Can video games help the world solve issues like hunger, disease and poverty ?

April 7th, 2010 | Projects

Some time back we posted a video of Dr. Jane McGonigal TED Talk on gaming can change the world. This slashdot discussion points to RAND corporation’s Institute for the Future which has created a game described as a crash course in changing the world.

"Developed for the World Bank’s ‘capacity development’ branch, EVOKE has already gathered more than 10,000 potential solutions from participants including executives from Procter & Gamble and Kraft. ‘[Dr. McGonigal] takes threats to human existence — global food shortage, fuel wars, pandemic, refugee crisis, and upended democracy — and asks the gaming public to collaborate on how to avoid these all too possible futures.’ And by completing its 10 missions, you too can become a World Bank Institute certified EVOKE social innovator. (The game designer’s web site lays out her ambitious philosophy. ‘Reality is broken,’ but ‘game designers can fix it.’)"

Here’s the trailer of the game – Evoke:

EVOKE trailer (a new online game) from Alchemy on Vimeo.

The world definitely needs and education on not giving up doing the right things. May be it can prepare us for the failures and this is what clearly resonates in these two statements by Dr. McGonigal:

“People who spend a lot of time failing in game worlds are less put off by failure in the real world”

“Games teach us that failure isn’t scary, it’s an opportunity to learn. To do amazing things, we can’t just give up because we fail.”