Morality Game Design The Atlantic

As games become increasingly embedded into everyday life, understanding the ethics of their creation and use, as well as their potential for practicing ethical thinking, becomes more relevant. Designing Games for Ethics: Models, Techniques and Frameworks brings together the diverse and growing community of voices and begin to define the field, identify its primary challenges and questions, and establish the current state of the discipline. Such a rigorous, collaborative, and holistic foundation for the study of ethics and games is necessary to appropriately inform future games, policies, standards, and curricula.

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Section 5

Designing for Social Change

and Civic Engagement

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253

Chapter 16

Power to the People:

Anti-Oppressive Game Design

Andrea Gunraj

The Metropolitan Action Committee on Violence Against Women and Children, Canada

Susana Ruiz

University of Southern California & Take Action Games, USA

Ashley York

University of Southern California & Take Action Games, USA

With contributions from Mary Flanagan, Barry Joseph, Wendy Komiotis & Paolo Pedercini

ABSTRACT

This chapter denes basic principles of anti-oppression and its ethical implications. Anti-oppression is

a framework used in social work and community organizing that broadly challenges power imbalances

between different groups of people in society. This chapter positions these principles in the realm of

game creation and argue for their use—particularly in the development of social issue games that in

one way or another seek to spotlight and challenge social power imbalances. While the chapter outlines

some essential theory, it ultimately takes a practice-based perspective to make a case for and support the

incorporation of anti-oppressive principles in game design and development. It features the work of ve

organizations from around the world about their strategies for implementing equity in game/interactive

design and development, and closes with broad guidelines to support integration of anti-oppression

principles in game creation.

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60960-120-1.ch016

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254

Power to the People

INTRODUCTION

In 2009, a Danish advocacy group that initi-

ates public awareness and education campaigns

released an online game entitled Hit the Bitch.

Produced by Børn og Unge i Voldsramte Familier

(Children Exposed to Violence at Home), the

game allows the player to enter the experience

from the perspective of a man's hand, which can

be swung to strike a woman's face by proxy using

a mouse or webcam. A slider appears at the top

of the screen. As the blows multiply, the slider

creeps from one end, labeled "100% pussy," to

the other, "100% gangsta." The woman in the

game becomes increasingly upset, bruised, and

bloodied. She eventually falls to the ground in

tears, and a caption, "100% IDIOT!," concludes

the playing experience. Following the end of the

game play, players hear the voice of a woman

issuing scolding words in Danish and on-screen

statistics, presumably about the prevalence of

violence against women in Danish communities.

Unsurprisingly, the release of Hit the Bitch

evoked a flurry of commentary beyond borders,

given its content and the group behind its develop-

ment. In fact, traffic to the website was so heavy

that access to it was limited to users from Denmark.

A surface examination of online reactions reveals

a common underlying question: is Hit the Bitch's

approach successful in denouncing, challenging

or preventing violence against women? Amelia

Thomson-DeVeaux writes that, despite noble

intentions, "the method it uses is so offensive,

misguided and disgusting that the message gets

completely lost within sexualized violence and

abuse" (2009). A blogger on Feministe says that

the game "is supposed to convey to everyone that

hitting women is bad. After you've played a game

that rewards you for hitting a woman. Color me

unconvinced" (Jill, 2009). Hit the Bitch "seems

like the end result of some people sitting around

a table trying to figure out how to make domestic

violence edgy and attention-grabbing," another

blogger writes, although she goes on to say, "then

again, no one in mainstream media talks about

domestic violence unless it happens to a good-

looking famous person … are they on the right

track by trying to be aggressively controversial?"

(Ganeva, 2009).

Like other games on social issues, Hit the Bitch

incorporates controversial messaging open to a

wide range of interpretations. Just how the game

fulfills presumed advocacy, awareness and/or

educational goals concerning violence at home is

difficult to determine. Players may struggle with

those goals as much as critics have, given that the

game places them in an abusing role and the game

play does not delve into complexities inherent

to violence against women. While a number of

reviewers explore the controversy that surrounds

Hit the Bitch, most of them do not comment on

the game's use of "pussy" and "gangsta" or its use

of background hip hop music. Besides a note that

the music is "sad rap" and that the word "gang-

sta" is "an offensive stereotype of a black man,"

incorporation of "urban" artifacts into the game

and their inescapable race and class implications

seem to have gone unnoticed (Ganeva, 2009).

