Quotes of the Day

There's a scene in the video game 24, based on the popular television show, in which the player takes on the role of government agent Jack Bauer and tortures a terrorist. To extract a set of codes, Bauer shoots the man in the gut, slams his head on the table, refuses to call a doctor, and places his pistol against his victim's head.

The violence is exhibit A in a recent report by two Swiss human-rights organizations that examined video games for situations that violated international human-rights laws. "With games, you're playing for hours performing actions which could in real life be criminal," says Frida Castillo, the author of the report "Playing by the Rules." "It's different from sitting on a couch, eating popcorn and watching a movie." In addition to torture, the report documented extra-judicial executions, the shooting of injured soldiers and attacks against civilian targets, including mosques and churches.

But rather than just complain about violent games, the report's authors recommend that game creators weave in elements of international law to draw players into more realistic, immersive situations. "Games could actually be more creative if some of these rules were incorporated," says Castillo. It's an idea that's already catching on. We've long known that video games have a unique ability to promote a message; now designers are creating games built not around destroying worlds but saving our own. "Games are growing up," says Suzanne Seggerman, president of Games for Change, a group promoting games with a positive impact. "People are realizing that they can do a lot more than entertain."

The first activist video game to reach a wide audience was Darfur Is Dying, a website-based game put out by MTV in 2006, in which gamers play refugees risking their lives to fetch water. In the game's first month, it reached 700,000 players. Since then, the game has prompted thousands of people to e-mail the White House or petition local representatives. It has also convinced MTV to include games in all its campaigns. "No other media enables you to literally run in someone's shoes," says Stephen Friedman, general manager of the music network.

The U.N. World Food Program targets schoolchildren with Food Force, which asks players to coordinate an emergency response during a food shortage. The New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof has teamed up with Games for Change to produce a game to complement his recent book, Half the Sky, which lays out a plan to fight global poverty. Players on social networks will take real-world actions — making microcredit loans, signing petitions — to advance. "We think it's a chance to reach beyond the choir," says Kristof.

For the already converted, games can be learning environments that would be impossible in an ordinary classroom. The creators of People Power: The Game of Civil Resistance, expected to launch in February, designed their product to be used to train nonviolent activists. "We want to provide people with a chance to make decisions and see what the results are, but without getting killed or thrown in prison," says U.S.-based Steve York, the game's project manager.

Anybody who has ever powered up a Nintendo knows the addictive pull to finish another scene or gain one more level. "Engagement, reward, leveling up — those are powerful tools," says Alan Gershenfeld, former vice president at the game firm Activision and now president of E-Line Media, a New York City-based developer of social games. "Game designers have it honed to a whole new level."

Add to that games' remarkable ability to forge otherwise distant connections. When racists attacked a virtual Darfur refugee camp in 2006 in the online role-playing game Second Life, it caught the attention of KallfuNahuel Matador, a bald, blue-skinned avatar. "It was like somebody had thrown a virtual bomb," says Matador, a Canadian who asked to be referred to by his online name so as not to blend his real life with his second one. What he saw motivated him to organize a team of online superheroes to secure the camp, make patrols and recruit players to stop similar acts of vandalism.

Inspired by his online accomplishment, Matador flew to Africa the following year to help unload aid containers in Swaziland and volunteer in a feeding center for orphans in Lesotho. "It was the only meal they were going to have that day," he says. Back in Canada, he collects and refurbishes laptops for donation and recently helped raise $7,500 for a Ghanaian orphanage. "I learned you don't need to save the whole world," he says. "You just need to do one little thing."

• Stephan Faris
• Video- and online games are often criticized for promoting violence. But they can also teach people how to save the world