WEBVTT

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PABLO SUAREZ: At the Red
Cross/Red Crescent Climate

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Center, our job is to help
others understand and address

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what's going on
with climate change

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and with extreme events--
hurricanes, typhoons, too

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much rainfall,
peak temperatures.

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And these things
are complicated.

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This science is complex.

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And how to turn
science into action

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is not easy if you're
too busy to learn.

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Most of our colleagues in
the humanitarian sector

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are insanely busy.

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When science is communicated,
it is very often

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either incomprehensible
or difficult

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to link to ongoing
humanitarian processes.

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So about six,
seven years ago, we

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started with creating
playful activities

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where participants in a
workshop have to make decisions

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that have consequences.

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And that's at the core of games.

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Games are systems where
you have to make a decision

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with limited information.

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You're trying to
accomplish something,

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and you don't really know what
may happen because there's

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something in the system
that you don't control--

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which can be the weather.

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It can be what other people do.

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It can be just you're not
fully understanding the system.

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In our experience as
humanitarian workers,

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trying to infuse awareness
of complexity into our work,

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games are the most wonderful
tool to wet the appetite,

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to make people want to learn
more and want to do better.

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It has been beautiful to
work with the MIT Game Lab.

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We have, as Red
Cross family, access

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to a lot of talent, a lot
of enthusiastic brain power

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that combines
analytical competence

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with creative juices.

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That is prevalent in
the field of game design

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and among students of games.

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What we find at MIT is
that it's much easier

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to link to other departments
that are directly

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connected to what we do.

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It can be about
environmental engineering.

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It can be about climate science.

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It can be about
technology development.

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So this partnership is
the beginning of something

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that is inevitably going
to grow, to grow beautiful,

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to grow big.

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It was also really nice
to see how the MIT Game

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Lab is well-connected
to other partners

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that we have in the game design
sector, such as the Engagement

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Lab at Emerson or the
PETLab team at Parsons,

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and the awareness of reach in
the world of serious games.

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Games that are not just
as a playful activity,

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but with the intention to
improve the world somehow.

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We could always do better as
partners of the academic team

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if we could allocate more time.

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Unfortunately, it is in the very
nature of our Red Cross work

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that we have to travel insanely.

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I was out of the country for
at least half of the time

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when the course happened.

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So we did bring in partners
and friends who gave a hand.

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But I think one of
the key challenges

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for this kind of partnership
between game related academia

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and humanitarian
teams is to find

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ways to interact more
frequently, more deeply,

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to learn about each other.

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We just don't know
how we can do more

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with the limited time we have.

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When students engage
with partners, clients

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from the real world,
it is not easy

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for them to get into the
shoes of the institution

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of the organization that has
to try to accomplish things.

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So one of the most
important things

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that we can offer as
partners in this course

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was to give a flavor of the
context in which the game would

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be played.

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So we have the team working
on cholera prevention

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in West Africa.

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And they developed
a video game that

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had the flavor of
modern wealthy homes.

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And in West Africa, most of
our target audience-- if you're

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trying to prevent cholera--
chances are they are poor,

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and the aesthetics
need to resonate.

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It can be about a
super stellar context,

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or it can be about
a thatched roof,

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but it should be something
that can evoke engagement

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on the part of the player.

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And that's not easy for
students to find out.

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They actually have
to do research

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on what does a home in
West Africa look like?

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The other thing we can
do is to help narrow down

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and focus on what matters to us
in terms of the gain in forming

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better decisions, and to
weed away and filter out

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all the things
that students want

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to include because they can.

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But that's not a
good enough reason.

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Just the fact that it's
technically feasible

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or that you like it, doesn't
mean that it should make it

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into the final prototype.

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There were many
other things that

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were a lot of fun in
terms of engagement

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with students that I
think were useful to them.

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In particular, to
see how they could

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get inspired by being aware of
how their technical competence

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can be useful for development
work, for humanitarian work,

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for actually physically
saving lives in the long term,

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or to help people engage with
each other in other continents,

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in other contexts, in fields
that they don't even know,

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but they can help.

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When an academic team is
offering student brain power

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and air time during a
course for an organization--

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specifically in games
but also more broadly--

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it is our experience
that it takes more time

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than we think to
develop the relationship

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and to understand how we can
really get juice out of it.

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And it is always worth starting.

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If the client organization, if
the partner-- like in our case,

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the Red Cross family--
can find someone

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who spends a little bit of time
at the beginning, a little bit

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of time reviewing
prototypes, and some feedback

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along the way, it's
definitely worth it.

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But don't expect
magic solutions.

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Don't expect people to be
able to read your mind.

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We come from
different universes.

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And we have an opportunity
to bring the real world

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to academia.

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By just showing up
and spending time,

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but also to bring academic
brainpower, talent,

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and creativity into our work.

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One of the things that I have
to say with enormous pride

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is that one of the
prototypes that

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emerged from one of the
groups in this course

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was actually used in
three global events

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and helped hundreds
of people in real time

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learn what was
being thought about.

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People entered three
words as individuals.

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There were 100 or more
people in the room,

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and everyone saw a word cloud
that emerged through very fun

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game play.

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And this can really
help, but we need

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to be aware of the time
it takes to mature.

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We have been working
with game designers

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for at least six years.

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And that really helped
us channel our energy

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in a more narrowly defined way.

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Otherwise, it's very easy to go
broad and to be disappointed.

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Be prepared to acknowledge
your own limitations,

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but be prepared to explore
the space of possibility.

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So the game Snap is
already ready to deploy--

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has been deployed.

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I hope we can refine the user
interface to give more choices

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to the facilitator and so on.

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But that is one
game that I predict

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will be able to change the
way real-world events happen.

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I have that admission.

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I think we can do
something with it.

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Of the many other
games that were good

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because they were more
about a subject matter that

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is outside of Cambridge,
Massachusetts,

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they will take more
time to refine.

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I'm very excited about the
Cholera game, which we now

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have a partnership with UNICEF.

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And we anticipate the
demand from UNICEF Guinea,

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in particular, to try
to add digital flavors

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to their relationship to
schoolchildren in prevention

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of anything-- in
promotion of the things

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that help-- like hand
washing with soap,

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which we take for granted here.

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But in other parts of
the world, they just

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have to choose
between soap and food.

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It's hard to make that case.

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And some of the other game
prototypes have very insightful

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game mechanics-- how to display
territory in a small screen.

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How to display quantities
for decisions in terms

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of disaster preparedness.

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The representation on a game
on heat wave of how people

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can just collapse
if they think they

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can just go out and walk on
an excessively sunny, hot day.

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These are things that
are there, are latent,

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and we have opportunities
to work deeper

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either with these students or
with future students of MIT

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and beyond.

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They will need more
time to refine.

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And we have, as Red
Cross, more work

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to do in terms of identifying
the potential player

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and identifying what are the
decisions that can be improved,

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or what are the discussions
that can be enriched by engaging

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in this game experience.

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From the Red Cross/Red
Crescent Climate Center

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and from the
humanitarian family,

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I hereby thank profusely
the MIT Game Lab,

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and by extension,
game designers that

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have helped us become
partners with you

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now, for setting up a space
where we can learn how

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magically powerful but
analytically clear game play

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can be to help accomplish
humanitarian goals.

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Thank you so much.