Design Contest Highlights Video Games With a Purpose

drew30319 writes "Game developers' website Gamasutra discusses a video game design contest with socially redeeming qualities — is this a productive role video games can play? Quoting: 'A unique game design competition aimed at teen violence prevention has announced its winners, revealing that Grace's Diary is taking home the top prize. The annual contest is sponsored by Jennifer Ann's Group, a non-profit organization focused on teen violence education and prevention since its founding in 2006. The "Life. Love. Game Design Contest" challenges entrants to design a game about the issue — without using violence itself.' The winning games are available to play online now."

Comments

What about foldit

[goombah99]

Fold proteins to cure disease and outscore your opponent.

Re:There's a problem with games "with a purpose."

[twidarkling]

So... video games can't have a message AND be fun at the same time? Moreso, you don't think that the "message" can EVER add enjoyment?
 

No, but people who want to get a message out generally don't give a shit about the "fun" aspect. And no, I don't think giving a "message" can add enjoyment. I think you can have themes, but any person who goes in to designing a game with the frame of mind "I must tell people that X is bad" isn't going to also go in to it with the frame of mind that "I must make this something people want to play." They usually believe that the strength of their message is enough to make whatever they make compelling. And yes, the same problem applies to movies. If you're going in with an anti-violence message, then everything is flat and preachy. Characters only act how they are in order to reinforce the message. "Oh no, I shot a guy, and now my life is horrible! Why ever must we live in such a violent world!" You need to have compelling characters and a good plot in a good movie, just like in a good game, but the added burden on a game is also mechanics. If you're not going in focused on FUN, then you're going to sacrifice something in order to make that message shine through. Since making a fun game is hard, and you think your message is important (that's why you're *making* the game, after all), you'll half-ass that. And if you don't, if you instead make a fun game, you run the risk of shoehorning in the preachy bits and making them grating and even MORE apparently preachy. No, it's best to just make a game with a theme and let gamers discover for themselves what is trying to be said.

To me, your post sounds like "No violence, no fun."

I'm not even going to dignify that.

Re:There's a problem with games "with a purpose."

[twidarkling]

Granted, you have to actually pick up the game/book/movie/whatever in the first place... And you're unlikely to be receptive if some concerned individual hands it to you and tells you to pay close attention to the message... But if you've got meaningful/useful content like this scattered through random, entertaining games - it might be helpful.

This! This is how I think it would be done best. Don't make it the focus, and don't concentrate it. I could see that being a great success. If it was pervasive without being invasive. It wouldn't be terribly difficult to work in to most non-FPS games nowadays even. Random side quests, moral choice systems, all those kinds of mechanics are tailor-made for adding meaning, depth, and themes to games. There's no need to make adding a message the focus of a game, when you could instead sucker-punch a person. Heck, here's an idea for a horror game that would fit in with the anti-abusive message these games want:

You're dealing with a supernatural horror that's killing people in brutal ways, and you're slowly losing your sanity. Your one link keeping you going during your investigation is your old friend, recently entered in to a relationship. Calling or visiting your friend boosts your sanity. However, if you don't pay close attention to how your friend is acting, they're slowly cut off from you by their abusive significant other. If you don't manage to convince them to leave, at some point during the game, they're killed by the SO/cut off from you completely, and you lose the biggest and best way to recover sanity, and you make the game world much lonelier, and take a shot directly at the gamer, too. Then you're not shoving it in the gamer's face, but they're going to learn about the signs of an abusive relationship, the possible consequences, etc.