Exploring Important Issues with Video Games

“videogames offer a promising way to foreground the complexities of political issues without overwhelming the layperson” (Bogost, 2006). In other words, video games are accessible. Many people play them, and they have an expected straight forward structure that people can quickly parse. There is usually a win state, a goal, that people can quickly and easily identify with the goal. Games allow people to engage with a concept at their own pace and in a way that centers themselves (which can be problematic, but allows people who struggle with understanding a specific issue that is foreign to themselves, to put them self in someone else’s shoes, as long as they then understand that experiencing the video game is not the same as experiencing the actual issue.)

I HAVE NOTHING LEFT… | Let’s Play Spent — YouTube

Spent is a game about being unemployed. It challenges players to survive a month with a small amount of savings. The game is challenging. Beyond fostering a sense of compassion in players for people who have struggles they may not have considered or appreciated in the past, this game helps to highlight the systems that criminalize and perpetuate poverty in America by recreating those systems and allowing players to explore a digital space created by emulating the systems that create real spaces that people have to navigate. The video game format forces layers to think about and make difficult decisions if they wish to “win.”

Spent can be played here for free: SPENT (playspent.org)

Bogost, I. (2006). Playing politics: Videogames for politics, activism, and advocacy. First Monday.