Building upon a growing movement in the gaming industry, whereby players are tasked with solving real-world issues in a virtual world environment, global human rights organization Breakthrough is enjoying success with their unique groundbreaking Facebook gaming event, America 2049. The title is now entering it’s 4th week of a 12 week cycle, and counts a healthy 11,000+ players.
“‘America 2049’ resonated with me because I love the idea of people fighting at all costs for their right to pursue the life they choose, without fear of persecution,” said Harold Perrineau in a statment. “I hope the game will inspire young people, especially, to help stop institutionalized hatred and intolerance — today.”
The game/problem solving event revolves around assignments tasked by Jefferson Williams II, as they seek to capture fugitive Ken Asaba. However, this is no regular cloak-and-dagger event, as American 2049 has a vastly different landscape as we know it today . Or is it? Players encounter an America that is fiercely divided by race and ethnicity, not-so-female friendly, and at a loss for self-expression.
“‘America 2049’ is literally a game-changer,” said Breakthrough President & CEO Mallika Dutt in a statement. “It parachutes us into an alternate reality not far from our own, where we must make critical decisions about how we want to define ourselves as a nation. While immersing us in one possible future, it inspires us to recommit to an America built on diversity and human rights.”
And if the, “Now that’s something different, let’s have a look…” format of the game wasn’t enough to pique users’ interest; Breakthrough has scored some top level acting talent. The character of Jefferson Williams II is voiced by Alias actor Victor Garber, while the antagonist Ken Asaba is portrayed by LOST’s Harold Perrineau. Other top shelf talent includes Cherry Jones of 24, Anthony Rapp of Rent, and Margaret Cho of multiple media formats. All talent involved were not paid, and chose to donate their time and talent to the project.
American 2049 creative director and producer Heidi Boisvert comments, “By placing ‘America 2049’ on Facebook, Breakthrough is using one of the web’s most popular cultural platforms to create the possibility of changing culture itself.” Boisvert was joined by award-winning lead writer and co-game designer, Andrea Phillips. This is Boisvert’s second project with Breakthrough, as she’s previously produced ICED: I Can End Deportation, another social change game that dove into controversial U.S. immigration policies, and attracted some 150,000+ users.
East Carolina University’s study found that test subjects that were exposed to playing casual games, specifically PopCap’s Bejeweled and Peggle, exhibited improved cognitive functions. The study commenced around the beginning of this year, and will conclude later this year, studies a wide variety of U.S. consumers aged 50 or older. The focus of the study is centered around the effects of games on subjects’ short-term brain power. Initial results indicate that sizeable improvements were made by the experimental group, when compared to the control group.
“We believe that brands matter and that over time, as the social gaming industry matures, games which incorporate content from popular culture and widely respected brands will garner larger market share than those without it,” says John Pleasants, Playdom’s CEO. “Merscom has 16 years experience working with content owners and we intend to call on this experience as we move into this promising area of our industry.”
“As a standalone site, Faunasphere has demonstrated incredible user growth and consistently high average spend per user. We are excited to see it perform at scale on Facebook, the world’s largest social network,” comments VP of Social Games at Big Fish Games Will O’Brien.
