Gamify Hope into Action
In an age where the material comforts of the average citizen in the developed world surpass those of pre-industrial aristocracy, TimeBank THE GAME confronts the paradox of progress. While industrial and technological advancements have propelled global economic success for a privileged few, they have also intensified systemic crises—poverty, ecological collapse, resource wars, and climate disruption. The work asks: Are we content to agree business-as-usual, or are we ready to act?
TimeBank THE GAME is a six-week alternative reality experiment that merges virtual and real-world engagement. To participate, players must first complete a seven-day carbon reduction challenge. Those who succeed are invited into a ritual of transformation and granted access to an online world, where they are reborn as cells—awaiting four stages of ecological crisis. Their survival depends on generating ecological value through Time Coins.
Players earn Time Coins by investing time in real-world environmental repair actions—rescuing leftover food, cleaning beaches, repurposing fallen trees, making DIY solar lamps—missions delivered via the TimeBank app. These time-based contributions allow players to acquire Time Coins, which can be exchanged for VERBS to progress through the different crisis stages, where survival is driven not by consumption, but by ecological contribution.
Through this immersive system, players reimagine the agency of survival in a speculative future. The game challenges them to rethink action, responsibility, and the role of time-investment in shaping a more sustainable reality. At the end of the game, three winners are awarded $10,000 each to launch their own environmental projects.
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