Video games are often accused of wasting time or promoting violence. But there are some popular new games with a noble calling: to save the world.
They are part of a new trend of using gaming technology to mobilize change.
In the new video game, Food Force, the player's mission is to save millions from starvation in the war-ravaged African nation of Sheylan. The player's first task is to conduct an aerial assessment.
"You can see there will be no harvest this year," the game tells the user. "Unbelievable... the river has completely dried up!"
Sheylan may be a fictitious nation, but the videogame that's been downloaded four million times is one of dozens of socially-responsible games now making a real difference.
Games like Food Force and others bring issues such as the environment and the Darfur crisis to users' fingertips. The concept is almost the polar opposite of Grand Theft Auto.
"We believe that games have a real power to have a positive impact on society," says Suzanne Seggerman of Games for Change. "Games are really good for exploring complex issues."
And there's no issue more complex than the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, so former Israeli intelligence officer Asi Burak created Peacemaker.
Gamers can get fully involved by playing as the Israeli Prime Minister or the Palestinian President.
"You can click on the map and you can understand what Hamas is really looking to do or what the Israeli Prime Minister cares about and then you read the events and you respond," says Burak. "You can actually dive into a situation and make decisions. This is a very, very powerful tool."
At one Israeli institute, they use Peacemaker to help Israeli and Palestinian teenagers understand the conflict, not through reading, but by playing a game.
"I have my own thinking about the Israeli and Palestinians until this game. Now, I see the reactions of the Palestinians and I know Israel need to react differently, because they don't accept our reactions very well," says one student.
"They said you know I play it for one hour or two hours and I understood more about the Israel and Palestinian conflict than I understood watching the news," adds another.
The makers of these games say that in the near future, the technology will take a breaking news event and turn it into a video game within 24 hours.
"Let's say we have something that happens in a US election," says Burak. "We can publish a game or a mini game in one day and let people respond to it, let people discuss it."
So far, socially responsible gaming hasn't had a breakout hit but the trend is growing. Designers are hoping that more and more people will look to games for understanding and not simply entertainment.
With a report from Andrea Canning
