This is a research project for the Digilab and DiIt projects in GRAND NCE. The game Get Water! is a gesture based endless runner game featuring Maya who lives in India and is pulled from school to get water for her family. Get Water! is a simple, fun, and optimistic game intended to elicit conversation and increase awareness of the issues of global water scarcity and the effects on girls education. Though the goal is complex, we are investigating the social impact of the game through various entry points. This involves ethnographic research, media and communications analyses, a case study involving university students, and focus groups with young adolescents. Does the game bring awareness to the issues effecting Maya’s life? How do people respond to the game? What are people saying about the game and how is information traveling through social media and networks?
