4. HOW CAN WE PROMOTE DIVERSITY,
OPENNESS AND FREEDOM OF
SPEECH WHILE MARKETING OUR
CREATIVE INDUSTRIES?
5. DEMOCRACY + CREATIVITY =
DEMOCREATIVITY
“Creativity is just connecting things. No spark. No magic.
Simply combine two ideas, and you will get a third. The more
choices you have, the more combinations you can create”
- Steve Jobs
6.
7.
8.
9. 1. Collection
Ideas on alternative game features are collected on the site
2. Brief
Conclusions from submissions and input from advisors are put
into a brief
3. Creation
Game developers create games inspired by the brief
14. Results
”Sweden launches campaign to spread peace, love and democracy – through videogames”
– The Independent
”The new Democreativity website, which launched yesterday, is an online tool that pairs concepts
of democracy and creativity with the goal of promoting diversity and new ideas”
– The NextWeb
”Creativity has never been more democratically accessible – anyone with an internet connection
can access free tools to create an incredible range of things, from books and videos to 3D-printed
products and multiplayer games. We love the way Democreativity creates a structure that isn’t
overly limiting, instilling constraints that should give rise to creative ideas from all over. Already,
the project seems to have a lots of interaction”
- Contagious
As you could see in the video clip Sweden is mostly known for our social security policies, such as free education and paid maternity leave. But what is less known is that Sweden is ranked as one of the world’s most creative countries in global rankings. And creativity is likely to be the biggest competitive advantage in the new global economy in order to attract talent, tourism and investments. So how do we increase awareness abroad about of the successes of our creative industries?
According to economist and social scientist Richard Florida at the University of Toronto there are three key factors that defines a country’s creativity: talent, technology and tolerance.
Sweden ranks high on all of these parameters, but stands out the most when it comes to tolerance, which Florida defines as having a high level of diversity, openness and freedom of speech.
Building on the insight that Sweden’s creativity is a result of being open to new impressions from the surrounding world VisitSweden started the initiative Democreativity together with the Swedish Institute, Business Sweden and the Embassy of Sweden.
Steve Jobs once said that creativity is just connecting things. No spark. No magic. Simply combine two ideas, and you will get a third. The more choices you have, the more combinations you can create. And we believe that this is true and a unique selling point for Swedish creativity. We believe that creativity flourishes in an open society where a diversity of ideas are expressed.
Few people are aware that Sweden, per capita, is the biggest game exporter in the world, with a gaming industry turnover of 3 715 million SEK (about 577 million dollars) per year. The past years it has enjoyed tremendous success with several of the world’s most popular games, including Candy Crush Saga, Minecraft and Battlefield. So when promoting Sweden’s creativity what better industry than the games to lead the way?
Democreativity.com is an online platform that crowdsources creative game ideas based on what gamers would like to see more of.
The initiative Democreativity consisted of three pshases: collection, brief and creation.
To guide the discussion we had the help of an advisory board of prominent game industry representatives:
Paulina Modlitba Söderlund, Commity Manager at Toca Boca – a game development studio in Stockholm that focuses on making toys and apps for kids.
Per Strömbäck, spokesperson for the Swedish Games Industry
Staffan Björk. professor and senior gameplay researcher at Interactive Institute Göteborg and University of Gothenburg
Megumi Ikeda, Former board member of Bigpoint – an online-game developer, publisher and content provider
Stefan Lampinen, business leader with over 20 years experience in the games industry, among other things he established Electronic Arts Nordic.
Users could submit their game ideas in three categories: characters, environments and how to win or just submit a random idea. All in all, 126 countries participated and over 500 ideas where submitted.
We summarized the ideas from the website to a brief, which showed three key trends:
NON-WINNING
Many of the new ideas generated at Democreativity.com are about collaboration and non-violence. This suggests gamers are looking towards new types of narratives beyond beating an opponent. Only 6 percent of the game ideas include this ingredient while 10 percent of the ideas do not end with a winner. Instead people want to see more games based on creating global equality and uniting all players of the game. This is in stark contrast to the bestseller charts of today where only 2 percent of games do not have a clear purpose or way to win.
UNDEFINED CHARACTERS
On Democreativity.com 16 percent of gamers want completely new types of characters including inanimate and indefinable objects such as toupees, emotions or the cursor on your computer. In contrast, 51 percent of the 50 top selling games in retail in 2013 included a male human character as the protagonist, with or without a female companion. It seems that gamers are leapfrogging the gender issue, going directly from male heroes to undefined main characters.
FANTASTICAL ENVIRONMENTS
As game formats become more globalized, environments are moving towards more abstract and fantastical settings. This also marks a shift from the reality-orientated trend dominating media and popular culture for the past decade. The distinction between the real world and the game world is also becoming blurred both in terms of boundaries where the game begins or ends and the self-image and behavior among avatars and real people. From usually just being an extension of physical games or media formats like film and literature, games today are growing roots in all areas of society including religion, politics, philosophy, culture and science. The most popular suggestion on Democreativity.com is about integrating your online world with your offline world, which is typical for the idea of exploring the boundaries of what is real.
These are the games created by students at Skövde University based on our brief.
The game Welcome Back focuses on exploring, the story being that of a woman entering a house to look for a missing girl. However, while getting more and more information throughout the game the player realises that things might not be what you initially thought. This realisation is as far as you can go in the game, there is no way to win and should the player try to exit the house the game is over. The game has already been nominated to the Swedish Games Awards 2014.
Räv (Fox) is a game set in a dystopian future that explores the new world through the eyes of a little boy and his companion, a fox made of shadows. While you are trying to discover what this strange new world is all about, the game asks questions about what is real and what is not, and how to cope with the inherent loneliness in all of us.
Another common denominator amongst the ideas submitted to the site was that gamers were requesting a greater measure of cooperation. In Lunch Lady Simulator, players can work together to control a pair of hands serving food. Between you, you need to solve the problem in order to advance in the game.
So, How has it gone you’re probably wondering. The results have been great! with over 62 articles in high en media in 16 plus countries. We have been getting tweets and likes from people ranging from high level politicians to game nerds in total reaching over 8 million in social media.