people in poverty today - we should share our voices to solve it.

Here’s how it works:

You are given either Positive Imagination cards, or Critical Imagination cards. Positive cards describe positive ideas and paths out of poverty. Critical Imagination cards are cards that could lead to greater vulnerability. You can play as many or as few cards as you like but the point is to use these card points to begin engaging people. Once the ideas are spread perhaps they will want to join in on spreading similar ideas and thus the motion of the game progresses into this social brainstorming activity that will last for 48 hours.

Once you play a card there are other cards that others can play off of these idea cards. Momentum, Antagonism, Adaptation, and Investigation.

You earn points based on the amount of engagement you gain during discussions.

Momentum cards are whenever you pose a question that asks:

“How can we build off this idea? What would happen next?”

Antagonism cards are whenever you disagree with an idea and wish to address what’s wrong with it:

” This idea lacks… I think we should…”

Adaptation cards are when you agree with an idea, but choose to accommodate it to your particular region or grouping:

“I love your idea, but I feel that in my country we will probably have to…”

Investigation cards are any time you have questions about an idea and wish to find out more information to gain clarity towards the discussion.

“I appreciate your idea, but could you please explain…”

Now, what exactly are my feelings on all of this social gaming towards the benefit of solving poverty? I love the idea – because gaming is a social media aspect anyways. It promotes socialization and teamwork. We work better at problem solving when we’re grouped together, and honestly, solving poverty sounds like a better solution for our nation than solving a zombie horde in CoD: Black Ops.

My point is, that while I may not agree with the email/blog social interaction gameplay mechanic, I’m just not used to the mechanics of this type of game and I’m getting used to the concept. We need to find ways to allow people to make changes in this world, and not just in virtual ones. You know it astonishes me that people spend so much money on World of Warcraft gear [ REAL MONEY! Check Ebay! ] and yet we are dealing with a poverty-stricken world outside of the virtual one they inhabit.

Perhaps that’s why MMO’s were built? – to hide us away from the sad realization of our world existence. We want virtual worlds, where poverty isn’t even a word and where raiding for gold is as easy as a mouse click. Imagine though if we could devise a way to help poverty that was as easy as a mouse click? Would you join in on a game designed to aid poverty? World-wide poverty? If your ideas had the power to spread action into the lives of others would you do it? How? Would you build a game, or start a blog, or start a youth group of active innovators? The idea of Catalysts for Change is to get people playing a real-life MMO. No, not LARPing, but real people interacting with real people.

Games, if posed in this manner, can change the world. We can make a difference if we expose ideas and generate content that can benefit the world around us. You can check out and join the Catalysts for Change game and it starts as 4 pm GMT time and will run until 4 pm GMT on April 5th. Join the change and let’s see if we can’t make a difference for a better tomorrow!

Gaming With A Cause: Spent

Posted by Chad Knick on

Today’s Game of the Week relates to recent topics that I’ve discussed on Gastrogamer. If readers will remember my admiration of Jane McGonigal, then you’ll see why I think this game would fit fondly into her game design forte. McGonigal is all about the development of humanity through gaming, and Spent gives a player to experience a part of the human society that I think sometimes we can overlook. Spent was developed by the Urban Ministries of Durham and a company called McKinney. Urban Ministries of Durham help in serving homeless shelters and providing for food for impoverished families in Durham, NC. The goal of Spent is to give players a chance to see if they can deal with the same hardships that many people go through daily.

Can you live for a month on 1000 dollars?

The game is pretty simplistic as far as mechanics go. The game only requires a mouse click to choose options, but what makes this game unique is that each choice you make is important to your survival and completion of the game. You log on and immediately you are thrown into an interface that challenges you with a premise:

“Urban Ministries of Durham serves over 6,000 people a year. But you’d never need help would you?”

“PROVE IT!”

The immediate human response that we get when challenged is to prove to others, as well as ourselves, that we can do the scenario that’s been posed to us. Spent forces the player to be in the position of an alternate scenario as if it was their own life. Each decision you make is met with trivia that expresses the hardships of low-income families. This game touched me emotionally, because it gives life a different perspective and makes you value every humbling reward of your life. You value your families successes, your financial security, your insurance, etc. You learn to appreciate your own life as you play through this game. This is why I recommend at least viewing it.

People often need aid from others, thus the Facebook attachments to the game, provide an even more realistic view to this simplistic game. Everyone, on occasion, requires the need to lean on other people for assistance. This game teaches us that we can’t always rely on ourselves to make it through our struggles, but sometimes we need to look to our friends and family for aid. It really opens up our eyes to the value of friendship and love and how hardships can bring individuals together.

I think the best portion of this game was the music though, because it gives a foreboding suspense to every decision you make throughout the game. This game is enlightening and gives an eye-opening experience that I feel like movies and television can’t even begin to grasp. Movies and television only allow us to visually experience a scenario, but given a game that puts us in the position of poverty, Spent gives us an even deeper understanding of the seriousness of our financial crisis and poverty.

I recommend this game, because games like this give us a deeper view of the world going on around us. It may seem like a depressing, dark, and foreboding game, but overall, the emotional impact of the gameplay is worth taking the challenge for. You can learn more about the Urban Ministries of Durham here:

http://www.umdurham.org/

Hopefully more games like this will come to fruition in the future, so that we can clearly see challenges that happen every day in our human society. We may sit at home and feel so secure, but in an instant, anyone can become unemployed, homeless, or living paycheck to paycheck. I feel so passionate about this movement, especially since the designers come from an area close to where I grew up. I would love to see more games discuss real human difficulties.

Please don’t give me more zombie apocalypses, or space warfare. These games are unrealistic and give me, and many players, fantasy realms to escape our dire realities from. If we spent more time as designers focusing on human hardships, relationships, and struggles ; then perhaps we can find cures, aid, and suggestions for some of our societies biggest problems. How many hit-points does my orc’s armor have in World of Warcraft? – I pray is not someone’s end-all-be-all lifetime concern for this world. If so, I really hope they consider the many struggles others are going about life with before they see their lack of proficient raiding armor as “a struggle.”

Now does that mean that all games should be ultra-realistic and I want to see all fantasy games destroyed? No, not at all, but I think a lot of games can take a page out of Spent’s playbook by giving players problems to solve and decisions to make. Bioware, Blizzard, and many MMO companies have been good at trying to implement these aspects into their games, but the truth is, they’re only aiding in solving fantasy problems.Where is the game where our fantasy hero is a person, not some fantasy Spartan, or some inhuman fantasy character who can tinker his, or her, way out of everything?

I want to feel like my choices in a game make a difference, teach me something that I wouldn’t have learned without playing it, give me a deeper understanding of the world around me. These are the types of games I look forward to going forward in the history of our world, and I believe that Spent is only a small trinket of gaming goodness that can be used to create even more meaningful and commanding experiences for us to learn from as human beings.

Enjoy folks! – and here’s your question: Can you Prove It?

http://playspent.org/