许多人都知道，GamesAid等游戏慈善机构是鼓励玩家奉献爱心的平台。最近，位于英国伯明翰的社交游戏开发商Soshi Games也加入了这一阵营，通过开发社交游戏，为慈善活动募捐。

该公司联合创始人柯立佛·丹尼特（Cliff Dennett）表示，他们相信游戏的积极影响并不仅仅表现在捐款这方面。游戏可以让更多有意为慈善出力的人聚集到一起，这比他们的自发行动更有效果。

Village Raffles

据游戏邦了解，丹尼特之前曾在罗马、日内瓦的援助机构工作，他认为游戏还可以用于企业培训、市场营销和人才招聘等严肃活动。他对游戏行业的兴趣，使他与严肃游戏开发者Kevin Corti相识，并在2010年4月共同创办了Soshi Games工作室。

他表示，通过自己推出的游戏为慈善事业贡献力量，一直是他的目标之一。“这有两个原因，首先就是实现做善事的心愿，我总是认为工作是为了让你用有趣的方式打发时间，同时造福身边的其他人，将游戏与慈善结合在一起可以实现这一点。其次，有许多行业是出于商业目的而赞助慈善活动。支持慈善活动可以塑造一个积极正面的品牌形象，这对Soshi来说是非常重要的一点，而且也会提高用户付费玩游戏的意愿，所以我们的这个策略既有社会效益的考虑，也有商业利益的效果。”

尽管慈善理念贯穿该公司的运营过程， 但他还是坦言游戏才是他们首要关心的内容。“我们是一个娱乐内容公司，所以游戏最重要的就是有趣，Soshi锁定的并非教育市场，而且我们推出的也不是政治内容。我们不会通过将慈善主题巧妙植入游戏中，向玩家传达特别的信息。不过，如何将慈善推广活动植入娱乐内容中的确是个挑战，但这是一个有趣、有创意的挑战。”

Soshi目前已在Facebook上发布了《Village Raffles》这款游戏，Screen West Midlands公司为他们提供了一笔小额资助款项，所以他们当时开发这第一款游戏的经费很有限。

据丹尼特所称，“我们创建了一款很古怪的游戏，里面充满时下最流行的慈善捐助元素—–抽奖。玩家在游戏中乘坐一辆小小的敞篷卡车，访问各个地点，参加抽奖，然后赢取大奖。之后就开始收集书籍，游戏目标就是完成所有的收集任务。”

玩家可以花钱参加一些抽奖活动，有50%的收益将捐献给Fair Trade USA、Keep Britain Tidy和Kiva Microfinance等Soshi的慈善合作伙伴。玩家必须参加特定的慈善抽奖，才能完成相关的收集任务，这就刺激了他们捐款的积极性。

这个模式只是其中一例，但丹尼特表示将来有可能根据玩家的喜好、运营需要或慈善目的进行调整。据游戏邦了解，Soshi并非首家通过游戏资助慈善事业的公司，非盈利游戏发行商OneBigGae也在去年推出了由Zoë Mode’开发的XBLA益智游戏《Chime》，将开发商60%的收益直接捐献给了慈善机构，还有一款iPhone游戏《WiNTA》也通过该渠道支持慈善事业。

尽管Soshi很关注慈善事业，但丹尼特表示他们不会效仿GamesAid或Child’s Play的做法。“他们与Soshi Games的最大不同之处在于，他们是慈善机构，而我们显然是追求利润的企业。我们认为运营一个经济效益良好的公司，是支援慈善事业的好方法，这种方式也确实让我们与众不同，而且带来了一些挑战。Child’s Play只集中关注一个特定的领域，但Soshi的慈善活动范围更广。”

Facebook庞大的用户群体已经习惯了微交易模式，所以着眼于慈善事业的社交游戏也有可能受到欢迎。Soshi将通过今后开发的社交游戏，继续与慈善机构及其他公益组织进行合作。

丹尼特表示，“我们的长期目标是开发将品牌植入慈善主题活动，同时又能为用户提供娱乐体验的游戏。我一直在寻找为社会多做贡献的途径，Soshi Games让我实现了这个做法。”（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，转载请注明来源：游戏邦）

Feature: Be Soshible for Charity

Games charities like GamesAid have shown consumers there is a place for goodwill in the games industry.

Birmingham-based start-up Soshi Games are joining this crusade with their ethos to create social games that raise money for charity.

“We believe the positive impact of our games moves beyond just donations. This is an opportunity for charities to connect with a wider demographic than perhaps they normally would,” says Soshi co-founder Cliff Dennett.

Previously working in the aid sector at a strategic level in Rome and Geneva, Dennett gave keynotes about the potential of using games for serious purposes, such as corporate training, marketing and recruitment.

Dennett’s interest in games led him to partner with serious games creator Kevin Corti, and together they founded Soshi Games in April 2010.

Dennett says contributing to charity through the games they make was always part of his goal.

“Yes, it was, for two reasons. The first is an obvious desire to do good. I always had this belief that work should provide a fun way to spend your time, and benefit those beyond the individual. Bringing games and charities together seemed like an obvious way to do this.

“Secondly, there are business reasons for partnering with charities which are well proven in most markets. Working with charities can create a positive brand image, which is very important to Soshi, and also results in more customers paying for online games. So there are both social and business benefits to our strategy.”

Though charitable themes run throughout the company, and indeed its games, he is honest about the games coming first.

“We’re very much an entertainment company so the games must be, first and foremost, fun – Soshi is not in the education market and we don’t have any political statements to sell. By incorporating charities subtly into our games, we don’t push a specific message to the players. It does present a challenge of course – how to incorporate the promotion of charities into entertainment titles – but this is an interesting, creative challenge.”

FOR A GOOD CAUSE

Soshi has one title available at present through Facebook, Village Raffles. Screen West Midlands gave them a small grant early on to help get Soshi off the ground, so the budget was tight for their first title.

“We came up with a quirky game about the most popular form of charitable donation – the raffle. The player travels the world in a little camper van, visiting locations, entering raffles and winning prizes. These then go into a collections book and the aim is to complete all of the collections.”

Players can pay to enter certain raffles, with 50 per cent of the proceeds going to Soshi’s charity partners, including Fair Trade USA, Keep Britain Tidy and Kiva Microfinance. Some collections can only be completed by entering these charity raffles, giving players incentive to donate.

This model is one example, but Dennett says it may change over time, depending on what works best for the players, business and charities.

Soshi is not the first of its kind. Last year, non-profit publisher OneBigGame released Zoë Mode’s XBLA puzzle game Chime, with 60 per cent of the developer’s proceeds going directly to charity, as well as free iPhone game WiNTA.

Charity is clearly central to their vision, but Dennett says they’re not out to be the next GamesAid or Child’s Play.

“The key difference between them and Soshi Games is that they are charities, whereas we are clearly for-profit. We believe that running a commercial organisation is a great way to benefit charities but it does lead us down different routes to market and presents its own challenges. Child’s Play is very focused on one particular area, whereas Soshi is a lot broader in its scope.”

Facebook’s vast user base is already used to microtransactions, so social games for charity are likely to be welcomed. Soshi will continue to work with charities and other organisations on their future social games.

“Our long-term goal is to produce games that contribute to a wider Soshible gaming platform, which enables brands to engage with charities and provides users with entertainment,” says Dennett.

“I have always wanted to find a way to do more for society while earning a living, and Soshi Games has enabled me to do that.”（source:casualgaming）