This is more like it!
You might remember me talking (not entirely favourably) about a new game on Facebook called ‘E-Mission’ in a previous blog titled ‘Playing green games’. Another one has cropped up with a vaguely similar premise; to use Facebook gaming/ iPhone apps to generate awareness for a cause. We’ve established that this isn’t a new idea, but in my view few games have really grasped the potential of this medium. That is, until ‘Raise the Village’ came along.
E-Mission undermine their target market by belittling the games they already play such as Farmville and Mafia Wars (two popular Facebook games). According to a video on their site, “[Playing Emission is] way better than making a fake farm or pretending to be in the mafia, right?”. Criticising your target market and telling them that they are wrong is not going to win you brownie points or loyal users. The far more logical route would be to say, ‘Hey, you like games like this? So do we…” (We’re like you). That’s precisely what Raise the Village have done. They’ve taken the Farmville model (in which users create and cultivate farms to win points) and adapted it with a philanthropic twist.
While the premise of E-Mission is admirable (asking its users to get out of their seats and take real life action to win points in the game), it strikes me as incredibly naive. As mentioned in my blog on Common Cause, people face a huge mental barrier when it comes to dealing with ‘bigger than self’ issues that is only compounded by perceived inconveniences such as having to walk away from Facebook to change a lightbulb or washing out the cat food tins. Of course it would be fantastic if kids engaged with this game and really did get out of their chairs and take action… but it seems unlikely. E-Mission is asking too much and offering too little. Raise the Village, on the other hand, interacts exactly like other familiar gaming platforms but with the benefit of having real, tangible consequences. Buy mosquito nets for your interactive village and contribute to buying actual mosquito nets for an actual Ugandan village.
Real life effects with minimum effort required from users. Beautiful.
However, with regards to the issue I raised in my previous blog of online security and demands for personal information, I can’t comment on where Raise the Village stands as the game isn’t available yet. Unfortunately, I imagine it will raise similar concerns but I’ll reserve judgement until the game is released.
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