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This bit of news has several things I never thought would go together in the same sentence, let alone a story.
A Los Angeles based studio called Talkie games will soon be bringing a new game to Facebook called Ecotopia, partnered with Harrison Ford.
More specifically, Talkie is partnering with Conservation International, a non-profit Harrison Ford is vice chairman of.
Ecotopia will basically be Cityville gone green and educational. Players start with a barren wasteland and must make a sustainable city out of it. Typical friend/neighbor actions will be implemented such as helpful actions and monthly villains will be in the mix too.
A more interesting twist will be the ability to earn additional game world credits by doing environmentally friendly things in real life and submitting those actions to Ecotopia.
“You get a low number of points for doing a real world act, but we give you a big bonus if you also upload a picture of yourself doing it.” Talkie CEO and founder Chris Swain said. “Then you get the real points if your friends verify that you did it. This is a system we call ‘social proofing.’”
When I first got hooked into all the different games on Facebook like Farmville and so on, I was hooked on the idea of my friends actively being involved with my progress in the game. But since then, the charm has worn off to become an annoying bug on my daily Facebook feed. But this social proofing sounds like a neat and new little idea that has the right intentions. Reward socially responsible actions with innocent but addictive rewards for a game?
Ok, maybe I won't plant a tree in order to get more points, but I can aim lower, right?
This story was cross posted on HB Hud. Original post via MTV Multiplayer.