While satirical in its approach to violence,

Hit the Bitch's ambiguity does not sit comfort-

ably in the context of anti-oppression. A game

on gender-based violence designed with anti-

oppressive principles in mind would open space

for players to rethink the commonness of this

violence—most often perpetrated by men against

women they know and trust—with the goal of

challenging, reducing and/or preventing it. Hit

the Bitch's uncritical inclusion of stereotypical

"urban black" culture, whether intentioned or not,

is at odds with an anti-oppressive approach. In the

process of designing an anti-oppressive game,

developers would be conscious of inserting any

uncritiqued stereotypes into the game's look, feel,

and play. They would resist associating gender-

based violence with any single group of people,

for example, challenging the Western tendency to

blame violence against women on communities

of color (Jiwani, 1997).

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255

Power to the People

In this chapter, we argue that applying

anti-oppressive principles in game design and

development results in more purposeful, direc-

tive and transparent messaging and game play.

Anti-oppressive practice, typically associated

with social work and community activism, openly

challenges discrimination and promotes rights and

voice of those groups on the margins of society. It

is grounded in specific understandings of equity

and incorporates a sense of ethics that requires

an individual to reflect upon their own behavior

and assumptions, as well as society's norms. It

encourages an individual to work toward closing

the "power gap" between those who experience

oppression and those who hold greater social

privileges (Clifford & Burke, 2008, p. 16-23;

Global Exchange, 2006, p. 2; Strier, 2007, p. 858).

This chapter introduces the application of

anti-oppression principles to game creation, first

defining basics of anti-oppression and touching

upon various implications for individuals who use

it. We discuss anti-oppressive principles in the

context of video game design and development,

particularly games that in one way or another

spotlight social issues and seek to promote social

change. Next, we share insights and examples

of game partnerships and collectives, including

those of Take Action Games (TAG) and the Met-

ropolitan Action Committee on Violence Against

Women and Children (METRAC), who partnered

to develop RePlay: Finding Zoe/ReJouer: Où est

Zoé? The contributors to this chapter speak to

how they implement anti-oppressive practice and

equity principles in their development and design

processes. Finally, we conclude with broad guide-

lines to support integration of anti-oppression

principles in game creation.

We outline essential concepts of anti-op-

pression as a starting point. However, a com-

prehensive overview of anti-oppressive theory

is beyond the scope of this chapter. We take a

practice-based perspective to support incorpora-

tion of anti-oppressive principles in game design

and development. Despite some critiques of the

mainstream game industry, our intent is not to

disparage dominant practices of game design

and development. Instead, we wish to encourage

alternatives that ultimately support transformative

social change and build the voices and access of

marginalized communities.

BASICS OF ANTI-OPPRESSION

As already noted, the fields of social work,

grassroots activism, and community development

typically use an anti-oppression framework. It is

broadly defined as efforts and actions to end so-

cial injustices and inequalities, particularly those

based on factors like race, gender, sexuality, age,

class, ability, and religion (Dumbrill, 2003, pp.

102-104). We can view the term and practice of

"anti-oppression" as an umbrella concept with

a great deal of variability. It encompasses ideas

found in a number of theories, frameworks, and

perspectives, including: feminism, critical race

analysis and anti-racism, disability analysis and

postmodernism. Theorists and practitioners often

distinguish anti-oppression by contrast and by

what it works against. Therefore, the concept of

oppression deserves analysis. In the next section,

we define oppression and its corollary, privilege.

We then move to a definition of personal "reflex-

ivity," an important concept in anti-oppressive

practice, and touch upon anti-oppressive ethics.

Oppression and Privilege

Clifford and Burke (2008) define oppression as

"the exploitative exercise of power by individuals

and groups over others" and "the structuring of

marginalization and inequality into everyday rou-

tines and rules, through the continuing acquisition

and maintenance of economic, political and cul-

tural capital by dominant social groups over long

periods of time, reflecting the existence of major

social differences" (p. 16). Oppression entails a

great deal of "baggage." Individuals who face it

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Power to the People

often experience exploitation, marginalization,

powerlessness, cultural imperialism, and outright

violence (Young, 1990, pp. 48-63). Mullaly (1997)

also pulls oppression out of the individual experi-

ence, describing it as domination of subordinate

groups by a group or groups more powerful in the

realms of politics, economics and culture (pp. 104,

145-146). To understand how oppression works,

we have to recognize how groups interact with

each other (Frye, 1983, pp. 8-10).

