“Admongo explores the fact that children spend billions of dollars a year on products and services, and influence billions more in family purchases. Advertising is ubiquitous, and the distinction between advertising and other content in new media — advergames, for example — often is blurred. It is likely that many children may not understand when they are being “pitched” a product or service.”
DEVELOPER/DESIGNER: Federal Trade Commission and PR agency Fleishman-Hillard
YEAR: 2010
INFO: Online, free
PLAY: http://www.admongo.gov/
(Source: gamesforchange.org)
“IBM is going a step further by developing a game in which users experience some of the complex problems facing cities. They can implement changes and understand the results in terms of how various technology solutions can help revolutionize industries within a municipality. The new game, called CityOne, is complementary to IBM’s smarter planet initiative, which is based on the knowledge that the world is becoming more instrumented, interconnected and intelligent, giving its citizens the ability to make use of technology to solve the world’s pressing problems.”
DEVELOPER/DESIGNER: IBM
YEAR: 2010
INFO: Online, free
PLAY: http://www-01.ibm.com/software/solutions/soa/innov8/cityone/index.jsp
(Source: http://www-01.ibm.com/software/solutions/soa/newsletter/aug10/cityone.html)
“According to the developers, LAYOFF uses a simple casual game paradigm to comment on the current state of the US financial crisis. Both friends and strangers face tough times in an unstable economy. Part dark humor, part grim portent, this game places the player in the position of financier. In other words – you have to match three and let them go. It’s tough out there, but it might be fun in here. Unless you just got fired, like half of the globe’s population – if you were, then Layoff might be depressing for you.
But, hey! At least you’ll learn some facts while playing. Here’s an example: “Adjust for inflation, the federal bailout of $8.5 trillion is more expensive than every war the US has ever fought, the Louisiana Purchase, the Marshall Plan, the New Deal, and the Nasa Space Program COMBINED.” Scary, right?“
DEVELOPER/DESIGNER: Tiltfactor Laboratory and the Rochester Institute of Technology/Mary Flanagan Based on the initial idea of Angela Ferraiolo
YEAR: 2009
INFO: Online, free
PLAY: http://www.tiltfactor.org/play-layoff
(Source: unigamesity.com)
“Jeu Largo Winch.com est le premier jeu de stratégie en ligne, économique, social et éthique, type « text based game » (jeu textuel), inspiré de la célèbre bande dessinée créée par Jean Van Hamme et Philippe Francq. Vous incarnez un collaborateur du Groupe W, l’empire international détenu et dirigé par Largo Winch. Vous vous trouvez ainsi au cœur du monde du célèbre milliardaire où se mêlent intrigues économiques, traitrises mais aussi actions solidaires et franches amitiés. L’éthique a également une place importante dans le jeu. Dans le monde des affaires il est parfois tentant d’agir sans se préoccuper des conséquences. Certaines actions permettent donc de gagner ou de perdre des points. Faites vos choix et assumez-les…”
DEVELOPER/DESIGNER: Entropic Synergies. Copyright Francq-Van Hamme
YEAR: 2005-2007
INFO: Online, free
PLAY: http://www.jeu-largo-winch.com/prehome/the-game/index/
(Source: http://www.jeu-largo-winch.com/prehome/the-game/index/)
“Close to the Mexican-American border a Maquiladora has closed recently. Why does the union fight against the workers and who will be held responsible for the polluted river? Your mission is to investigate these problems with the maquiladoras - factories close to the Mexican-American border. The factories are owned by international corporations that take advantage of the less strict regulations in order to produce cheap commodities particulary for the American market. During the course of the mission you will encounter problems relating to labor legislations and pollution.”
DEVELOPER/DESIGNER: Serious Games Interactive
YEAR: 2008
INFO: Online, 20 days-free trial for teachers. Single user 9,95 EUR. Class set (30 users) 49,95 EUR. School set (+250 users) 79,95 EUR
PLAY: http://www.globalconflicts.eu/promote?productId=1000006&hash=90a7615452169a214b224495168fc0990cc0900e
(Source: http://www.globalconflicts.eu/products)
“The McDonald’s Videogame is an online game (…) part of the general class of “anti-advergames”, in which games are a satire of specific companies and their business practices.
The McDonald’s Video Game is a parody of the business practices of the corporate giant McDonald’s, taking the guise of a tycoon style business simulation game.
Some choices within the game, such as the opportunity to demolish villages or bribe public officials, paint the corporation in a negative light. These aspects of the game are unflattering to McDonald’s, who issued a statement saying that the game “has no association with McDonald’s, and is therefore a complete misrepresentation of our people and our values.” “
DEVELOPER/DESIGNER: Molleindustria
YEAR: 2006
INFO: Online, free
PLAY: http://www.mcvideogame.com/
(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonald’s_Videogame)
“Global corporations are merging at a frenzied pace, each hoping to dominate the world markets in their industry. The larger corporations push out smaller, local businesses which have roots in the communities they operate in, replacing them with centrally controlled, unaccountable operations around the world. Mergers are often accompanied by excitement in the media and Wall Street, yet result in closed factories and layoffs, and contrary to the original hype, financial difficulties for an extended time. In order to return to profitibility, the merged corporation must crush the competition (if it wasn’t the competition that the company originally merged with), eliminate high-paying jobs in favor of low-cost labor, skirt environmental and social obligations, and maximize corporate welfare.”
