If this were an ordinary videogame, the description would end here. But in “Squeezed,” a socially conscious videogame developed by students at the University of Denver, there’s another reason, aside from earning points, to continue to the end. You may be just a frog, but you also have a family and community to support in a country far away. The “juice” you collect from the fruits you pick up is paying for food and medicine back home. Without it, your family may starve.
“Squeezed” is part of a growing trend of socially conscious games that are as much about spreading awareness as entertainment. This year’s third annual Games for Change conference, held in June at the New School in New York, included 240 participants, up from 40 in 2004, when the first conference was held. “I think we may have 10 really good games right now, which is much bigger than it was even two years go,” says Katie Salen, a director of graduate studies at Parsons The New School for Design.
“Squeezed” is intended to raise awareness among well-off young people by putting them in game situations that resemble those of immigrants and poor people in real life. The frogs, donkeys and dragonflies that work the farms in the game serve as stand-ins for migrant workers from Latin America.
Activist games are starting to get some big-time attention. “Squeezed” comes out in September on MTVu.com, MTV’s 24-hour college-network Web site. (MTVu and Cisco Systems gave $25,000 to the developers of “Squeezed.”) The International Center on Nonviolent Conflict invested $3 million and allied with commercial game developer Breakaway LTD to create A Force More Powerful, a game intended to teach nonviolent methods of influencing governments.
Despite the interest, these games will probably not do well in the marketplace, experts say. Entertainment, after all, is not the first priority. But will they change the world? First, get the joysticks moving, then see what develops.