Groups that hold more money, political clout

and sway over mainstream culture tend to become

more powerful. By virtue of their power, the world

they live in suits their needs, ideas and interests,

undoubtedly undermining the needs, ideas and

interests of groups with less power (Young, 1990,

pp. 56-58; Chater, 1994, p. 102). Quite simply,

"power is the ability to act" and "the more access

to resources one has, the more options one has."

Power is unequally distributed and impacts how

people interact as individuals and groups (Adair

& Howell, 1993). Clifford and Burke (2008) note

that unequal distribution of power leads to the

experience of everyday oppressions against groups

with less power, and this oppression further exas-

perates social divisions between those with less

and more power. They show that the experience of

oppression is both constant and in flux, impacted

by the changing circumstances of different groups.

Usually resilient over long periods of time, the

divisions between groups can vary quickly in

intense periods of social change (p. 16). Young

(1990) says that oppression is "a central category

of political discourse" (p. 39) for contemporary

social movements and activist organizing, even

if many in the Western world hesitate to apply

the term to injustices they perceive around them.

Anti-oppression activists and thinkers have

identified different forms that oppression takes—

racism, sexism, classism, heterosexism, ageism

and ableism, to name the most common. Despite

the heady analysis, we can view oppression more

simply. Some groups of people are considered

less worthy of power, rights and respect than

others. Those "less worthy" of power, rights and

respect in today's society are racialized, women

or transgendered, living in poverty, physically or

mentally disabled, lesbian, gay, bisexual, or queer,

elderly, and/or young (Young, 1990, p. 40). Other

social divisions factor into a person's experience

of oppression, such as their immigration status,

their HIV status, and the social isolation or con-

nectedness of the region where they live (Clifford

& Burke, 2008, p. 19).

Since oppression is based on "unquestioned

norms, habits, symbols, in the assumptions un-

derlying institutional rules and the collective con-

sequences of following those rules," it occurs on

both a personal and systemic level (Young, 1990,

p. 41). It impacts how individuals and communities

view and treat themselves and others; how they

behave and communicate; and how they envisage

their position, worth, entitlement to resources, and

validity in the world. Women, for example, share

a collective experience of discrimination where

they tend to be paid less for doing the same jobs

as men (Johnson, 2009). Women are also statisti-

cally more likely to be murdered by male intimate

partners or family members—the violence is a

manifestation of systemic sexism women face in

society, reproduced in their individual lives and

most intimate experiences (Bureau of Justice

Statistics, 2005; Porter, 2006, pp. 25-27).

People who employ anti-oppression principles

name, dissect and challenge society's mainstream

systems and structures, that is, the "normal" way

of life or the "way things are", making visible the

invisible. They acknowledge that what most people

view as normal is determined by the perspectives,

interests and desires of powerful and dominant

groups. Dichotomies are often used to define

groups and assign characteristics to them—white

and black, man and woman, gay and straight,

and rich and poor. This is how individuals and

groups who are less powerful are placed on the

far end of the spectrum of normalcy (Collins,

1986, p. S20). Those who are less powerful may

be labeled exotic, special, fringe or different, but

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257

Power to the People

in dominant thinking, they tend to be marked as

"Other" (Young, 1990, pp. 58-59). Individuals

who face oppression can internalize this other-

ness and develop negative understandings about

themselves, taking them in even if they logically

know them to be untrue. In a similar way, people

who belong to dominant groups learn favorable

messages about themselves. They internalize their

own dominance and privilege (Sinclair, 2003, p.

127). Anti-oppression, on the other hand, argues

for multiplicity of voices, opinions and ways of

thinking and being of marginalized groups in order

to counter the narrow dichotomies. Dalrymple and

Burke (2006) explain that "different perspectives

on the truth" are necessary because "no one group

or individual possesses the theory or methodology

that allows it to discover the absolute truth about

other people's experiences" (p. 11).

Personal "Reflexivity" and

Anti-Oppressive Ethics

Employing anti-oppression as an individual re-

quires reflection about the power one holds and

oppression one faces. It requires sensitivity to the

reality that anyone can unintentionally oppress

other people and experience oppression at the same

time (Clifford & Burke, 2008, p. 18). It encourages

an individual to examine personal values, internal-

ized dominance and oppression, and deeply held

stereotypes, biases, and prejudices—the same ones

so often reproduced in systems like the media,

government, law and education.

