pervasive media studio

Happiness | Andrea Hasselager

At the end of the 20th century, trafficking women, men and children for the purpose of sexual exploitation has mushroomed into a
multi-billion dollar shadow market. They are trafficked to, from, and through every region in the world, using methods that have become new forms of slavery.
The value of the global trade in people as commodities for sex industries, is estimated to be more than 30 Billion US$ annually. People are reported to be trafficked from 127 countries, to be exploited in 137 countries and 161 countries are reported to be affected by human trafficking. To stop this exploitation in the long run, a key factor is to inform, and prevent in the recipient countries.

Happiness addresses the issue in an alternate reality game (ARG), targeted at 14-15 years old. With its multiple choices and its way of being very close to reality, an ARG is a good way to illustrate complicated decision making and the tricky situation a trafficked woman is in: if she tries to escape the traffickers might kill her family back home; because of the extremely high fictive debt set by the traffickers she can't pay in order to be free.

In Happiness you need to find and free Little Sister, before the trafficking mafia decides to kill her. And you need to hurry! As soon as you start playing the clock starts ticking.

Games communicate differently from other media because they do not only deliver a message, but also simulate experiences. Often games are thought of as a leisure activity, but they can also be excellent rhetorical tools. They have an effect which many other forms of media lack: The power to create empathy. Empathy comes through the interaction that takes place between the player and the game. Furthermore awareness-games are a strong tool for enhancing pro-social
behavior.