You build towers in your virtual city using bulldozers and machines but as you do so the carbon stocks, displayed on the screen’s right hand corner, are burning and you watch your virtual world begin to disintegrate around you. Why not turn off some lights or plant some trees and watch your carbon points increase and the world return to its natural state?
Computer games and ‘gamification’ are the new platforms for sending messages and as an aspiring communications specialist/journalist I should start taking these games more seriously.
Gamification is defined by Wikipedia as ‘the integration of game mechanics or game dynamics into a website, service, community, campaign, or application in order to drive participation and engagement’.
The concept of ‘gamification’ and its target market has moved from what was once perceived as a small stereotypical teenage male group to envelop every working profession. The use of video games has grown from a niche sector to ‘engage more leisure time and more users.’ (Flew, 2010, pp. 138)
With this growth comes an opportunity to change the way we communicate and solve problems on a global scale. And with the extent of convergence, immersion and interaction offered in video games this potential has an immensity not seen in other media technology.
Image via: http://www.google.com/imgres?q=gamification
The possibility to apply ‘gamification’ across different sectors is slowly becoming realised. Where computer games have been useful in specialized education for years, training pilots or surgeons, they can also be useful for training Journalists.
Because of their interactive capacity computer games ‘cause the player to construct hypotheses, solve problems, develop strategies and learn the rules of the in-game world through trial and error’ (Flew, 2010, pp. 127). Media companies could use ‘gamification’ to train newly hired journalists before they reach the news desk; accustoming them with the production rules and style guides employed at that particular media outlet. Indeed a ‘digital newsroom immersion’ is used as an assessment task in a Bond University Journalism subject. The student/player is placed at a news desk and must write about news occurring in the virtual world while also dealing with virtual distractions; phones ringing, people asking questions or the television blaring in the background.
Furthermore, as the information society we live in becomes more intense, with news and information flowing through every device at an endless pace, newsrooms could use gamification to decide what is newsworthy. The Guardian did this when they released thousands of MP documents relating to a funding scandal. The public could access these documents that were ‘gamified’ so user interactivity -comments, ratings, likes and dislikes – naturally revealed the most newsworthy items out of the fray.
Yet while gamification used for such purposes is useful, it hardly embraces the complete potential of video games. The power ‘gamification’ holds is extensive; a study on video game effects by Aldrich (2005, p. 31) found ‘some participants exhibited extreme forms of emotion and carried feelings from a simulation into their relationships for months, even years, later’.
This remarkable influence of video games has been reined in areas such as therapy where studies have found video games help cure ‘driving phobia’ that is caused by experiencing a car accident. (Walshe et. al. 2003)
Although this example does not relate to media it shows the gap between the ‘virtual’ and ‘physical reality’ is almost non-existent and what is experienced or learnt through the simulation can be exercised in real life. In the minds of the user ‘online and offline spaces can be seen as ‘merged’ rather than separate’. (Flew, 2009, pp. 136).
Herein lays the true potential of video games; why not use video games and their influence for the public good and possibly as a public good. Through video games solutions to real-life problems could be developed and the public become more educated and emotionally invested in areas where words no longer suffice. For example the game ‘World Without Oil’ has simulated a world that has run out of oil supplies (a real problem facing real humans). Participants are forced to realise the true ramifications of running out of oil and attempt to carry out their working and social lives while overcoming the problem of limited resources.
The possibilities here are endless; the introduction to this blog depicts a simulated environment where people immerse themselves, interact with, solve problems and see/feel/experience the effects of Global Warming. The verbal dialogue around Global Warming is tired, bouncing off a public that has heard it all before, but Jaron Lanier’s concept of post-symbolic communication (communication without symbols) in virtual realities could further educate and involve the public in topics, such as Global Warming, obesity, or the environment, that are otherwise widely dismissed with boredom.
Furthermore the interactivity of video games could allow consumers to actively participate in solving these problems, contributing to what would become a virtual knowledge society applicable in real life.
This concept could be implemented by organisations such as World Wildlife Fund (WWF) or Greenpeace to enhance their campaigns, namely ‘gamifying’ the issue to reach more people with greater effect.
Although this may seem idealistic, it will not be long before such a concept is plausible. In the future ‘simulations will break down the artificial barriers between what we learn and what we do and between understanding our history and controlling our future. (Aldrich 2005, pp. 34). As an aspiring communications specialist I hope to be riding the forefront of the ‘gamification wave’ to create a true difference within both the virtual, and the real, world.
References:
Flew, T. (2008). New Media, An Introduction. (3rd ed.). Victoria: Oxford University Press.
Walshe, D., Lewis, E., Kim, S., O’Sullivan, K., Wiederhold, B. (2003). CyberPsychology & Behavior. Exploring the Use of Computer games and Virtual Realty in Exposure Therapy for Fear of Driving Following a Motor Vehicle Accident, 6(3), 329-334. Doi: 10.1089/109493103322011641
Accessed via: http://www.liebertonline.com
Aldrich, C. (2005). Learning By Doing, A Comprehensive Guide to Simulations, Computer Games, and Pedagogy in e-learning and Other Educational Experiences. San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
The Guardian as cited in Flew, T. (2008). New Media, An Introduction. (3rd ed.). Victoria: Oxford University Press.
WorldWithoutOil (Producer). (2008, Feburary 20). Welcome to a World Without Oil. [Youtube Video]. Accessed 2011 November 15 via: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-hzUGFD-Gc
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