The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) has launched a social game on Facebook to promote the core messages of their THINK PIG campaign in an entertaining and engaging way. The THINK PIG campaign uses a fun Facebook word game to raise awareness of the standards in which pigs are reared. As well as being entertained, players will learn what labels to look out for to buy higher welfare products in the supermarket. The RSPCA is reaching a new audience through this casual gaming approach.
The game, a word quiz that challenges Facebook users to rack up scores against their Facebook friends, includes competitive and engaging features to spread the RSPCA campaign’s message.
Players arrange a herd of ‘word pigs’ to make three to seven letter words, scoring accordingly. To increase interactions further, the game allows players to send a personal pig to Facebook friends once a day. This pig pops up in the ‘word pig’ herd and players can then use the letters in the person’s name to aim for high scores of secret word achievements.
Users gain extra points for answering bonus questions in between each round that bring out the key campaign messages. They can also share the answer on Facebook if they have found the campaign message particularly interesting/powerful.
Scores are given for amassing the longest words, completing all words in a ‘word pig’ herd, the number of herds completed in a session and the most words guessed (by size). These variations allow players to compete in many different ways, adding to the number of interactions between players in this social game. Between herds, players are given the opportunity to double their score with a bonus round asking them pertinent questions relating to pig welfare.
THINK PIG players can also unlock secret achievements and hidden words. Players can share both their scores and achievements with Facebook friends, as well as seeing which friends are beating their scores. The high score ‘Leaderboars’ are ranked in several different ways, including highest scores by word length, numbers of ‘word pig’ herds played and how players ranked in trivia questions related to the RSPCA’s THINK PIG campaign. Facebook gamers can also compare global high scores.
Facebook gamers can visit http://apps.facebook.com/rspcathinkpig to play the game and http://www.facebook.com/rspcathinkpig to ‘like’ the campaign page.