Urgent Evoke

A crash course in changing the world.

I’ve been thinking about EVOKE, where it’s heading, how things have gone so far etc. I’ve also been thinking about some of the things Jane McGonigal has said and written, about applying game thinking and skills to real world problems. I then started thinking about the reverse, about what EVOKE would look like in terms of more classical computer games. If EVOKE was a fantasy role playing game (RPG), for example, where would we be right now?

Well, in a classic fantasy RPG, your character starts out with very few skills and abilities. You start following the storyline and doing missions and quests where you gain experience points. You choose to develop certain characteristics along the way, often depending on the character archetype (fighter, wizard, rogue etc) you picked before you started. You then do more missions which get progressively harder, but the rewards are greater. You meet others and form a group or alliance to better combat the problems you find. You gain better equipment and experience along the way, and so do the others in your group. The storyline progresses further, with sub plots and side quests, until eventually you have to face the big bad at the end, like a dragon that’s been preying on the local villagers. Is this sounding somewhat familiar so far?

If EVOKE were an RPG, we would currently be lacking some key skills and knowledge, and most importantly, we would be missing a key group member who could really make a difference. We would be heading out into the wilderness to fight the Dragon, but we wouldn’t have a local guide or someone who knows the ways of the wilderness. We might still succeed, but it would likely be through brute force.

In a closed game system, we might just hope for the best and just see what happens, keep on playing and trying over and over until we succeed. We would trust that the game would, one way or another, provide us with the necessary tools and abilities to beat that dragon.

With EVOKE, it’s not a closed game system. If we are to succeed, we need to address the lack of local insight and knowledge. The game may or may not provide us with this – I don’t think we can count on it. The majority of players are from the ‘developed’ world, with loads of enthusiasm, skills and resources. Like highly trained wizards or warriors, we can have a good go at beating that dragon, but what if we don’t know about something really key that the locals know – like how the dragon can only be defeated using a combination of things that we might have, but never think to try together at the same time? And then there’s the really thorny issue – what if another dragon comes back next year? What if it’s something even worse? Are we going to charge in each time to help? It would surely be better to work with the villagers to solve the problem together and leave them well equipped to deal with other issues in the future.

OK, enough of the RPG analogy. If we are going to have a real impact we need to keep on trying to address the ongoing lack of local involvement. There are several general approaches already underway that I’m aware of:

Try to attract players from Africa and other parts of the world where the problems are actually real and present. Encourage and empower them to help themselves through mentoring and collaboration with others on the EVOKE network. This has had some success, but as far as I can see, it has a fair way to go yet. The recent Treasure Hunt to find hidden gems in blog posts is an attempt to drive this approach forward and will hopefully improve things further. My guess is that there are some fundamental issues here which are preventing greater uptake – e.g. ability to connect, lack of bandwidth, time or money etc etc. Other posts have tried to address this, notably Jen Shaffer’s ‘What happened to the African Players?’

Try to fill this gap ourselves by learning more, by talking to experts, by getting directly involved where possible. All good, but we’ll still be guessing to a certain extent. This approach is also a bit of a surrogate to cover the shortfall in active players with local insight.

So where next? Well, what other things could we try in addition to those above? Maybe we should focus our considerable talents and resources on this one issue for a few days and see what we come up with? If you’re up for this, then read the ‘brief’ below and get stuck in – post any ideas and include DRAGON in the title, plus a link back to this page in your post somewhere :)


IDEA BRIEF

ISSUE: How could we get significantly more engagement and real insight from the people who actually have to deal with the problems EVOKE is targetting?

BACKGROUND: (see the rest of this post above)

SCOPE & CONSTRAINTS: Keep it simple. It must be something which can interface with EVOKE in some way. It could be low tech. It must be quick to implement (days or weeks at the most – EVOKE does not have months). It must be easy to implement. It should be cheap to implement.

