If social media can inspire people to engage in peaceful revolutions, why couldn&'t a video game do it too After watching the peaceful revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, game designer and researcher Jane McGonigal suggested that someone create a game called Civ D, short for Civil Disobedience, about how to stage a peaceful revolution.
McGonigal said that such games could train people how to orchestrate a large-scale protest and peaceful revolution &8212' a skill that seems like it&'s in high demand in the Middle East today. If game developers take her up on the idea, she thinks the result could be a meaningful game that could be much more widely enjoyed than current video game fare.
&''When I think of all the games about war, I think it&'s time we starting thinking about huge, intense, action-oriented games that we could play and might be more meaningful and something we can aspire to,&'' said McGonigal in her speech at the Dice Summit video game conference in Las Vegas on Feb. 11.
She looked at many of the leaflets handed out by the protesters and noted how they resembled instructions for doing tasks in video games. Egyptian protest organizers handed out very detailed pamphlets that showed protesters how to mobilize through the neighborhoods to get to the center of the protests in Tahrir Square.
&''If you look at the pamphlets, they&'re really quite conducive to game scenarios,&'' she said. &''Here&'s the strategic goals for civil disobedience&'' such as taking over the government, winning over the military, and protecting as many people from harm as possible.
The pamphlets showed people how to fend off attacking police and how to shield themselves from a striking baton.
There are even virtual goods that could be created in such a game, such as the hood you would need to protect yourself from tear gas and to stop others from recognizing you.
McGonigal isn&'t making the game herself but she is suggesting that someone else do so. Her own company, Social Chocolate, is creating a game called SuperBetter, which is aimed at helping people survive illnesses. McGonigal is encouraging game developers to propose their own ideas for making games with meaning at the site Gameful.org. The slides from her Dice speech are here.
If a game developer went to work on a high-quality game now, it could probably be published by 2014, McGonigal said.
Next Story: Mobile payments company Paydiant picks up $7.6M Previous Story: Amazon takes on Netflix with Prime instant videos
Print Email Twitter Facebook Google Buzz LinkedIn Digg StumbleUpon Reddit Delicious Google More&8230'
Companies: Social Chocolate
People: Jane Mcgonigal
Companies: Social Chocolate
People: Jane Mcgonigal
Dean is lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He covers video games, security, chips and a variety of other subjects. Dean previously worked at the San Jose Mercury News, the Wall Street Journal, the Red Herring, the Los Angeles Times, the Orange County Register and the Dallas Times Herald. He is the author of two books, Opening the Xbox and the Xbox 360 Uncloaked. Follow him on Twitter at @deantak, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.
Have news to share Launching a startup Email: tips@venturebeat.com
VentureBeat has new weekly email newsletters. Stay on top of the news, and don't miss a beat.
Discuss Add this link to... Bury
Comments