Gaming for Social Change: Sharmila and the Representation of Otherness

Abstract

Digital games have evolved beyond entertainment to become tools for social activism, education, and cultural representation. Scholars in game studies have highlighted their unique rhetorical capacity, enabling narratives to shape users' perceptions through digital environments and simulations of real-world challenges. This capacity is central to serious games, which aim to raise awareness about global issues such as humanitarian crises, hunger, and climate change. Despite research on their pedagogical impact, the potential of serious games to represent marginalized themes, especially in global inequalities and humanitarian efforts, remains underexplored. Using thematic analysis grounded in extended gameplay sessions and deductive coding, this research examines Sharmila, a serious game by the World Food Programme (WFP) that highlights food insecurity and the struggles of vulnerable populations. The game immerses players in the realities of hunger, displacement, and survival, offering a form of situated learning that links knowledge acquisition with real-world contexts. Sharmila serves as a case study to explore the depiction of “the other” and the construction of difference, raising critical questions about the representation of marginalized voices and the framing of poverty and crisis narratives in serious games. This research situates Sharmila within broader debates on serious games and cultural representation, highlighting their role in shaping perceptions of social justice and global inequality.