Innovative Solution

Water Hero, online gaming community, Facebook Game, ONE DROP, RBC

educational

The Water Hero joint venture sprang from the desire of two nonprofit organizations to join forces in order to develop a social game aiming to teach young people about water-related issues in an entertaining manner as well as actively involving them in contributing to real-life water-access projects in both developed and developing countries.

The de Gaspé Beaubien Foundation, which strives to empower people, especially youth, to get involved in their communities, notably by spreading awareness about water, and ONE DROP, a nongovernmental organization which fights poverty through providing access to water worldwide, dreamed of creating an online gaming community fully committed to the cause of water for all: Water Hero.

 Water Hero is not just another Facebook game. It links virtual and real worlds by giving players a sense of responsibility towards water in their day-to-day life and turning their points into real dollars to finance real-life projects across North America. Everyone—regardless of their age and financial resources—has the opportunity to get involved in the cause of water.

 To grow their town sustainably, players have to respect water cycles. They know they are saving enough water in the town when the score in the water drop above is green. By improving water consumption in their town, they accumulate Hero Points that can be matched, when donated, with real dollars provided by partners to support actual water-access projects. Real organizations commit to match a common donation objective in real dollars as soon as it is reached.

The progress made in the game extends to real life. It results in concrete actions that help real people protect our water and improve our world.

Water is essential to all life. The future of our planet depends on us to protect tomorrow’s water. Water Hero allows people to be part of a real-life solution by playing with their friends online.

Water Hero. Play for fun, help for real!

Water Hero is online, so it gives everyone around the world the opportunity to get involved in the cause of water for all. Water Hero extends in real life through concrete projects, located in El Salvador and across community gardens in North America (Canada and the US). The cities of Montreal, Las Vegas and Mexico are also participating by presenting inspiring initiatives to protect water in their municipality.

ONE DROP and the de Gaspé Beaubien Foundation lead the game development process by overseeing concept creation and partners’ search and providing financing and expertise on water-related issues and real-life water-access projects. They welcomed interns from the Centre of Digital Media in Vancouver to elaborate an online game template. Secor, a leading Canadian-based international strategic management consulting firm, performed a project feasibility study. The Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) Foundation, one of ONE DROP’s founding partners, helped turn the project into reality by contributing financially to its development. The two NGOs selected Behaviour Interactive, the largest independent game developer in Canada, to develop a Facebook game. An associate producer was hired to coordinate and supervise development, production and maintenance of the Facebook game. A team formed from members of the two foundations was dedicated to the creation and design of the game during over eight months.

Water Hero is already available on the Facebook platform in its beta version and is currently being tested by over 10,000 users. It is planned to be officially communicated in both online and traditional media at the end of the winter 2012.

You can have a look at it here:

http://apps.facebook.com/waterhero/

“Gamers are problem solvers. They always believe that an epic win is possible, and that is always worth trying. They build up bonds and trust and cooperation. They love to be attached to awe-inspiring missions to human planetary-scale stories. Gamers are super-empowered, hopeful individuals, convinced that they are capable of changing the world.” Jane McGonigal: Gaming can make a better world (TEDx Conference) http://bit.ly/AieUxe

Water Hero aims to create a generation of empowered and hopeful change leaders willing to act immediately to overcome water-related issues. The social game helps players understand that human development has a large impact on water usage. It highlights that water, as a game resource, is not infinite. The challenge is to guide citizens to reduce their consumption of water in a fun way. Water Hero hooks up to real-life projects that improve water access globally and raise awareness both locally and internationally.

Through the game, players accumulate Hero Points that can be matched, when donated, with real dollars provided by sponsors to support actual water projects. Real organizations commit to match a common donation objective in real dollars as soon as it is reached. As a fundraising campaign, Water Hero is planned to be meticulously measured. Points given by players will be turned into real dollars to either provide families and communities in El Salvador with water filters or provide community gardens in North America with rain barrels in order to allow local food production and economy. An online community will be built on Facebook and traffic will be analyzed. Community members and players will be asked about the changes brought to their water consumption in their daily life since they have started playing.

Success of the Facebook application will be measured by online traffic on a daily, weekly and monthly basis (e.g. monthly active users– MAU). Water Hero is planned to gain from 70,000 to 666,000 MAU in the first three months following its launch. As for tracking the real-world progress, KPIs are established for every real-life in order to measure the anticipated progress at specific moments in time. In developing countries, ONE DROP projects use a tripod approach based on three complementary components. For real-life Project El Salvador, KPIs are: the number of fruit trees, drinking water filters and family gardens to be provided as for the technical component; funds allocated to agricultural activities versus commercial and service and the number credits granted as for the microfinance component; and the number of educational and artistic workshops and multidisciplinary show performances offered within the social arts and popular education component.

Water Hero is a fun game to play with friends on Facebook, and as people play, they also actively help people in the real world by funding life-changing water-related projects. The target audience are young people, and women aged from 25 to 50 years old 1) women who enjoy playing games on social networks and who are interested in environmental, sustainability and water-related issues; (2) youth who enjoy playing games on social networks, who are interested in environmental and sustainability causes and water-related issues.

Water Hero’s competitive advantage lies within its capacity to come into reality, which is why it extends to reality by financing water-access projects and sharing initiatives led by cities in North America. Cities are facing colossal challenges related to water management and water preservation: creative solutions must be found. Water Hero can be one of them! Indeed, the game allows cities to leverage their water-related initiatives and make a difference locally while mobilizing internationally.

As for leading the solution up to the regional and political levels, both leading organizations of the project have a decent history and proven record of successfully leading both humanitarian and awareness-raising projects.

As for game design, key factors are simplicity, sharing potential and continuous improvement. In fact, the social game must appear easy to understand right away, especially for non-gamers. It should also encourage people to share with their friends. The game must provide live updates to drive users into the game on a regular basis and to gain and maintain their interest. Overall, a social game used as an awareness tool must build a community around it to succeed and have everyone get involved by taking action in reality and sharing other small-scale solutions. Succeeding at building a strong and engaged community requires excellent knowledge of the brand’s audience, their needs and of the brand’s business, expertise and limitations. Interactions must show respect, trust and appreciation. Information shared should be exclusive or feel like it most of the time, to give the members a purpose for coming back to it. Dialogue and action must be constantly encouraged.

As Water Hero is the world’s first social media game combining both virtual and real life projects developed as an awareness tool, no other nonprofit organizations committed to develop their own online game to support their real-life cause. That said, Water Hero already benefits from many contributing partners: Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), main financial partner and also one of ONE DROP’s founding partners; Behaviour: Canada’s largest independent video game developer; Secor: leading Canadian-based international strategic management firm; American Community Gardening Association (ACGA), from which key locations have been selected to support real-life projects; and the cities of Montreal, Las Vegas and Mexico have already signed to participate in the first global contest in North America. Moreover, ONE DROP’s Project El Salvador started in 2010 and is planned to be partly financed by donations made through Water Hero in 2012 and further on.

Chloé Benaroya

Productrice déléguée – Water Hero| Associate Producer – Water Hero

+1 514-723-7646 x 6730

chloe.benaroya@onedrop.org

You can see the game demo here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7p8p1uLSiA

You can see the Beta version of the game here:

http://apps.facebook.com/waterhero/