Discovery News: Etherized

Immerse Yourself...in Hell

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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Beyond the Xbox, Wii and PlayStation

Despite my best efforts, I realize that I am becoming an old fogy. And, as an old fogy, I want to comment on what those meddling kids are up to these days. Actually, I want to pass along information on a great example of a project designed to get kids interacting with technology. And by interacting, I don't mean playing video games. I mean making games. At left are some of the budding young game developers behind Hurricane Katrina: Tempest in Crescent City.

The game puts you in the shoes of Vivica Waters, a young girl from New Orleans who is forced to leave the city after Hurricane Katrina hits (the game has been released to coincide with the third anniversary of the storm -- August 29, 2005). Vivica moves to New York City. The game is essentially a dream that Vivica is having. She's been separated from her mother in the wake of the hurricane. She must find her mother, and, along the way, rescue trapped and injured survivors.

The release of the game is made even more timely and relevant as Gustav bears down on the Gulf, and New Orleans residents ready themselves yet again.

Tempest in Crescent City an excellent example of persuasive gaming -- games that are designed to be fun and challenging to play, while at the same time putting anyone who plays it in someone else's shoes. In other words, gulp, a game that's educational,that has a purpose.

The young people behind Tempest in Crescent City are part of something called Global Kids, a New York based nonprofit dedicated to educating urban youth about civic engagement and international affairs.

The first I came across the group was when I attended a showcase in New York City a few years back. The kids had just developed a game called Ayiti: The Cost of Life, which is meant to educate kids about the obstacles young people around the world face in getting an education. Ayiti's been played more than a million times by kids around the world, according to Global Kids.

Tempest in Crescent City is the second game developed by Global Kids, who worked in conjunction with an online gaming outfit called Game Pill, and with funding from Microsoft and AMD. I leave with you this great little video which takes you behind the scenes in the making of the game: