Changing the World through Gaming – ICED as a Case Study

[Source: by Mallika Dutt, President & CEO, Breakthrough, July 15, 2010]

Video games will change the world.

People look at me askance when I say this now, in the era of high-profile, issue-driven games like Darfur is Dying and Evoke, but it was downright heresy back in 2007. Common assumptions about games — that they trivialize the issues they attempt to address, or are catalysts for provoking social ills like violence and apathy — often mean a knee-jerk resistance by parents, educators and institutions to taking them seriously as a powerful tool for advocacy and social good. So when Breakthrough, the international human rights organization that I head, was developing ICED: I Can End Deportation, (www.icedgame.com), a 3D, role-playing video game about the lack of due process and human rights in current detention and deportation policies in the United States — you can imagine I got more than a few concerned looks.

Why Gaming?
A recent report by the Pew Research Center reveals that 97% of teens play computer, web, portable, or console games. Another report from Pew reveals that most Millennials (the generation born after 1980) believe that technology brings together, rather than isolates, individuals. As an organization that uses innovative media and popular culture to promote human rights values, Breakthrough knew then what many are only beginning to realize now: engaging and retaining the attention of younger, wider audiences requires tools that connect with their values. Video games are precisely such a tool. They offer a complex microcosm for players to work through social issues while providing a safe, virtual space for inhabiting other identities and worldviews. The gaming environment can be a playful space for re-envisioning a new universe and instigating social change, and because games can be so thoroughly immersive, they have the potential to quietly transform behavior beyond the virtual context and into the physical world.

ICED: Gaming for Good
Breakthrough began developing ICED: I Can End Deportation in 2007 with our Multimedia Manager, Heidi Boisvert, an MFA student at Hunter College’s Integrated Media Arts program at the time. The name is a play on Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE), the largest investigative branch of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). ICED features five characters, based on actual case studies, each from a different country and with a different immigration status. The game challenges players to navigate everyday life while trying to avoid detention and deportation and gain citizenship. The first-person game format encourages players to rethink their daily experiences without the protective shroud of citizenship. Familiar decisions and interactions, such as applying for a job or jumping a turnstile on the subway, can have dire consequences for both legal and undocumented immigrants in the U.S.

During the development process, Breakthrough worked collaboratively with over 100 high school students to conceive and develop the game environment, integrating their feedback about message clarity and playability. Developing ICED in collaboration with our intended audience was critical in ensuring that the game was entertaining. If the game is not fun, they won’t play it — it is as simple as that. Input from the students helped us to incorporate popular game themes to enhance playability and augment the advocacy and educational component.

It is also essential that your messaging is clear and fits the format. Games can present a challenge to organizations used to having more room to communicate their position; they require thoughtful editing and savvy communication. In collaboration with the students, we were able to develop an effective messaging strategy and crystallize ICED to its core principle: shifting the conversation about immigration from one of criminalization to one of fairness and due process.

Drawing Attention to the Issue
The media attention that ICED received was what nonprofit dreams are made of. A widely circulated piece in the Los Angeles Times generated a great deal of interest and we built a strong public relations strategy to garner press attention that placed Breakthrough on the receiving end of hundreds of phone calls from the mainstream media every day. The combination of a novel medium and a hot-button issue ignited a lot of interest, and enabled Breakthrough to advance our messaging frame on due process and human rights to shape the public debate. The viral power of the progressive blogosphere further amplified our message, helping Breakthrough reach niche audiences around the globe. Even negative attention provided a platform from which we could address criticisms of game objectives and better promote our messaging frame. When Julie Meyers, then Secretary of Homeland Security, made a public statement denouncing ICED as a game that oversimplified a complicated issue, we knew the game’s power to reframe debate had been echoing. If the Minutemen personally send out a press advisory signaling their availability to speak against your video game — you may have a game changer on your hands!

Funding in Uncharted Waters
Breakthrough was able to create ICED on a shoestring budget, with about $50,000 from our general program funds. This is a small fraction of what it costs to produce mainstream games, and was largely due to the fact that we worked with graduate students rather than a professional design firm, and as a nonprofit, knew how to stretch a dollar. However, the paucity of resources presented major challenges to both the development and dissemination process and I believe we could have had much greater reach and impact if we had not had to rely as much on subsidized and pro-bono partnerships.

Games remain relatively uncharted territory in the funding world and grantmakers can be skeptical of their impact. But the truth of the matter is that if we are to bring along the next generation of leaders for social change, we need to harness the potential of new technologies. Digital media and online games have the power to leverage the enormous popularity of social networking sites and catalyze virtual communities around important issues. Even if we don’t have all the answers, we must invest in experimentation and innovation to transform hearts and minds and build support for progressive public policy.
 
I encourage any organization considering gaming as an advocacy tool to visit the Games for Change website, and make good use of their toolkit. It is a comprehensive, blow-by-blow assessment of the development process — from to concept to distribution to evaluation. We wish these resources had existed when we created ICED, but that’s the downside of being at the cutting-edge — you learn as you go!

Deeper Knowledge and Engagement through Gaming
Breakthrough completed a comprehensive evaluation of ICED, which was instrumental in reshaping dialogue within the field regarding the ways new media is used as an effective public education tool (http://www.breakthrough.tv/download/evaluation-of-breakthrough-s-iced-video-game). The study conducted by the Center for Children and Technology revealed that playing ICED significantly contributed to an increase in player knowledge about U.S. immigration and deportation policies. Over half of the survey respondents indicated that playing had changed their attitude about the treatment of immigrants, and the open-response questions indicated that the game had changed player attitudes positively toward immigrants’ rights. The attitude shifts were dramatic in the test groups, and since February 2008, ICED has received approximately 140,000 unique visits to the game site, reached 28 million through mainstream media coverage, and has been played in 166 different countries around the globe.

So what are our next steps? Breakthrough plans to use the momentum of ICED to promote our newest game for social change, set to launch on Facebook in the coming months. We will continue to reframe the immigration debate and uphold the values of pluralism and democracy through the game’s exploration of American migration history in a dynamic, virtual environment.

About the Author

Mallika Dutt is the Founder and Executive Director of Breakthrough, an innovative, international human rights organization using the power of popular culture, media, and community education to transform public attitudes and advance equality, justice, and dignity.

Prior to founding Breakthrough, Mallika served as Program Officer for Human Rights at the Ford Foundation’s New Delhi Office. She also acted as the Associate Director of the Center for Women’s Global Leadership at Rutgers University.

Mallika co-founded SAKHI and currently serves on the Boards of WITNESS, the Open Society Institute US Programs, Games for Change, and on the Rights Working Group Steering Committee.