"Unlike gamification, where game elements are incorporated into real-world activities, the idea of serious games is to use entire games directly to solve serious problems. The most famous example is FoldIt, in which players fold virtual proteins, watching scores fluctuate as they try to achieve some scientific goal. In 2011, FoldIt players solved the structure of an enzyme that the AIDS virus needs to reproduce, enabling researchers to develop drugs that target it."
"If you ask me, the three most serious problems facing humanity today are climate change, wealth inequality, and political polarization. In that order. If we don't solve climate change, nothing else will matter. It's not a "yes/no" proposition, so much as a matter of degree-the more we do, the better the eventual outcome will be, but our current trajectory doesn't look good. At best, the future will be a less hospitable place for our children and grandchildren."
Serious games are full games created to address real-world problems rather than only entertain. They have been used to crowdsource research, educate, strategize, and influence behavior. FoldIt exemplifies research impact by enabling players to fold virtual proteins and solving an enzyme structure critical to AIDS research in 2011, which aided drug development. The three most urgent global problems are climate change, wealth inequality, and political polarization, in that order. Climate change demands urgent action to avert increasingly inhospitable futures. Wealth inequality fuels nationalism and strains public finances. Political vitriol obstructs constructive discussion and impedes progress on the other problems.
Read at Psychology Today
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