Games for Change, advocate for social change, is way into tabletop

Games for Change, the leading voice for video games that promote positive social change, spent the last few years just like the rest of us — getting way into board games and tabletop RPGs. To celebrate its 20th birthday, the nonprofit will award its inaugural Best Board or Tabletop Game for Impact Award at its Games for Change Festival, which takes place in New York City. Polygon is pleased to announce the four finalists alongside an interview with the organization’s president, Susanna Pollack.

While Games for Change has long championed serious games across multiple platforms — including mobile, console, and even virtual reality devices — Pollack said that the drive to engage properly with tabletop experiences is the result of a grassroots effort.

“There was so much community demand for this,” Pollack said. “We felt that at this time we wanted to celebrate that. And there were just so many exciting projects coming in, and Kickstarter has been giving a life to so many amazing ideas, and it was coming in so many directions that we said this is the year that we want to acknowledge it and start really building the community within Games for Change to embrace this culture and this type of game experience.”

Another major driving factor, she said, was the work of its major financial partners — including tabletop giant Hasbro, which publishes many different board games as well as Dungeons & Dragons and Magic the Gathering.

“They’ve [been] becoming more involved in our community,” Pollack said, including the Rhode Island-based gaming giant alongside partner organizations like Niantic (Pokémon You can also go toEpic GamesFortniteRiot GamesLeague of Legends). “They’re seeing the potential of, in their sense, big brands and big games having the opportunity to drive impact. So they began to be part of the youth program. […]Then, there is the following: [this demand for recognition] come from different directions really made us feel like that was the moment.”

Games for Change has provided descriptions of the nominees for 2023’s Best Board or Tabletop Game for Impact.

Solarpunk Futures Solarpunk Surf Club in the United States

Image: Solarpunk Surf Club

“An artist’s game for collaborative utopian visioning, working in (and against) the conventions of tabletop role-playing, whereby players use backcasting and modified consensus to collectively ‘remember’ the stories of how their ancestors built a social-ecological utopia.”

Shasn: Azadi Abhishek lamba and Zain Meun, India

Abhishek lamba with Zain Memon

“The game is a semi-cooperative strategy board where the players are revolutionaries trying to save their nation from the tyrannical power of imperialism. If they succeed, only one will emerge as the leader of the new nation.”

El Viaje de las y los Guardianes (The Journey of the Guardians) by Creatura Estudio, Columbia

Image: Creatura Estudio

“A children’s board game about exercising empathy through play to bridge differences among students from different backgrounds. Through carefully constructed challenges, students reflect on their own cultural experiences.”

#ForYou – A game about algorithmsMediaSmarts Canada

MediaSmarts

“A card-based pattern-matching game that helps youth aged 13 to 18 understand the role that algorithms play in their online and offline lives and the value of their personal information to companies that use those algorithms.”

Games for Change, in addition to its awards ceremony on the 19th of July at 7pm EDT will convene an official discussion at the United Nations, where leaders from the industry will discuss the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals.

“Sustainability seems to cover a very broad spectrum of issues,” Pollack said. “It involves economic development, it involves peace and security, equity and diversity, and of course climate and the environment.

“We expect to have over a dozen U.N. agencies in the same room with the game industry: AAA studios from Xbox to EA, to companies like YouTube Gaming, and we have Dr. Lupo coming from the streamer community [as well]. In order to show UN officials and non-profit organizations that support the Sustainable Development Goals the many possibilities of using games, we want them to see how they can make their dreams come true. [at] the same time inform the games industry about the needs that the U.N. and others have and how we can help forge those relationships and collaborations.”

Livestreaming will take place for the Games for Change Festival, taking place from 18 to 20 July. Tickets can be purchased for attendees who want to come in person. Additionally, these four tabletop games will also be made available alongside the organization’s arcade of more than 275 titles on its website.

“I hope this is the beginning of a lot more interest from the tabletop and board game community to participate in next year’s awards,” Pollack said. The 2024 award submissions are anticipated to be open by November or December. Pollack also mentioned that there will likely be more opportunities for tabletop games in the near future.

“We’ve run a game design program for the past nine years in the U.S.,” Pollack added. “It’s a very successful program with middle and high school students, and we want to expand that into tabletop games as well.”