But what if that game could help solve climate change or poverty? Would it just be a game then? Over the last 5-10 years this idea has been played and tested with thousands of people participating in Alternate Reality Games (ARG). These games have looked at how the world may cope without Oil, through to creating resource games to clearing litter up in your local cemetery.

Video games and the internet have created a new wave of people who are hugely interconnected and seek richer forms of experience from the traditional media delivery methods. All of these factors have created video games, board games and even physical street games that have steadily grown in popularity for the last decade or so. These games are also developing from playing for playing sake to having a wider aspect to their design. Some are being created to have a positive impact on society and making steps towards improving the world in which we live in.

But why now?

Well games have been with us since ancient times and can reveal a lot about the behaviours and ideas of people at any one period in time. Games were used in many ways and for many things and it has been discovered that one ancient civilisation used games as a resource to survive a famine. Our society today faces challenges on local and global scales from anti social behaviour to climate change. Could the answer to the issues that we face be discovered by and addressed through games? This ethos has been adopted by organisations such as Games for Change who are a global advocate for supporting and making games for social impact, they have created a platform that brings together individuals and companies from all sectors to discuss and incubate projects that work towards this common goal. Game designers such as Jane McGonigal from the Institute of the Future in California have been developing games that address global issues such as oil dependency. ‘World without Oil’ invites players into a future world when the crisis has hit it’s peak and invites players to creatively find ways to deal with the issues socially and economically. Closer to home Channel 4 Education have recently commissioned a game called ‘The Curfew’ which is an interactive game that encourages young people to have a more active involvement in society and politics.

So why do we look at games and play as being a waste of time once we ‘grow up’?

From an early age play and games are hugely important to our development as people; it is the fundamental mechanism that allows us to learn and understand complex issues and social rituals. But as we grow into adulthood, games and play become synonymous with childhood and childish things. More formal and structured methods of learning are introduced that prepare us for the adult world. But this shouldn’t necessarily mean that we should stop playing – it can be argued that games can provide and enhance important skills that can be transferred to our everyday lives including planning, strategy, collaboration and cooperation and can teach us new ways of communication. Games could become a device that could enrich our lives in ways that we may not ever be aware of.

Written by Julian Sykes