(CNN) -- Some people think of online gamers and see gaunt loners huddled in dark rooms, the sad blue glow of the computer screen on their faces as their lives pass them by.
Game designer Jane McGonigal sees "superheroes" with untapped potential that can be used to fix vexing real-world problems.
"Gamers are willing to work hard all the time if they're given the right work," she said. She calls them "super-empowered, hopeful individuals," and includes herself among the bunch.
McGonigal's latest online game, called "Urgent Evoke," launches on Wednesday. With it, she hopes to channel the obsessive focus online games create into something more productive than conquering monsters and earning virtual weapons.
She wants to push people in Africa -- a long-troubled continent where people might feel less empowered than elsewhere -- to solve problems like environmental degradation, lack of food, water scarcity, poverty and violence.
To do this, the Urgent Evoke game -- classified in the emerging "alternate reality" genre -- straddles the online and physical worlds. Players, a few hundred of whom are in Africa, earn points and power-ups by completing real-world tasks like volunteering, making business contacts or researching an issue, then submitting evidence of their work online.
At the end of the game, McGonigal expects some players to have business plans about how they will improve the world.
Play a game, get a job
Depending on how well the game goes, Urgent Evoke could influence the future of alternate reality gaming and spur innovation in Africa.
Bob Hawkins, senior education specialist with the World Bank Institute, said one big reason people in African countries aren't as entrepreneurial and innovative as those in the West is that they don't feel as empowered to create change. That's largely why his international development group is funding McGonigal's project to the tune of $500,000.
"There have been studies, for instance, in South Africa that the public investment in universities isn't producing the types of new ideas and innovation that industry wants," he said. "What happens is that industry is importing ideas from outside the continent and outside of South Africa."
He hopes Urgent Evoke will empower people in Africa to change their own futures. This game will act as a kind of hyper-engaged online social network, he said, setting people in the developing world up with contacts in Europe, the United States and elsewhere who may offer insight or even cash.
An unannounced number of game "winners" will be given mentorships, internships, start-up money and scholarships for playing the game.
Responding to an 'Evoke'
At first, none of that may sound especially game-like.
But McGonigal, the game designer, said the power of Urgent Evoke is that it doesn't feel like work when you're immersed in the story and working with other gamers around the world to chase bite-sized goals.
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