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Serious Games: Darfur is Dying

A game simulation designed to raise awareness of the plight of refugees in Darfur, Sudan.

Background: Persuasive games, otherwise known as serious games, raise awareness through the medium of an experience. By immersing players in a story or in an environment they let players absorb the desired message in an engaging way. Criticisms of such games range from the questionable appropriateness of reducing complicated and often tragic circumstances to the simple structures required by games, to not being compelling enough to play. However, over the past few years the quality of persuasive games has evolved as non-profits, activists and designers’ have taken more interest.

Hush (Courtesy of Jamie Antonisse)

Game types range the gamut from puzzles, to strategy challenges, to those that require skill. They educate by illustrating the subject (in such games as Hush), by simulating the issue (as in Peacemaker), or by highlighting the call to action (as in Free Rice). Researchers are also working on developing new criteria and metrics with which to measure the effectiveness of serious games in achieving their goals.

Peacemaker

After all, the point is not to make learning about human rights violations fun, but to send a strong message by making the process of receiving it compelling. Lastly, there are an increasing number of tools, funding bodies, support organizations and conferences available to help drive the creation of serious games. For activists, all this makes developing games a viable strategy for reaching target audiences as well as a potent way to instigate action.

Tools: Games, websites, social networking, email

How they’re being used: “Darfur is Dying” is a simulation game created by Susana Ruiz and a team of students from the University of Southern California as part of an mtvU initiative and was funded by the Reebok Human Rights Foundation. The game raises awareness of the genocide underway in the Darfur region of Sudan by providing insight into the experiences of people living in the refugee camps.

Darfur is Dying: Game Screen in the Camp

Players choose characters and follow them as they perform tasks such as getting water and harvesting crops. Players discover that the probability of success is tied to the character’s age and gender and not only the player’s ability to steer through the obstacles confronted. Significantly, the game embeds within the playing options opportunities to perform actions in the real world, such as send letters to the President or to petition Congress. (See regions highlighted in red in the image above and the red box in the image below). Taking such actions positively impacts the player’s ability to achieve a better outcome within the game context. It also encourages further activism off-line by making the point of such actions visual. Lastly, as a web-based game designed to go viral it enables players to send the link to it through social networks or email with a mouseclick.

Clicking on "Send to a Friend" facilitates the viral nature of the game and message.

Impact:

Darfur is Dying has inspired school children to create documentaries,  generated press both in print and television and won several awards. In terms of reach,  over a million people have played it nearly 2.5 million times. This in turn has led to over 25,000 notes being sent to then President Bush and letters to Congress asking for support for the refugees. The game (which was launched in 2006) is still available on-line, has been updated to reflect the election of Barack Obama to the United States Presidency, and continues to generate new action.

Its impact beyond this is more difficult to measure but can not be discounted. For example, as the impetus for the creation of further educational tools such as “Killing Ignorance” and “Save Darfur!“, documentary films created by high school students, it has inspired others to spread the message. The media attention the game has received has drawn focus not only to the game, but also to the cause. From the perspective of the game as a viral instrument, this suggests the game’s effectiveness as a tool for activism. Measuring the effect of such viral spin-offs would require research coordination with their individual creators and sponsors.

Analysis: For activists, the main barrier to using a game as a tool is the cost involved. Darfur is Dying cost fifty thousand dollars to produce, required a team of developers and the input and coordination of several organizations. As Susana Ruiz, creator of Darfur is Dying mentioned in an interview, the business model for the creation of a serious game is similar to that of a documentary. There may not be much financial return, but the projects do have great impact on society. For activists, they are another way to achieve social change and make a difference.

It should be noted that the development of a serious game is different than one that is just for fun. For starters, the emphasis is on the purpose. That enables serious game developers to take advantage of pre-existing tools while concentrating on the mission, story and graphics. Darfur is Dying, for example, was based on a game called Food Force, developed by Italian game company Deepend. And, while they eventually put the game together in Flash, they originally planned to use the Half Life 2 engine, Source,  and examined other engines, too.

For games such as Darfur is Dying, the educational process includes the means of pushing that change since real world actions are embedded into the game play. This does not trivialize the importance of genuine involvement, but makes it easier for users to make the connection to their actions and  situations far away. Giving people the opportunity to see and experience how their actions have cumulative positive effects upon the world is one way to inspire them to take further action on their own.

Noted organizations and companies in this space include Games for Change, which sponsors the annual Games for Change Festival, Impact Games (Peacemaker and Play the News), Persuasive Games, (Howard Dean for Iowa game), and Serious Games Interactive (Global Conflict: Latin America). These are however by no means the only ones. A follow-up article will review the current status of the industry and the tools available for activists who want to develop persuasive games.