Video games to save the world?
Video games can help save the world by raising awareness of the world's downtrodden, a group of socially conscious game designers say.
The creators of free educational games such as "Darfur is Dying" and "PeaceMaker" met with humanitarian activists at The New School university in New York this week for the third Games for Change annual conference.
The idea is to use video games to educate youth about real-world issues - fighting poverty, surviving in war-torn Sudan and negotiating Middle East peace.
And while there is violence in the games, it is being perpetrated by real-life players such as warring countries, not by the person playing the game.
"It's the next generation of activism," says Stephen Friedman, general manager of MTVu, a television network owned by cable channel MTV aimed at college students that created a grant program encouraging educational games.
"Given this generation lives online, it's heartening to see them using this incredibly powerful medium in a very potent way," Friedman says.
The idea appears to be gaining popularity.
"Darfur is Dying," which allows players to avoid being killed in violence-plagued Sudan, was downloaded more than 750,000 times in the past two months.
Just 40 developers and activists attended the first Games for Change conference in 2004. About 250 people participated this year.
Large gaming companies have expressed some interest in the market's potential, Bob Kerrey, the president of The New School and a former US senator from Nebraska, says.
"I do see some glimmers of reason to be optimistic that games ... can be used to accomplish educational missions and improve people's quality of understanding of what's going on in the world," Kerrey says.
"The question for us ... is how do I use it to accomplish something good?"
In the shoes of a refugee
"Darfur is Dying" puts players in the shoes of a Sudanese refugee. Plunked down in the middle of the violence, players must make it to a water well and try to survive for seven days in a camp besieged by militia.
In "PeaceMaker," players take the role of either the Israeli prime minister or the Palestinian president and try their hand at situations ranging from diplomatic talks to responding to military attacks.
PeaceMaker co-creator Eric Brown says he hopes to usher video games into a new socially conscious arena.
"We believe in the power of interactive media and we think it has a lot of positive potential," says Brown, a Carnegie Mellon University graduate student.
"Just by putting someone in the shoes of the other side, they may think of a perspective they might not have thought of before."