Making reference to social workers, Kondrat

(1999) says that self-awareness involves un-

derstanding one's own "social location"—that

is, where a person's membership in various

groups places them in society's matrix of power,

privileges, oppressions and access to respect

and resources. It is an examination of personal

values and behaviors, how they may reproduce

oppression or challenge it (p. 464). Those in

grassroots, community, and activist circles have

stressed that anti-oppressive self-reflection, or

"reflexivity," cannot be left to theory. It must

penetrate the very core of who one is and how

one thinks of themselves and their place in the

world. Barbara Findlay reveals that scrutinizing

her own social location "in the world as a white

person" was "painful and shameful" and that "the

work of looking at internalized dominance is very

difficult" (1992, p. 47).

Anti-oppression practice is often referred to

as a conscious decision, an individual choice to

be challenged in order to promote values like

equity, justice, inclusion, and a shared quality

of life. Clifford and Burke (2008) note, "the aim

of anti-oppressive ethics is to provide guidance

to oppose, minimize and/or overcome those

aspects of human relationships that express and

consolidate oppression" (p. 16). While they do

not assume that a fully articulated position on

anti-oppression ethics exists, they speak to a

useful approach to ethics using anti-oppressive

concepts that incorporates a critical analysis of

power, social differences and divisions, the im-

pact of social systems and relationships, and the

histories of individuals and groups.

In general, then, anti-oppression involves an

analysis of power imbalances between groups and

involves thinking and action, where individuals

understand their place in groups and the broader

society. Anti-oppression is deeply personal. People

must consider the privileges they hold and op-

pressions they perpetuate in order to act ethically,

based on reflection and critical thinking.

ANTI-OPPRESSION AND GAMES

Anti-oppression's encompassing analysis can

extend beyond the realm of activism and social

work. "Practitioners" of anti-oppression argue

that the areas of governance, education and policy

development should implement anti-oppressive

principles. And while a range of opinions may

exist about how to implement anti-oppression

into life and society, practitioners have noted

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258

Power to the People

that anti-oppressive principles support equity,

justice and inclusion to the benefit of marginalized

groups. We assert that game makers may apply

the principles of anti-oppression to the design of

games and their development, particularly games

that in some way call attention to and/or seek to

challenge unequal power dynamics and inspire

players to contribute to equitable social change.

Theorists have spoken to how oppression tends

to get reproduced in the media and entertainment

industry, in those dominant ideologies reproduced

and disseminated by it. Stuart Hall (2003) argues

that the media is "part of the dominant means of

ideological production" and that it produces "rep-

resentations of the social world, images, descrip-

tions, explanations and frames for understanding

how the world is and why it works as it is said and

shown to work" (p. 90). Popular media, including

popular digital games, tend to mirror the power

imbalances of society, privileging the interests

and perspectives of those in power.

Paolo Pedercini, the designer behind the Mol-

leindustria game collective that develops online

games that seek to express alternatives to domi-

nant forms of gameplay, explains that the game

industry "relies on a highly trained workforce,

which is produced by universities." The industry's

"[technologies and processes] are inaccessible

to most people" and democratizing the system

proves difficult because its structure lacks personal

connection and original contribution by most

participants (2010). Unequal power dynamics

infuse the mainstream game industry's develop-

ment practices and human resource processes and

norms, as well as its most familiar perspectives.

Yet digital games, particularly those designed

outside of the industry, are ripe for the incorpo-

ration of anti-oppressive principles. Ian Bogost

(2007) explores how video games embody a "pro-

cedural rhetoric" that shifts opinion or motivates

action of players (pp. 28-29). Video games make

arguments about a social system's structure that

can help support or challenge it. In the words of

Clay Shirky (2005), games "offer the opportunity

for players to change their worldview rather than

to impart mere information."

Because video games have the ability to

persuade or inspire people to critically examine

mainstream norms and behaviors, we embrace

the implementation of anti-oppressive principles,

practices and ethics. Game makers can design their

work to identify and challenge society's everyday

dynamics of oppression and privilege. They can

inspire players to act in new ways to break down

those dynamics and divides. They can illustrate

what players can do to affect anti-oppressive

change in the real world, allowing them to practice

and share their strategies for change with each

other. By applying anti-oppressive principles in

the process of building games, game makers can

consciously provide a frame to alter the main-

stream's typical modus operandi, where a small set

of experts determine content and methodology. An

anti-oppression-inspired process can seek out and

incorporate the ideas and perspectives of players

and non-players who do not usually have voice in

game creation in order to challenge assumptions,

stereotypes and norms that inform the look, story,

arguments and rule sets of games.

