Real Life Culture and Game Culture Considerations in Games for Social Change

When constructing games for social change there are many mediating factors, as in games for health behavior change. In social change, however, the greatest level of change can be accomplished at the community/group levels and policy levels. In particular, the group and community in which individual players are situated play significant roles. This is because a player is always effected by cultural norms (Klimmt, 2009). One must always plan to address the real life cultural when creating a game, in particular with regards to the message design.

However, games as a system of delivery for social change messages provide a unique twist: the game culture. When the individual enters the “magic circle” of the game, they are in turn entering a distinct system based culture with rules and procedures far different from the everyday cultural norms, otherwise so many players would not be drawn to games such as Grand Theft Auto and Manhunt. In this way, games also embody their own, self contained culture, what Ian Bogost defines as cultural activities with a “social practice of playing” (2008).