On 26 January 2007, LibrarianActivist.org featured a game “Homelessness: It’s No Game”. It was created by a student for a graduate-level course on game design at the School of Interactive Arts and Technology at Simon Fraser University.

The game's creator states that, “The intent of the game is to raise awareness of the situation faced by the homeless, as well as to aid in my research into the effectiveness of serious videogames.”

The "Librarian Activist" went on to explain that “Although the concept has lots of potential, the execution (at least in the current version) is lacking. This Flash-based game asks you to simulate life on the streets by taking on the role of a homeless person. You wander a small area of a city picking up bottles and other items to sell, panhandling, dealing with hunger pangs and a heavy bladder, visiting parks, diners and churches while avoiding trouble and trying to earn “esteem” points by your actions. You have a 24-hour window (accelerated obviously) to earn 24 esteem points. If you do, you “win” the game. If not…well, I don’t know what happens if not since I’ve played the game four times and never “lost” once (I think my record was raising my esteem enough was before 10 hours were up out of the 24.)”

The idea of games as a catalyst for change in the real world has been taken on by the Serious Games Initiate, whose goal is:

“...to help usher in a new series of policy education, exploration, and management tools utilizing state of the art computer game designs, technologies, and development skills.

As part of that goal the Serious Games Initiative also plays a greater role in helping to organize and accelerate the adoption of computer games for a variety of challenges facing the world today.”

The Serious Games Initiative emerged in 2002 and has been evolving ever since. In 2004, a subgroup was formed called “Games for Change” (G4C) “which acts as a national hub to help organizations network and develop videogame projects beyond their traditional expertise.
Our members represent hundreds of organizations and include partners in the games industry, academia, nonprofits, local and state governments, foundations, the UN and artists.”

The 3rd annual Games for Change conference was hosted in New York City by
Parsons The New School for Design on June 27th through 28th, 2006. Apparently, this is the only conference that is strictly dedicated to the Digital Games for Social Change movement. Speakers and exhibiters at the conference included activists, non-profits, and academics, as well as game designers.

For anyone interested, on “Monday, March 5 and Tuesday, March 6 at the Moscone Convention Center North in San Francisco during GDC 2007, the Summit provides a forum for game developers and industry professionals to examine the future course of serious games development in areas such as education, government, health, military, science, corporate training, first responders, and social change.”