With 55% of US gamers being married, and the average age of new gamers at 32 years old, the stereotypical gamer profile of that young, socially awkward male no longer holds true. Alex St. John, co-founder and CEO of the global games network WildTangent noted, “We make as much money selling casual games to young boys as to Mom.” As gamer demographics undergo this transformation and casual gaming becomes mainstream, new opportunities are created for enterprises and non-profits to harness the collaborative and engaging nature of games. Many enterprises already recognize that games are an excellent way to create engaging marketing that consumers enjoy, but whether games can be used to effectively solve society’s problems is less clear.

The first extreme-scale collaborative game created to tackle the world’s problems was the ARG (Alternate Reality Game) World Without Oil. Created by the non-profit public media company ITVS, this ARG explored a world where oil demand had outstripped supply by 5%, and it challenged the ‘citizens’ of that world to cope. If you’re interested in learning more about it, check out Anthony D. Williams’ great post about World Without Oil and the idea that games could be part of the solution to the climate change crisis. Continue…