Game-For-Life?

I recently came across a website called freerice.com, which to me occurs to be a nice concept. Here is the educated world, getting participative in Web 2.0, and there is the other side of the digital divide, which gets staples if you and me knew our vocabulary right.

Freerice.com donates 20 grains of rice free to the United Nations World Food Program everytime you come around and play their vocabulary game. The game is simple enough: it presents a word in English and a list of four potential synonyms. Choose correctly, and twenty grains of rice appear in a wooden bowl. And the game really has its grip on you, all for some persuasive technology. In the insights from the Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab, Adam Tolnay writes, “The persuasive elements that make Free Rice so potent are the simplicity of the message (highlighted by visuals that graphically sow the grains of rice to be donated in a stylized bowl), the ease of use of the site (ie simple multiple choice questions one after another), the transparency of the transaction (you play, you learn, advertisers on site donate, hungry people get rice). Yet above all else I believe the persuasive technique that drives the success of Free Rice is the link of micro action (playing a game) to a macro cause (world hunger) via incremental steps (words for grains of rice). “. You can read the full article here

Its a win win situation for everyone: You get the game, FreeRice the traffic, the advertiser the visibility, and eventually, the needy the free rice. The power is in your hands, plain and simple!

But there are people who have contrarian views on the subject, and who think that John Breen, the man who created and runs the website, is making money off it. Here is an interesting post by PC Spy stating “Is Freerice.com making $150k in profits everyday?” And then here is an interesting counter arguement on Reditt which goes into many people doing the math trying to see if the site ever actually made any money or not! Essentially the main grouse is, that why is Freerice not a registered charity? And we still don’t have answers to those questions. Another very insighful read from the Stanford Daily asks you to pay heed to where the rice goes (via the UFP), clarifies for you that its not just rice but a full meal that they go on to provide. And that the largest recipient of rice is Burma. And why Burma, it asks? “The lack of an educated workforce skilled in modern technology contributes to the growing problems of the Burmese economy.” That is one possible reason! So essentially, the main problem is elsewhere, they say. You got to attack the problem at its root and get people to be educated, not just well fed! The article is hosted at the Standford Daily website.

Charity registered or not, larger issues addressed or not, the site gained enough traction last month to feed 50,000 people, which is a good thing to get to in about 8 weeks flat (the site went up on Oct 7, 2007!) So, I leave the call on you. If you like the idea, spread the word around. For any questions you might have, head to their FAQ page.