Microsoft wants to help you change the world. And the company wants you to do it with XNA.

“Imagine a world where we have no ability to influence the people that are going to lead and shape thought for tomorrow,” said Chris Satchell, Microsoft’s general manager of XNA.

“We have social causes we care about, but we don’t have the media to connect with the people who can do something about them,” he said. “We’re not there, but its a world that’s possible to see unless activities like we’re doing here today really gain some momentum.”

Yesterday afternoon, Satchell spoke at the 2008 Games for Change festival about how Microsoft’s development platform XNA, a free toolset for independent developers, can help people create serious, socially responsible games. He said that young people are moving away from traditional forms of media and heading towards gaming, and they’re also passionate about social themes.

“People will base their lives around gaming experiences, but equally gaming experiences will permeate their lives… everything’s a game,” Satchell said. He argued that the biggest game in the world isn’t “World of Warcraft” or “Grand Theft Auto” — it’s “American Idol.”

“I’m not saying it’s a good game… but the point is, you see something, you do some interactions with the cell phones and the websites, and something allegedly different happens, and it does it all over the world,” he said, emphasizing that the interactivity of games (in his loose definition) can have a wide-reaching social impact.

“We’re not doing the best job in this industry of reaching out and helping people with socially responsible gaming,” he said. “There’s more we could do. There are missed opportunities in this industry.”

That’s where XNA comes in. But how exactly will it help change the world?

“We can’t solve everything; we won’t even try,” Satchell admitted. “But what Microsoft, what Xbox, and what [XNA] can do is that we can help out with a couple of key issues… that’s the part we’re focused on.”

Satchell said the industry could help enact social change in gaming by having easily accessible and easy-to-use tools, the distribution platforms so people can reach their audiences, and supporting the efforts of non-profit organizations, academia and the government.

“Development is so difficult, and you spend so much time and money to get the basic systems going,” he said. With all the basic programming out of the way, he said that game makers could just start with their creativity. “Literally 10 minutes with the product, and you will have a 3D world up,” he claimed.

To exemplify what XNA can do, Satchell demoed two of six semi-finalists from Microsoft’s Imagine Cup competition, which challenged XNA users to create fun games about maintaining a sustainable environment. One game called “City Rain” from Brazil was described as “‘Sim City‘ meets ‘Tetris‘,” where buildings are dropping from the sky to be quickly, but strategically placed on a city grid.

Another was “Future Flow,” an arcade-style puzzle game from Belgium where players are challenged to make unsustainable cities into environmentally friendly ones. “We can provide you tools, but no magic happens without actual creators that are really going to bring this to life,” Satchell said.

But “magic” can’t happen without a viable means of distribution, either. While Microsoft’s XNA has existed for more than a year, there’s no easy way to get these games to the public. To resolve the issue, at February’s Game Developers Conference, the company announced Community Games, a new Xbox Live feature for that will allow over 12 million Xbox Live users to download these XNA-created games to be released before the end of the year.

“Imagine the opportunity to do a game about a social issue you care about and getting it out to 12 million people that we know are super-active in gaming and super-active in downloads,” he said.

The beta for Community Games was launched two weeks ago, and there are 45 games in the catalog, available to those currently in the beta. While anyone belonging to the XNA Creators’ Club can create and submit games, not every title gets through. Community members review and moderate the games, and Satchell said that “quite a large number” of games were rejected.

“This is great because it means the community has the power in their hands to let through whatever content they want as long as it’s somewhat socially acceptable,” Satchell said.

“The future’s wide open. There’s no reason why gaming as medium can’t be at the forefront of social change,” he concluded. “There’s a lot of creativity out there, and there’s a lot of people that are now empowered to make games about whatever they want and broaden our medium to be something more than just a pure fun pastime.”

[Check back later for a full interview with Chris Satchell.]