Following up on our last 5a7 about games and mobilization with MOB Montreal, we’ll be hosting an open discussion on games for change this Thursday from 5-7pm. As Wikipedia points out, games for change refers to a movement, a community of practice, a non-profit organization, a festival, and any game that targets the ideal of using games to foster social change. While we’d like to talk about all of these things, we’re going to focus on thinking critically about individual games and the different approaches to social change that they represent. What are the pros and cons of each approach? How do we measure whether a game succeeds or fails as both a game and a mechanism for social change? What assumptions and values are embedded in these games? To get us started, we’d like to suggest that everyone read this article on the charitable industrial complex, and play this Facebook game about charitable giving and entrepreneurship.
Below is a list of other games we think might be interesting to discuss. We’ve tried to cover a range of different types of games and topics. If you have any other examples you’d like to share and/or talk about you can send them to Carolyn at ckjong@mta.ca and I’ll post them here.
A non-digital sports game about balancing the federal budget: http://www.gamesforchange.org/play/budget-ball/
A card game about economic inequalities: http://privilegethegame.com/
A text-based game about fracking: http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/36764/what-the-frack/index.html#
A “massively single-player game” about gun control and the rhetoric of the NRA: http://www.molleindustria.org/the-best-amendment/
A game about government censorship and public opinion: http://www.gamesforchange.org/festival2013/games/the-republia-times/
A game about budgeting for low-income workers: http://playspent.org/
A game about the genocide in Darfur: http://www.darfurisdying.com/