As any comic book reader knows, the citizens of Gotham City have a handy way to call for help. Just power up the Bat-Signal and Batman will swoop to the rescue. It turns out that superheroesin- training are just as ready to answer the help call in communities around the world. A new online game called Evoke, promising “a crash course in changing the world,” had attracted more than 13,500 players from 130 countries soon after it launched in March. Their mission during the 10-week game: Learn about social innovation strategies to solve global crises— and then put their own good ideas into action close to home.
Evoke is intended to leverage the enormous popularity of online gaming to engage a broader audience. The game grew out of conversations between African university leaders and the World Bank Institute, said Robert Hawkins, senior education specialist for the institute. Educators in Africa are eager “to prepare their young people to think more creatively about solutions to issues in their own communities,” Hawkins says. That’s challenging in an educational system that “emphasizes rote learning over innovative thinking.”
Enter Jane McGonigal, award-winning alternate reality game designer and director of game research at the Institute for the Future. McGonigal’s specialty is designing games that bring thousands of players together online to focus on a real-world challenge. Unlike roleplaying games where all the action is confined to virtual worlds, McGonigal’s games are designed to transfer insights from the screen into reality.
Through Evoke, McGonigal aims to give players a place to hone their “superpowers,” such as collaboration and creative problem solving, to address issues like food security or access to clean drinking water.
Each Wednesday during the 10-week run of the game, players received a new mission. In gamer parlance, this was the Urgent Evoke. “Evoke means an urgent call to innovation,” McGonigal explains. Players followed the narrative thread of a graphic novel written by Kiyash Monsef and illustrated by Jacob Glaser. Players earned points by sharing their ideas in blogs or videos, and could also invite feedback from fellow players. A leaderboard tracked the quest for points.
Although McGonigal designs games “where everybody wins,” there were stakes associated with Evoke. At the end of the game, about 20 of the top players were to receive invitations to work with mentors and funders to put their innovative ideas into action. Hawkins is also planning a fall conference in Washington, D.C., for Evoke leaders. The World Bank Institute has invested $500,000 in Evoke, including funds for a postgame evaluation.
Just a few weeks into the game, the number of players was nearly triple what the World Bank Institute had hoped for, Hawkins says. About 10 percent of players were from Africa. To accommodate players without high-speed Internet access, a version of Evoke was available for playing on mobile phones.
What’s next? “We’re already getting requests for a rerun or a second season of Evoke,” Hawkins says. Translation of the English-language game is also a possibility.
Read more stories by Suzie Boss.