Can games truly evoke Behavioral Change?
Seven years ago, in 2018, I began my journey of developing board games. The vision focused on board games as a form of entertainment, bringing people together to bond over casual gameplay. But with time, the vision has evolved and taken a new shape. The reason? Because the more I dived deeper into the realm of games, the more I realized its immense potential.
And it was in the rural areas of Mymensingh where I witnessed the demonstration firsthand.
Entertainment + Impact
Jumping from 2018 to 2022.
I was sitting in a cozy classroom of a local school, surrounded by eager students who were waiting to playtest a board game I had designed for them. The board game was a part of BRAC’s Mobile Money Project, funded by The Gates Foundation, designed to help students explore Digital Financial Systems.
In a nutshell- how to operate Mobile Money Apps, the opportunity it brings beyond cashing in/out, the challenges upon sharing the PIN with others, safety issues, etc. With tech-phobia being a prevalent issue among the target group, the goal was to help them transition to using Mobile Money Apps on digital phones, through an interactive game session.
You see, it was not just a tool of learning- the board game was based on the foundations of triggering behavioral changes. For example- it was a common notion among the target group to share the Mobile Money App’s PIN with others (e.g. shopkeepers). Or, there was a leniency towards keeping money in hand instead of the App, since they were not aware of the safety that the App offers. The game was designed to foster positive behavioral changes by creating experiences that guide players toward desired realizations.
It all sounds good on paper, but did it work?
Being certified in Applied-Behavior-Analysis (A.B.A), my team and I developed models and took the support of BRAC to conduct pre and post-game-session interviews to find out if the experiential intervention that the game is supposed to be, worked or not.
And oh, it did! The game was a lot more effective than I’d anticipated.
Within just a few rounds of gameplay, the participants were showing a significant change in how they viewed the Apps and looked back on the many preconceived notions that they initially had. If only a brief session of the game had made them realize things so quickly, then the possibilities were endless!
Since then, my team and I have been driven to analyze the behavioral changes caused by all our games. We realized how far the games go beyond mere entertainment and firmly believe they can serve as an excellent tool for experiencing life’s challenges and opportunities- all through a demo within a microverse!
A question for all
In 2024, my team and I conducted a workshop with UNDP Bangladesh on addressing challenges like Climate Change through interactive creations like games, where I asked a question, that I’d like all readers to ask themselves:
When considering large-scale interventions to address a crisis, shouldn’t the most significant change be in the way we think?
We can impose laws and take drastic measures all we want, but the problems will keep arriving in a loop if we don’t change the way we perceive things. Things like protecting nature should not come to us as a form of charity or public validation, but naturally– and the same applies to all the positive changes that we want to see among us.
And I believe the solution goes beyond the conventional methods that have been tried and tested repeatedly without much success.
Perhaps the solution lies with the rolling of dice, trading of cards, and the experience that comes in between winning and losing a well-designed game.
Food for thought!
Tasliman is a board game developer based in Bangladesh, with the dream of exploring the world of games and introducing it to anyone new to it. He is the founder of Kraftz, a brand that develops board games commercially, as well as with reputed entities like BRAC and The Gates Foundation.
