Get Serious

Serious games, as a term, was coined in 2002 by the Serious Games Initiative, which was founded at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars in Washington, DC. The goal of the Initiative was to focus attention on the emergence of games designed for purposes other than pure entertainment. This included the development of computer games for industries like health care, city planning, business, scientific exploration, politics, and education. These games simulate the real world, motivate and educate players, and require them to make reasoned decisions.

In 2004, Games for Change (G4C) was established, of which I am a cofounder. The goal of this organization is “to harness the power of video games to address the most pressing issues of our day, including poverty, education, human rights, global conflict, and climate change….Games for Change promotes new kinds of games that engage contemporary social issues in meaningful ways to foster a more just, equitable, and tolerant society.” G4C supports artists, foundations, and non-profit organizations to develop and use games for social change.

While gaming advocates such as scholar James Paul Gee have documented the tremendous advantages gained by youth who play well-designed games, regardless of their content, there are added benefits to be achieved by playing games designed to teach about significant social or global issues. Serious games, a new generation of educational games, are different from previous edutainment games that tried to teach students in a rather boring game-like format. They are truly games that compete not with classroom instruction but rather with entertaining games on the Web.

So how can libraries take advantage of the emergence of serious games and their power both to engage and to enlighten? Programs can be coordinated to introduce youth to a variety of games, followed by librarian-facilitated discussions. In this way, the games can be used as vehicles to peak students’ interest in numerous topics which can be expanded upon by peer discussions and library resources. More informally, serious games can be recommended to students in flyers. A great starting point for educating librarians about gaming in libraries is “The Librarian’s Guide to Gaming” (http://librarygamingtoolkit.org/), developed by the American Library Association with support from Verizon. It offers everything from a history of games in libraries to talking points to models for incorporating games into library program.

In addition, you can look to groups like Global Kids, a New York City-based educational organization committed to supporting urban youth to become global citizens, community leaders, and successful students. With support from Microsoft, Global Kids founded its successful Playing 4 Keeps program (www.playing4keeps.org), which teams after-school youth with professional game developers to create serious games. The Playing 4 Keeps Capacity Building Program supports youth librarians–and not necessarily those with gaming experience– to educate young people to become game designers.

The titles below are just a sampling of free single-player, Web-based serious games that can be played on a Mac or PC without the need to download any application. They usually take between 20 and 30 minutes to play. Information about other serious games can be accessed at gamesforchange.org/play.

Ayiti: The Cost of Life (costoflife.org) has been played over two million times. Its design was a collaboration between Global Kids’ Playing 4 Keeps youth leaders and the game design company GameLab. Ayiti challenges players in a spirit akin to the game Oregon Trail to manage a family of five over four years in a rural community on Haiti. It offers a great strategic challenge while driving home its point about how poverty keeps people’s lives in a precarious balance. Ages 11 Up.

Darfur Is Dying (darfurisdying.com) is one of the best-know serious games. It was created by Susana Ruiz, at the time a graduate student at the Interactive Media Program at University of Southern California. After attending a Games for Change conference, she learned about a MTVu competition and, in response, produced this emotional and eye-opening game in which the player navigates challenges for a member of a Darfur family that has been displaced by the conflict. While not the most exciting of games, the content’s emotional impact will get players every time. Ages 16 Up.

Do I Have A Right? (ourcourts.org/flashgames/dihar) was the first game released by the Our Courts project initiated by Justice Sandra Day O’Connor to educate youth about civics. The player manages a human rights law firm and has to quickly assess the concerns raised by potential clients and properly direct them to their ever-growing stable of lawyers. Ages 12 Up.

Gauging Your Distraction (tinyurl.com/gaugingdistration) was created for the New York Times after a series of articles about multitasking while driving. The game challenges the player to drive with one hand while responding to a text message with the other. While raising awareness about the dangers of texting while driving, it is also an excellent example of sharing data collected through game play to enlighten players. Ages 15 Up.

ICED (http://www.icedgame.com/) stands for I Can End Deportation. Created by Breakthrough, the innovative non-profit that uses media to address human rights issues, this is an excellent example of how games can address social issues, in this case immigration rights, but also how they can be part of a larger campaign to engage and inspire action. Ages 14 Up.

Pos or Not (posornot.com) was developed through a challenge by MTVu to raise awareness about HIV. The simple instructions explains it all: “Think you can tell if we have HIV? Some of us are HIV positive and some are negative. All of us want to challenge your assumptions about HIV. Play the game and see if you can tell who is Pos or Not.” The game play and graphics mimic the popular Hot or Not site. Ages 14 Up.

Profit Seed (tiltfactor.org/profitseed) was designed using the Values at Play curriculum which can be used to design activist games or simply novel games with unusual mechanics. The project was a collaboration between the Tiltfactor Lab and members of the Rochester Institute of Technology game design program. Profit Seed explores the politics of genetically modified organisms (GMO) and the patenting of agricultural seeds. And it’s cute! Ages 14 Up.

Tempest in Crescent City (tempestincrescentcity.ning.com) was also produced by Global Kids’ youth leaders in collaboration with the Canadian-based GamePill. In this sidescroller, the player navigates the rising waters of New Orleans as she searches for her mother. Designed to bring attention to the local heroes who emerged in response to Hurricane Katrina and the absence of an adequate federal response, the game also imports the basics of crisis readiness. A rare action game amongst serious games. Ages 12 Up.

Do you already have youth playing serious games? Are you interested in supporting the most dedicated gamers in designing their own serious games? There are many free, or almost free, new Web-based sites where youth can produce their own games. Some examples include Scratch (scratch.mit.edu/) and Gamemaker (Yoyogames.com). The revolutionary game-creation tool, Gamestar Mechanic (gamestarmechanic.com), offered in a partnership with Scholastic, became available in February 2010 to youth who want to use it to submit games (scholasticawards.gamestarmechanic.com/GSM/web/home.html).

Elaine Charnov, Director of Education, Programs, and Exhibitions at the New York Public Library, praised the recent effort of Global Kids to help young people become game designers: “In addition to the rich content ranging from media consolidation to drug trafficking, students gained invaluable experience from the challenge of team learning. The thoughtful design and the dynamic teaching and training methods of Global Kids staff set a high bar for future teen courses.” These young game designers presented their games to an audience of peer media producers and were publicly critiqued by a panel of professional game designers. These presentations can be viewed at youtube.com/watch?v=_NOtFxF3r6Y.

Hopefully, 2010 will be the year in which serious gaming becomes the norm, fusing the power of gaming with the resources libraries have to offer.