Jane McGonigal continues with network games for changing the world. After World Without Oil and Superstruct, the next instalment seems to be called Evoke. The game targets Africa especially with a ten-week “Crash-Course in Changing the World”, an edugame teaching social innovation. They look into using playfulness in solving the biggest problems of the world, so their themes are nothing less than “hunger, poverty, disease, war and oppression, water access, education, climate change”.
They paint Evoke as an ARG — be sure to pick up the 20+ hidden clues of the trailer — but, as an edugame, also use the reality as a sourcebook. Digging deeper would seem to require a signup.
(The name of the game might be EVOKE, Urgent Evoke or even URGENT EVOKE. Beats me.)
Pervasive Games: Theory and Design 
My heart was melting when I saw this game a few days ago. I just love the vision! I am honoured to be a part of a new breed of pervasive game designers that have so beautiful goals.
It is possible to apply for an EVOKE job here: http://blog.avantgame.com/2010/01/urgent-evoke.html (Honorarium: $1000 USD, plus an invitation to the EVOKE conference in Washington, DC)
By: Jakob la Cour on February 4, 2010
at 14:06
Jacob,
I also think their thing is really important, interesting and an invaluable avenue for investigation. However, I haven’t seen any research published on WWO or Superstruct, and according to my calendar they should be able to show some results, good or bad, if they did good and proper evaluations of those projects.
I’d be insanely interested to read analyses and evaluations, not least because Jane has a track record of great papers.
– Markus
By: Montola on February 7, 2010
at 10:35
[…] Garbage Cleanup Following up on last week’s post on Evoke, I got back to some cool Estonian stuff I was reminded of when I was giving a speech in […]
By: Pervasive Garbage Cleanup « Pervasive Games: Theory and Design on February 8, 2010
at 11:57
[…] Bank’s EVOKE game has inspired an interesting competitor criticizing its policies. INVOKE is an “ARG to […]
By: INVOKE: The Game « Pervasive Games: Theory and Design on March 8, 2010
at 14:56
[…] is the main brain and evangelist saying “Yes, They Can”, being a main mover behind EVOKE, World Without Oil, Superstruct et cetera. For those who have been following Jane for a while, […]
By: Can Gaming Make a Better World? « Pervasive Games: Theory and Design on March 17, 2010
at 14:49
[…] for Good EVOKE and INVOKE got some competition! Check out Conspiracy for Good for “new kind of […]
By: Conspiracy for Good « Pervasive Games: Theory and Design on May 18, 2010
at 07:20