The Digital Rights Asia-Pacific Assembly 2024 (DRAPAC24) held in Taipei, Taiwan was host to a play-together gaming session on August 19, 2024, featuring three games each developed by EngageMedia, Feminist Leadership and Mobilization (FLAME), and the Association for Progressive Communications (APC). The session also served as the launch of the demo version of Taksa, a visual novel video game by EngageMedia that explores disinformation.
The session brought together games with diverse formats and themes, united by a shared goal: making the complex and nuanced understanding of digital rights issues more accessible and engaging for a wider audience. Each game was developed by specialists in their fields, based on their previous research as well as their practical and artistic experiences. The audience at the game session was a blend of activists, academics, game designers, and game enthusiasts, sparking critical discussions about the role of games in digital rights.
From disinformation to sexual violence and internet shutdown
EngageMedia’s Taksa offers a different spin on exploring the issue of disinformation. Rather than teaching digital literacy or critical thinking, the game examines whether these skills are actually sufficient to navigate the torrent of information in today’s information landscape. As a single-player visual novel, Taksa invites players to make choices that shape the storyline, navigating through structural factors behind the spread of disinformation, such as economic anxiety and media oligarchies.
Based on contemporary research in disinformation and game studies, Taksa highlights the role of narrative storytelling in fostering empathy and spurring public conversation on social issues. During the session, project lead and narrative designer Pradipa P. Rasidi guided participants through the game, exploring its branching storylines and multiple endings. Participants actively engaged in the decision-making process, shaping the protagonist’s journey while reflecting on the broader implications of their choices.
FLAME’s Monsters Inc. is a conceptual card game designed for educators and social workers, tackling the issue of online gender-based violence (OGBV). In the gaming session, participants were divided into groups and used a deck of cards to match concepts related to OGBV with everyday attitudes or behaviours that might normalise harmful actions.
Each concept of violence was represented as a cartoon monster, hand-drawn by project lead Mallie Hsieh. These caricatured monsters were designed to embody the characteristics of harmful practices, offering a visual metaphor that fosters understanding while creating a safe and approachable space for discussing sensitive topics. FLAME’s project leads, Mallie Hsieh and Chen Kuan-Jung, facilitated the session and helped players navigate the rules and interpret the cards. Through this interactive approach, Monsters Inc. aims to encourage a deeper awareness of societal attitudes that perpetuate sexual harassment, making abstract concepts tangible and relatable.
APC’s The (Internet) Shutdown Game is a board game designed to demystify the complexities of internet censorship. Using a map of internet infrastructure, players are presented with scenarios of digital repression and are then tasked with identifying censorship methods and brainstorming interventions for activists. Facilitated by project lead Avinash Kuduvalli, participants examined the technical mechanisms behind internet shutdowns and devised strategies to counteract them.
Through the provided scenarios, the game simplifies the intricate processes of internet censorship, breaking down common methods and channels governments use to implement restrictions. It aims to make technical jargon related to internet protocols accessible by translating terms into everyday language, avoiding common pitfalls in understanding circumvention to internet censorship due to its often highly specialised language.
The potential of harnessing games for advocacy
Extensive research has underscored the potential of games to enhance engagement, learning, skill enhancement, and fostering empathy. In the Asia-Pacific region, with its staggering 1.48 billion gamers in 2023, the gaming industry presents a vast opportunity for civil society organisations to leverage games as tools for education and advocacy.
“Even if you’re not a gamer, chances are many people around you are,” Rasidi said. “Games offer an empathetic and relatable medium to engage a broader audience, particularly today where interactive media has become an integral part of daily life. Their impact is often gradual, over the long term, rather than yielding immediate results.”
Participants at the session expressed enthusiasm for the games showcased, with some wishing for more time to delve into each one. Some even shared how they became emotionally invested, connecting the games’ narratives and features to their own experiences. For example, during the Taksa playthrough, some participants anxiously asked how their decisions might affect the characters in the game, as they were reminded of their own children at home. This is a testament to the affective power of interactive engagement through games and the way they may potentially shape players’ investment in social issues.
The (Internet) Shutdown Game is available for download on APC’s project page, while more information about Monsters Inc. can be accessed through FLAME’s website. Taksa is currently available in demo format on EngageMedia’s page, with the full version expected to launch in 2025 available as both a web application and published on Steam.
