Can computer games change the world?
Sales of computer-games have overtaken music, DVDs and film in annual earnings. Hundreds of millions of people are gamers, and all the statistics point to ever-increasing numbers. Vast populations are growing up in a world where they have never not known or experienced gaming. With this becoming an increasingly dominant social pattern, it is critical for artists, designers, social scientists, policy makers and pretty much everyone else to examine ways of effectively interacting with the gaming industry and with gaming communities to enact social development or change.
I recently watched a video by Michael Highland titled 'As Real As Your Life' as part of game developer Dave Perry's presentation at TED (seen above). Three critical things were revealed to me during the film:
Gaming is now a part of many people's emotional life world
Too few people at the heads of cultural institutions and governments are aware of the social power of these gaming communities
If games are becoming more like 'real' life and if people are investing 'real' emotional and mental energy in the becoming of their gaming life worlds, then this presents opportunities for games to help role model behaviour or create awareness of and willingness to work towards resolving social and ecological crises
There is an opportunity to engage with digital life worlds to enable reflection on social behaviour in our shared world. And here are some incredible voices who have come forward to answer that call: