Got Game? Create Change

January 8, 2007—The camp is running out of water, and you are a 14-year-old who knows all the best springs, wells and streams. Suddenly, everyone is depending on you. You must dodge the armed rebels, get to the nearest fresh water and bring back enough water for everyone. What do you do?

This is one of the challenges of a hot new video game that is being played by young people around the world. But what makes this game different is that the camp is located in Darfur and the game is based on the real life struggle of people living there. It is called "Darfur Is Dying" and it is one of a new trend in video games known as serious games or Games for Change.

Inspired by Food Force, a game about world hunger developed by the United Nations, a group of graduate students at the University of Southern California set out to create a game to raise awareness about the genocide occurring in Sudan's Darfur region.

"Young people don't necessarily know what Darfur is or even how to spell it," says project leader Susana Ruiz. With more than 700,000 visitors, "Darfur Is Dying" is changing that. In challenging players to virtually survive the real life challenges in the Darfur refugee camps and providing concrete steps to become involved, the game seeks to spark creative solutions to real world challenges.

Susana is one of a growing group of high school and college students who are creating electronic games as a way to communicate with their peers. Susana and more than 200 people gathered in New York City this summer to exchange ideas about how to use games to promote social change.

The "Games for Change" Conference brought together game designers, distributors, educators, activists and funders to exchange ideas on how games are a new and effective way to get young people thinking about complex problems around the world. During the two-day conference, game creators displayed games about voting rights, homelessness, illegal immigration, and poverty.

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For more information about Games for Change, visit the website at www.gamesforchange.org.

In the Works

Global Conflicts: Palestine
PeaceMaker
Pax Warrior

Student Thesis

Panchatantra
This thesis project by Radhika Tandon, a game design student at Parsons School of Design in New York, NY (USA), is based on the ancient tales of wisdom from India.

Blogs

Beth's Blog: Explore ICT in the developing world
Beth took live notes during the Games for Change conference in New York this year.

Globalkids Blog: Serious Games For Serious Issues
Playing 4 Keeps is an innovative youth media project, in which a team of Global Kids Leaders at South Shore High School are gaining leadership and game design skills that they will use to develop and produce a socially conscious online game each year.