The Hidden Politics of Video Games

Imagine that video games had been invented in the Middle Ages. From dawn to dusk, you have toiled in the fields for your master. Now, curled up next to the smoky fireplace of your flea-infested peasant hut, you turn on your 12th century Xbox and play your favorite game, Call of Chivalry.

Your back is sore and your belly is empty. But playing Call of Chivalry lets you escape into a virtual world where you are hero, not serf. Is your mission to free the oppressed from forced labor and starvation? No, in this game, you fight to uphold the divine right of kings. Your blade draws blood from rebels and rabble-rousers who would dare blaspheme the natural order by giving peasants the right to vote.

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In front of a smartphone, two players meet. They each grab half the device, preparing to play. But instead of a competitive matchup, they begin to rock and spin the phone, each holding their end of the phone tightly. In a few moments, through awkward giggles, they are twisting and spinning; the game forces them into a clumsy dance.
But mobile game Bounden isn't just about making players feel a little strange while pulling them outside their comfort zones. The unique game is also being honored by the Games for Change Awards (which highlights games that have a particular social impact) as an innovator when it comes to getting players to connect.
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"Our digital lives are alienating us rather than connecting us," said Hsing Wei, awards director for Games for Change. "Bounden is seeking to use movement and use the form of play to get people outside their comfort zones and connect in a way that might translate to real life connections."
While Bounden has been honored quite a bit as an innovative mobile title since its May 2014 release, because it uses a smartphone's accelerometer to force partners to move together to complete puzzles, the Games for Change nomination connects that behavior to broader social implications. Wei points out that moving together can cross language and cultural barriers, and instill connections through that awkward intimacy.
The awards are part of the 12th annual Games for Change Festival, a New York-based gathering that focuses on how games can have larger impacts beyond gaming. The festival gathers game creators, researchers and humanitarians to share thoughts on how the medium can stretch beyond the simple ideas of play.
While many games typically associated with this movement focus on hard social issues like poverty, global conflicts or environmental issues, Wei said a game like Bounden can be just as impactful, and its inclusion shows how the thinking behind "games for good" has evolved.
"Bounden touches on empathy and human connection and collaboration and communication, which can also being a traction point for stimulating change or solutions," she said. "As the field is maturing, games are starting to touch on softer personal issues too, like bullying, gender identity and mental health, alongside the traditional ones we've seen."
It's a trend that can be seen in many of the nominees. Other honorees include Skip a Beat, a game that uses a heart monitor as a controller and encourages players to control play by understanding what made their heart rate speed up, and slow down, and Zoo U, a title that helps children learn how to navigate social situations by developing emotional skills that will help in them in the real world.
Of course, the "traditional" social issues are still present this year, but wrapped in even more nuance. Also nominated is This War of Mine, a game that puts players in the shoes of civilians trying to survive as war breaks out in their own country. The game has been commercially and critically successful, and lauded as being sensitive to the plight of real-life refugees, while still creating an engaging game.
What makes a game for change?
The awards are broken down into three categories: "most significant impact," "best gameplay" and "most innovative." The distinctions are important, and play into the history of Games for Change as a movement and as an awards event. (You can see a full list of nominees here.)
Games judged on "most significant impact" had to set their own goals for what that was, and what change they wanted to effect, Wei said. These games had a specific outcome in mind when people played, whether it was for raising awareness or raising money.
The "most innovative" award, which Bounden is nominated for, honors games doing something completely new inside the space, or "even in terms of the type of content it's trying to bring into a Games for Change context," Wei said.
The "best gameplay" award, for which This War of Mine is nominated, was much more about awarding excellence for games that succeeded on more typical video game metrics.
"Gameplay is looking at the degree of polish and functionality and thematic execution and whether it actually playable enough," Wei said. "Is the game something that people would pass along?"
"This category also helped the main tension in our community for several years, especially at the beginning," said Games for Change president Asi Burak. "The main complaint was there was too much emphasis on the impact and the gameplay was lacking. We want to show excellence in both fields."
Sometimes games can succeed in two different award categories, at least in the judges' eyes. Never Alone, a game created by a developer working with a group of Alaskan Native people, is nominated for both awards. The game was an effort to tell a Inupiat (a Native Alaskan group) story from an authentic perspective, but it's also a cooperative game sold on many platforms.
Leading by example
Burak said the most important goal of the awards, and the conference itself, is to inspire more people to create games that fit into any of these spheres. When the awards were first created six years ago, there were very few games that fit this criteria.
"Many people told us there weren't enough games and there is no quality," he said. "Our argument was that it's a bit of a chicken and the egg problem, and if you don't expose and reward the games being done and create a space for the developers, then you might not encourage them enough."
This year, the awards saw more than 150 submissions, which Burak said parallels a bigger shift by the games industry into experimenting with games that cover broader ranges of topics. Last year, the Game Awards — a large, independent award show spun off of cable network Spike's own past ceremony — had an award honoring "games for change." It was won by Ubisoft's Valiant Hearts: The Great War, a game that took a more serious look at the events of World War I and offered players more historical context as they played.
"I hope to think that this is a good trend in the industry, that you have more young designers that want to say things about the world," Burak said. "This new generation looks at games as a tool of expression, and this is how they want to relay ideas."
This year's Games for Change Festival is April 21-25, with some events open to the public. The awards will be held April 22, and passes are still available for purchase.