Positive play: Gaming for a better world

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Imagine settling down to an evening of playing video games with friends. You choose a car-racing game and start searching for your race vehicle. One of the options has a hybrid engine and, from past experience, you know that car could help you win. Could that nudge persuade you to buy a hybrid car in real life?

There are almost 2.7 billion gamers in the world today. Much has been written about whether video games can incite violence among players, and research has largely debunked that idea. But is the inverse true? Can games help embed good behaviour, and lead players to make life choices that are good for themselves, their communities and the environment?

Leigh Caldwell, partner at Irrational Agency, says that ideas about how games can help develop positive behaviours in players have their roots in behavioural psychology. He argues that humans use “System 3 thinking” – the imagination – to gain mental rewards for good behaviours through playing games, which helps people learn positive traits.

Games immerse you in an imaginary world and guide your imagination into certain behaviours, he explains. “Games have the power to create a space in your imagination where whatever issues there are play out and give you rewards for doing the right thing, changing real-world behaviour,” Caldwell says.

The Sims and Sim City series of games is an example; people are able to build cities and control characters, which allows them to explore the consequences of their decision-making. If you fail to build a functioning city in Sim City, the consequences will be dire for its citizens and your own progress in the game.

“Games could have a good role in understanding trade-offs,” Caldwell adds. “People get good at optimising in games what behaviours make the biggest impact or have the highest rewards. That could be a great example of training people to do what really matters and not just give lip-service.”

There is also a benefit from gaming with friends, with social gaming platforms such as Twitch helping people maintain bonds during recent Covid-19-related lockdowns. Users of Twitch watched 1tn minutes in 2020, with 30 million average daily users on the platform. In 2019, the figure was 660bn minutes watched, showcasing the growth the platform has seen in the pandemic. Nearly half of its users are aged between 18 and 34.

Playing games is also associated with wellbeing. Research carried out last year by University of Oxford researchers Niklas Johannes, Matti Vuorre and Andrew Przybylski found that those who derived enjoyment from playing were more likely to report experiencing positive wellbeing, with the amount of time spent playing games having a small, but significant, role in wellbeing.

The study was based on a survey of approximately 3,270 players and was aimed at measuring wellbeing, self-reported play, and motivational experiences during play. The survey findings were combined with objective behavioural and industry data from the games Plants vs Zombies: Battle for Neighborville and Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

The past year has shown how video games can help create a sense of community for players, says Sean Campbell, vice-president, tech and gaming research, at Reach3 Insights. “So many games have communities where players find people they can connect with and build relationships they wouldn’t have otherwise,” he explains. “I think that does a lot for positivity in general. Many games, especially massively multiplayer online games, have this, as the players take on a persona and create almost family units in some areas.”

Beyond the impact on wellbeing, could gaming make a real difference to issues such as climate change? Casper Harteveld, associate professor of game design at Northeastern University, has written about the concept of ‘serious game design’ – developing games that have a social impact and try to achieve something beyond mere entertainment.

As with most other industries, a rise in social responsibility among major gaming companies may also see games grapple with important social issues, such as diversity and the environment. Take the example of Civilization VI, a game in which players build civilisations and lead them from the ancient world to modern day and beyond. The latest instalment of the game introduces climate change, with players tasked with taking action to mitigate its effects or risk climate disasters.

“Games simulate models and systems in the real world,” Harteveld says. “There is always something you can learn. But the delineation that truly separates games created for good and entertainment games is intention. If you truly want to create a game with social impact, it is about designer intention and whether that is your primary goal.”

One example is Budget Hero – a free online game that allows players to run the US federal budget and experience how politicians make decisions and need to balance priorities.

Harteveld sets three principles that all need to be included for a serious game to make a positive impact: reality, meaning and play. Reality covers the issue the gamers are trying to address; meaning relates to the message the game creators want to get across; and play covers the entertainment side of gaming. He cites the tension between the three as an issue for many mainstream games.

“There is a huge design problem – if you want to get your message across, how do you do that? There is a lot of player psychology involved, and framing. You need to think about how to do that in the best way possible, as people may feel they are being tricked or it is a gimmick,” Harteveld says.

“You don’t want a game that basically describes the context. Games are about experiencing and placing people in a situation. You need to think about what you can do, from a game perspective, to address that problem.”

If those three elements are addressed, Harteveld says it is possible to steer people towards positive behaviours. Gamification is often used by educational apps, for example, language app Duolingo, to help people acquire new skills and knowledge.

“Games are a powerful tool to help people make decisions,” Harteveld explains. “What makes games different from other media is that you have control and agency to make decisions in a virtual environment. Game experiences are experiences that become part of who we are and what we do.”

THIS ARTICLE WAS FIRST PUBLISHED IN THE JULY ISSUE OF IMPACT.