OUTPUT: Ideas for how we can address the issue above. Try to make these more than just one-liners. An idea needs to be something someone can actually DO, otherwise it’s just a thought (“I’m hungry” is a thought but “lets order in some pizza from that new place down the road right now” is an idea)

Good luck! :)

Views: 60

Comment by David Dewane on March 30, 2010 at 2:55pm
Alex, great post and an incredibly important topic. I'll work out a Dragon challenge of my own. Until then, if anyone wants to unpack notions surrounding the digital divide, I've got a lengthier response here:

http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/notes-on-the-digital-divide
Comment by gilad rosenbaum on March 30, 2010 at 3:14pm
As a RPG player I understand the analogy perfect.
First of all, I think the players in the EVOKE game got all the skills or the knowledge.
The problem is to find and connect the right groups.
its a problem you can find in RPG games - too much strength without magic or too much agility but no wisdom.
I don't want to kill the dragon. I want to fly on his back.
Comment by Elastika on March 31, 2010 at 7:34pm
Superb analysis!
Comment by Nick Heyming on April 1, 2010 at 2:47am
The Evokation a group of us are working on for Global Gratitude Gardens is addressing exactly the concerns you raise. Its not about anyone telling anybody how to do anything, but instead each of us doc**enting and literally propagating our national heritages.
Comment by Shane M. Wheeler on April 1, 2010 at 4:26am
Just put up my idea here. It's not perfect, but it could up participation among more people.
Comment by Ryan Case on April 1, 2010 at 6:01am
X marks the spot
Comment by Hanna Brady on April 1, 2010 at 4:50pm
I've actually been thinking something very similar to the fantasy rpg analogy - in fact I had an idea for a game based around it.

On old maps people put the words "Here there be dragons" in dangerous places.It was meant to keep people away from those areas - not to say that a literal dragon destroyed them. The idea behind a dragon is something huge and terrifying (in many western cultures anyway) and there are plenty of them running around today. Old age is a dragon that scares most people, death and drought and famine. Apathy is the dragon that scares me the most.

My thought is this:
Design a game that uses horrifying creatures (more than just dragons) to represent the problems of the world: pollution, hunger, apathy(what would that one look like...?) , drought, war and send the heroes (players) against it. It might be a fun way to introduce children to thinking about social innovation as an adventure.

Such monsters are born of human suffering, and defeating that will beat the dragons.

I'm sorry - I know I got a little off topic, and I will be thinking about your idea and try to find a way to do it from Ohio. I'm also turning in my thesis on Monday - so Evoke involvement has been curtailed mostly until then. Contact me though, if anyone is interested in moving with this idea...
Comment by Hanna Brady on April 1, 2010 at 5:34pm
@ Koshy Thanks for making that clear. It's why I added the "in western cultures" part. I like eastern dragons, and I know that they are very different. Modern western stories are also tending away from the "evil dragon". I'm sorry if I inadvertently offended anyone.

That's why for the game I think that new monsters made to embody the social problems would be the way to go: a monster named "Apathy". You could even have the heroes be or encounter different kinds of dragons (or creatures) - ones like Hope and Community and Courage. All big ideas/archetypes/fears/dreams can be described as mythical creatures, and that is how I was trying to use the term "dragon". I hope that makes sense. Sorry if I was unclear - rushed posting never pays, sigh ^_^
Comment by Hanna Brady on April 1, 2010 at 5:40pm
"You could even have the heroes be or encounter different kinds of dragons"

I think you are right - and that could be really cool.^_^
Comment by Victor Udoewa on April 2, 2010 at 12:15pm
To be honest, I think a lot of it is due to internet access and time. I face a problem like this with voting participation in a developed country (USA). We have a government that is a representative democracy, but it does not represent everyone because many people do not vote. And the socioeconomic class that is least likely to vote is the lower class or poor. When a mother is a single parent and holds multiple jobs to feed the kids, going to the voting booth (in the US we do not have a holiday for voting) is the last thing on her mind. This is especially true as politicians focus more on the middle class and not the lower class when they campaign and when in office.

These people have less leisure time. I think the same may be true around the world.

I like the idea of people interviewing people and visiting people less involved.
I actually took a trip. I took a week off from Evoke and traveled to South Africa. And it reminded me. I saw people and discussed issues and I'm hoping to use that to inform my development innovation thinking in this game. But such things are very important.

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