DEVELOPER/DESIGNER: Global Arcade
YEAR: 1999 - 2004
INFO: Online, free
PLAY: http://www.globalarcade.org/mergeroid/game.html
(Source: http://www.globalarcade.org/mergeroid/index.html)
“Oiligarchy is a playable commentary on the oil industry. The player takes the role of an “oiligarch” managing the extraction business in the homeland and overseas and lobbies the government to keep the carbon-fossil based economy as profitable as possible. Oiligarchy can be considered an extended business sim/tycoon game since the player makes decisions and performs actions that are not always in the domain of business. This mixed gameplay is meant to highlight the intricate relations between war, politics, and energy corporations. The purely economical activities range from finding new oil fields to building extraction plants and managing resources. As domestic resources decline, the player is forced to expand their business in foreign countries to meet the demands of the market. The overseas operations could require the political or military support from the government and various crisis management actions.”
DEVELOPER/DESIGNER: Molleindustria, Funder: Addicting Games
YEAR: 2008
INFO: Online, free
PLAY: http://www.molleindustria.org/en/oiligarchy
(Source: http://www.molleindustria.org/oiligarchy-postmortem)
“Want to teach science the fun way? Oil Strike is an exciting, interactive game for 14-16 year olds, based on the extraction and processing of oil. The aim of the game is to make money (and top up your science knowledge along the way!). Players choose where to build refineries, what type of rig to erect and how to transport the oil. At each stage of the game, decisions are made by weighing up the benefits (e.g. low costs and high chances of finding oil) against the risks (e.g. political and environmental instabilities and the likelihood of spillage). Costs can be cut by correctly answering questions on hydrocarbon chemistry. There are also options to learn more about the entire oil refinery process.”
DEVELOPER/DESIGNER: World Archipelago for RCI advancing the chemical sciences
YEAR: 2008?
INFO: Online, free
PLAY: http://www.rsc-oilstrike.org/
(Source: memory4teachers.co.uk)
“This is a pre-rendered 3D flash role-playing serious game that takes place in an imaginary company called Makrini, which is located on a space station filled with aliens from different planets. The learner plays the role of a Makrini employee who is asked to perform various tasks to improve the company’s business, while also creating a better working environment through a number of tasks that relate to issues of cultural diversity in particular. The game was produced with Flash, 3ds Max and Photoshop. The design and development period was 12 months.”
DEVELOPER/DESIGNER: PIXELearning, Global Novations
YEAR: 2009
INFO: On sale
PLAY: http://www.pixelearning.com/about_us-news_2010.htm
(Source: serious.gameclassification.com)
“A game about fighting global poverty, combined with a money raising challenge. Peter Packet is a superhero who brings life-saving messages to help fight poverty over the Internet. Players help him help kids from Haiti to Zimbabwe to get access to clean drinking water, education and the medicine they need.”
DEVELOPER/DESIGNER: Creative Learning Studio at Cisco Systems Inc.
YEAR: 2004
INFO: Online, free
PLAY: http://www.cisco.com/web/learning/netacad/peterpacket2/NewBuild_forweb/default.htm
(Source: socialimpactgames.com)
“Phone Story is a game for smartphone devices that attempts to provoke a critical reflection on its own technological platform. Under the shiny surface of our electronic gadgets, behind its polished interface, hides the product of a troubling supply chain that stretches across the globe. Phone Story represents this process with four educational games that make the player symbolically complicit in coltan extraction in Congo, outsourced labor in China, e-waste in Pakistan and gadget consumerism in the West.
Keep Phone Story on your device as a reminder of your impact. All of the revenues raised go directly to workers’ organizations and other non-profits that are working to stop the horrors represented in the game.”
DEVELOPER/DESIGNER: Molleindustria
YEAR: 2011
INFO: Smartphones, free
PLAY: http://www.phonestory.org/
(Source: http://www.phonestory.org/)
“The World Trade Organization (WTO) is the international organization charged with enforcing trade rules including the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). The problem is that its decisions are generally made in private, influenced by the multinational corporations and their allies in the developed countries’ governments, including the United States. Given its corporate bias, many decisions favor expansion of the power, rights and dominance of the largest corporations, at the expense of smaller, local businesses from the communities they serve. WTO decisions are not accountable - the general population of the world’s countries have little say in them. However, everyone has to live with the economic, environmental and social effects of these decisions, many of which affect basic things such as worker wages and health, clean air and water, and local production, prices and sovereignty.”
DEVELOPER/DESIGNER: Global Arcade
YEAR: 1999
INFO: Online,free
PLAY: http://www.globalarcade.org/wto/wto.html
(Source: http://www.globalarcade.org/wto/index.html)
