Immerse Yourself...in Hell

September 29, 2008

I've written before about the power of video and computer games to persuade and educate. At their best, these kinds of persuasive games are not only fun and challenging to play, but they actually put you in the shoes of someone else, and give you a sense of what life is like for, say, a child searching for water in refugee camp in Darfur. Well, the British Red Cross has possibly just gone one step better. As part of the organization's month-long effort to draw attention to the plight of civilains in conflict zones, it's launched an Alternative Reality Game (ARG) called Traces of Hope.

ARGs mix storytelling, game play and detective work, and in doing so, take the idea of persuasive gaming to a whole new level. In Traces of Hope, you register to play, and then are immediately contacted by Joseph, a fictional 16 year old from northern Uganda. He needs you to help him find his mother, from whom he has been separated. Joseph has been displaced (like some two million real people) by the two-decades long conflict there. The real stuff is as nasty as it gets, folks -- civil war, kidnappings, and the use of children as soldiers and sex slaves.

After being contacted by Joseph, you get completely immersed in the game. You have to track down information scattered across various websites. You may also be asked to send emails and make phone calls in an effort to help Joseph find his mother.

The game is meant not only to highlight the Red Cross' family-tracing service, but to also give players the feel of being a teenager, scared and alone in the midst of war.

ARGs have mostly been used around commercial ventures -- think of the online mysteries created surrounding the film Cloverfield. This is the first instance I've heard of a charity trying it.

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