1. Darfur is Dying
In 2006, MTVu released a flash game to highlight the struggles millions faced in the Darfur region of Sudan, while the country engaged in a bloody civil war. Darfur is Dying was created to illustrate the difficulty of living among modern genocide.
The game begins when the player selects a member of a Darfuri family living in a refugee camp. That player must then run several thousand meters to the water well and back, while hiding from trucks that contain janjaweed militia members looking to kidnap them on sight.
If kidnapped, you learn what happens to captured Darfuris. Then, the game asks you to pick another family member and retry the water run. Succeed and you are taken to another portion of the game: a top-down view of the refugee camp, which you must keep fed and protected.
The game prompted users to donate to humanitarian groups or contact representatives to encourage U.S. involvement. Although the crisis in Darfur is over, the game still exists online. MTV said that in its height, 1.2 million people around the globe played Darfur is Dying.
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Think games are only good for fun and distraction, absent of societal impact or deeper meaning? Not so fast.
As Mashable prepares for its Social Good Summit Sept. 22-24, we examined the ways that gaming can impact the world. We looked at games that approach socially relevance with fun and engaging concepts.
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Most of the games on our list tackle international issues, for example, the reality of living in extreme poverty or the labor issues surrounding electronics manufacturing. Many games were simulations, like Darfur is Dying, but a few borrowed gameplay elements from currently popular social and mobile titles. You can see the similarities between WeTopia, a social game that lets users spend their currency on charities, and bigger games like FarmVille.
New York Times columnist Nick Kristof, who is speaking at Social Good Summit, is also working on his own game for social good. Half the Sky will allow users to send microtransactions to charities they wish to support. Earlier this year, he told Mashable founder and CEO Pete Cashmore that he wanted to use a game to access an audience he wouldn't reach with his columns, which sometimes amounted to "preaching to the choir."
“We want to get beyond that choir; we want to build that choir,” said Kristof. “We decided to go into gaming, because games can go viral. They can also have a very low barrier to entry, if they aren’t didactic, but fun. It will bring people into these issues and expose them to it.”
Each of the games listed above attempts to do the same: reach players in their native environments -- on their web browsers or via Facebook -- by forming to habits they already have.
Do you think games can succeed in fostering social change?
Thumbnail image courtesy of iStockphoto, adamfilip
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