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Gaming for Good: the landscape for 2022
12 Jan 2022by Joe Lepper
The next year is set to see a greater focus on Gaming for Good, from tackling green issues to supporting people’s mental health
Charities’ partnerships with gaming enthusiasts and influencers alike have become increasingly sophisticated as the voluntary sector looks to boost its engagement with young people and attract the fundraisers of the future.
These are often through live streaming fundraising events, involving popular games with the most used platforms, most notably Twitch.
This is a strategy that is set to continue into 2022, as charities prioritise Gaming for Good in their fundraising armoury.
A key trend will be ensuring charities’ missions work in tandem with trends in gaming and incorporate the issues young people care most passionately about.
In that context, we look at how the gaming for good landscape is shaping up for 2022.
More environmental link ups
As access to digital technology grows, so too does its cost to the environment.
It is estimated that information, communication, and technology accounts for more than 2% of global carbon emissions. This is through energy consumption as well as the manufacturing of technology.
This cost the planet will only increase further. Currently, there is an estimated 3.6 billion people in the world currently offline, with more becoming digitally included each day.
Many young people and gamers are fully aware of the harm their hobby is doing to the environment and will increasingly want to link up with charities to help offset the damage they are inadvertently causing.
According to academics at Imperial College London, in 2022 young people will increasingly want to explore ways they can mitigate tech’s damage to the environment and ease their anxieties around climate change.
Recent examples of such link ups include a Gaming for Good event using the game Fortnite and involving the Institute of Engineering and Technology as well as gaming influencers.
This saw gamers chop down virtual trees in the game, which were then replanted in real life through the Institute’s Difference Makers campaign.
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Increasing focus on mental health
Mental health has risen up the agenda of politicians, charities and funders alike as the UK recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic. The crisis has seen increasing levels of anxiety and a sharper focus on issues such as loneliness.
For many struggling with their mental health, gaming can be therapeutic and offer a welcome escape.
Already gaming for good initiatives have recognised this link between gaming and emotional wellbeing. Such link ups will continue into 2022 as UK society continues its post-pandemic recovery.
Among charities to already focus on the links between gaming and mental health is Help for Heroes, through its Hero Up initiative. This has already helped raise more than £80,000 for wounded veterans and seeks to promote “positive mental health through the power of video games”, said a spokesman for the charity.
He added: “The UK video games industry is worth £5.7 billion with over 37 million people who play games. Influencers are the next generation of celebrities with viewership surpassing that of traditional entertainment such as TV and film.
“Hero Up aims to target a younger generation to educate them on the charity and to create the next generation of fundraisers.”
This launched in 2020 and is continuing into 2022. The charity is currently offering gamers advice on taking part in gaming for good and hitting fundraising milestones.
Inclusive gaming
Next year is set to see more gaming for good link ups that combine charities’ missions around equality with an increasing trend to make gaming more inclusive.
This is already taking place in the US through non-profit AbleGamers, which is aimed at encouraging the gaming industry to be more inclusive and accessible.
AbleGamers warns that the COVID-19 pandemic has heightened the threat of social isolation for disabled people and highlights the power of gaming to offer support.
The need to encourage more female gamers is another trend highlighted, by gaming organisation the British Esports Association. It says that “while gaming – and competitive gaming – is gender-inclusive, men still outnumber women significantly” among professional gamers.
Gaming for Good festivals
Another trend for 2022’s Gaming for Good landscape is for charities to stage festivals across a number of weeks, offering gamers the chance to raise funds for charities over a longer period, rather than via a one-off event.
These will involve increasingly slick marketing and staging and the next 12 months are set to see more being run by charities, involving an imaginative variety of link ups within online festival line ups.
Among the most impressive of these gaming for good ‘festivals’, staged at the tail end of 2021, has been War Child’s five week long Game Action event.
This has been made up of two elements, including a War Child Winter Streaming Festival, running during October and November. Events at this festival included an 11-hour marathon stream, which raised more than £2,000.
Developer link ups also featured, including a global reveal of Football Manager 2022’s Xbox edition.
In addition, the charity’s Game Action event included a War Child Winter Sale, with dozens of discounts available on games where some or all the royalties go to the charity.
Joe Lepper
Joe Lepper
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