In 2010, the World Bank launched Urgent: EVOKE, an alternate reality game. The game, which was designed to promote the World Bank Institute’s vision of positive global change through social innovation, made substantial use of Web 2.0 tools like blogs, personal profiles and social networks. This article offers a case study of Urgent: EVOKE that is divided into three sections: first, the unique genre of games (alternate reality games) into which EVOKE falls is explained and some of the possible uses of this genre in higher education are discussed; second, the functioning of EVOKE game world is explained; and third, the results of EVOKE‘s educational project are assessed. The case study concludes with some commentary on EVOKE‘s ideological message, which those less sympathetic to capitalism may view as problematic.
Posted to the Ethnos Project by Mark Oppenneer on December 8th, 2013
