Games for Social Good: Crush Crush Democracy? Human Rights? Climate?

Games are a way to take a break from the craziness of the world. That doesn't mean we should turn a blind eye to things and not take an active role in shaping the world we desire. There are a lot of things going on that are dangerous and destructive and occupying a lot of my brain cycles:

• the destruction in Palestine and escalating turmoil across the Middle East 
• our warming climate and the devastating consequences
• political figures who are increasingly unconcerned about making racist, divisive, and dictatorial comments and plans

I woke up this morning thinking about alternative titles and characters for Crush Crush Flower:

• Crush Crush Deomcracy
• Crush Crush Human Rights
• Crush Crush Climate

I want to explore games for social good and contribute more to the community. I believe, just as games can be an escape from the world and help you take a break, that they can be a way to re-energize yourself and make plans for who you want to become and what you want to do. The most immediate games that come to mind are the classic strategy games like Chess and Go and all the war games (physical and digital that followed). There are the games that teach us how difficult finances and anger management can be - I'm looking at you Monopoly and remember that you started as The Landlord's Game to educate people on how rent impoverished tenants. I think about games like Civilization and Oxygen not Included (a great game by Klei if you haven't seen it) that help us understand the balance of relationships with people and our environment. I am inspired by games like Never Alone that introduce us to new perspectives and stories(Never Alone is a subsidiary of the Cook Inlet Tribal Council and the first indigenous-owned commercial game company in the US).