Games for Change is a 21st-century movement of activist and critical game making that has at times also been referred to as activist games, ecological games, charity games, and life improvement gamification. Although Games for Change centers have opened in France, South Korea, and Brazil, some of the movement's most outspoken and renowned proponents and designers are located in the United States, in the Californian techno-futurist enclaves of Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area. For instance, San Jose-based game writer Ken Eklund is best known for his alternative reality game, World Without Oil, co-developed with San Franciscan game designer Jane McGonigal. Players from San Francisco to Singapore played World Without Oil for the span of a month, changing their energy consumption habits in their daily lives while immersed in a near-future scenario where the world's oil resources have dried up.

As lead designer, McGonigal has also designed an inspiring number of other alternative reality games for corporations and organizations ranging from Microsoft to the World Bank. In a well-circulated TED talk, she calls for the ambitious application of gaming to ‘solve problems such as world hunger’ (‘Gaming can make a better world’). One of her repeated aspirations is for a game designer to win the Nobel Peace prize. In her 2011 bestselling book, Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World, McGonigal writes a well-structured and engaging analysis of game design principles and positive psychology motivational techniques for life improvement.