Gaming for a cause

I've been trying to think about a way to have online social role-playing games (RPGs) to raise money for charity. One of my friends tried to lobby Blizzard Entertainment to have an in-world fundraiser of World of Warcraft currency for some need that fit into the feel of the world, the results of which would cause Blizzard to donate real money to a related real-world cause. The lobby attempt never got really far, but it got me thinking. Escapism games draw a lot of players. What if there was some way that a massively multiplayer online game (MMO) could allow players to donate in-game currency that results in real-world fund-raising? Players make characters and go on adventures, and donate to a choice of various causes.

This first idea has a series of problems with it. The big one is money. MMOs cost a lot of money to make, even more to make well, and yet more to maintain. The only reason they exist is you make more money than the enormous cost. This is fine for a large game company spending money to make money, but strictly irresponsible for a non-profit. And should the money come from the players? The game will be competing with all the other MMOs, and a higher than average price could scare away players. Free Rice http://www.freerice.com/ supports its donations through advertisements, but advertisements in games are usually considered intrusive and jarring. Cause World http://www.causeworld.com/ uses corporate sponsors. This seems to me personally the best method, but the initial pitch has got to be difficult. I'm not sure how often people bet on small independent games succeeding.

Another big problem is balancing the need to describe the need, the organization in an honest and upfront fashion and balancing the need to maintain a believable and immersive world. My husband actually pointed out that a sci-fi setting fit it best, but still, either players are yanked back to the real world constantly within the game, or the can get misconceptions about how the in-world description corresponds to the real-world result.

The biggest issue is the game itself. If it cannot engage players and continue to engage them, it won't raise money regardless of the method. MMOs thrive on being able to play with other people. You need a critical mass of people or you don't succeed. And even if it's not competing for dollars with WoW, it definitely competes with time. It has to be the next big game, on top of being able to do anything else. That means character customization, balanced abilities, lots of player interaction. World building. Oof.

So, I thought to myself for the first time today, what about Facebook social games? They're yet more popular and mainstream than WoW, they have to be designed to be graphically non-intensive, so more people can play, and it's really easy to invite others to play. But the money problems are still an issue, although you might be able to get away with having players purchase virtual goods in micro-transactions. The start-up would be a lot smaller. But it still needs servers and art and agreements and a thousand different things I don't know about yet. I'm not an economist or an artist or even a programmer. I'm a lab tech. Is my idea even feasible?