Philoscifi

As farfetched as this sounds, some people are trying to make it work, as evidenced by this CNN article. For those of you who are too busy (lazy…ahem!) to read it, the salients parts are summarized below.

How it works

Game designer Jane McGonigal sees “superheroes” with untapped potential that can be used to fix vexing real-world problems.

“Gamers are willing to work hard all the time if they’re given the right work,” she said. She calls them “super-empowered, hopeful individuals,” and includes herself among the bunch…

To do this, the Urgent Evoke game — classified in the emerging “alternate reality” genre — straddles the online and physical worlds. Players, a few hundred of whom are in Africa, earn points and power-ups by completing real-world tasks like volunteering, making business contacts or researching an issue, then submitting evidence of their work online…

Players catalogue their activities and submit the evidence in the form of a blog post, a video or a photo, which players post on the Urgent Evoke Web site.

Other people in the game network read these posts and, if they feel the player has done a good job, can award them further power-ups in a number of categories like creativity, collaboration, sustainability and courage.

Players with the most points at the end of the game win. The game is especially trying to attract gamers from Africa.

Thoughts

There is some serious money behind this project, but I’m rather skeptical of its chances of success. Not everyone has Internet access, and is it a good idea to promote a potentially addicting habit? But my biggest reservation is that I’m not sure that I agree with the underlying premise. As a gamer and someone who wants to do good, I love the idea of marrying the two, but honestly, I feel that most gamers play for fun and a sense of escapism. It’s not that gamers are lazy and don’t want to work, but doing real good can be an exercise in frustration. Also, the game as described sounds basically like a Facbook poll/popularity contest with a prize at the end. Gamers play games for the gameplay, not just the idea/story behind it. Aside from posting your feats online and getting feedback, how exactly is this a video game?

Don’t get me wrong; I’m not hating. I’d like to see this succeed. I love that someone is trying this approach, but this particular implementation just doesn’t feel compelling to me. Perhaps one day a game designer will find the right mix of gameplay elements and really harness all that “gamer potential.”

Check out the Urgent Evoke website, and let me know what you think.

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