In the next section, we move out of the realm

of theory to explore insights of game collectives

and partners. Their goals, thoughts and design pro-

cesses enlighten how anti-oppression principles

have been and can be applied in game design and

development.

INSIGHTS AND EXAMPLES

FROM GAME COLLECTIVES

AND PARTNERSHIPS

To build an applied understanding of anti-

oppression in game design and development, we

interviewed individuals from game collectives

and game development partnerships. This sec-

tion includes contributions from Susana Ruiz

and Ashley York of Take Action Games, Wendy

Komiotis of the Metropolitan Action Committee

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Power to the People

on Violence Against Women and Children, Mary

Flanagan of Values at Play, Barry Joseph of Global

Kids, and Paolo Pedercini of Molleindustria. Their

insights and examples enrich this chapter's prac-

tical application and inform the anti-oppressive

guidelines outlined at the end. Given the novelty

of anti-oppression language in the field of game

creation, we asked each contributor to answer

general questions about "equity" in game and

interactive design and development. An important

concept in anti-oppression theory, Lopes and

Thomas (2006) define equity as "equal access to

goods, services and opportunities in society" (p.

267). We asked game collective and partnership

representatives how they implement equity in their

design process, challenges and lessons they have

encountered in the process, and advice they would

share with other developers to increase the inclu-

sion of equity in game creation. In this section, we

highlight these game makers and explicate some

examples of their games.

Take Action Games

Take Action Games (TAG) specializes in casual

games for change. It uses games to address topics

of social and political significance, employing

design and content that traverses computational

art, narrative, documentary, activism, and eth-

ics. Susana Ruiz, Huy Truong, and Ashley York

co-founded TAG in 2006 and launched their first

game that year, Darfur is Dying, an activist game

they developed as an MFA graduate thesis project

(with the support of a number of students and

colleagues) at the University of Southern Cali-

fornia. Its development was sponsored by mtvU

in partnership with The Reebok Human Rights

Foundation, The International Crisis Group, and

interFUEL.

They designed Darfur is Dying as an infor-

mational entryway to the humanitarian crisis in

the Darfur region of western Sudan and the initial

development resulted from a call by mtvU to mo-

bilize university communities to raise awareness

about genocide through digital games. Stephen

Friedman, general manager of MTV, explains

that they wanted to extend awareness of the cri-

sis beyond a relatively closed circle of experts,

activists, and non-governmental organizations.

Says Friedman,

It was an attempt to expand a campaign that

already existed and to create a game that would

spark a conversation and raise awareness beyond

what our other programming was doing. We went

in not knowing what we would get and with the

goal to create something that would linger and

would have more of an impact than a PSA or TV

show. (2010)

Responding to the request, Ruiz and York

sought to use "uncomplicated, immediate mech-

anisms" in Darfur is Dying's gameplay. They

wanted to inspire players to effect real world

change by taking part in letter-writing campaigns

and learning how to initiate divestment strategies

in their college campuses. More than 700,000

people played it in the first month after the game's

release on April 30th, 2006—the day of the Save

Darfur Rally in Washington, D.C. That number

grew to more than two million. Tens of thousands

of players utilized "activist tools" that TAG wove

into the game's reward structure. This includes

the ability to write letters to the President and

petition Congress to enact legislation to support

the people of Darfur. Says Ruiz,

We were guided by a three-step design methodol-

ogy. First, we wanted to construct an experience

in which the player could become emotionally

invested via personal narratives and testimoni-

als. Secondly, we wanted to pull back and be able

to offer her a broader context of the extremely

complicated issue. Thirdly, we wanted to ensure

that she had an immediate and simple means to

make a difference in the real world in some small

way, especially given the government and media's

stark silence on the genocide in Darfur at the

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260

Power to the People

time. In this case, playing through a portrayal of

genocide would be entirely disheartening were it

not for a chance to spread awareness about the

crisis, learn about divestment, sign a petition, or

write a letter with the goal of evoking decision-

makers to respond. (2010)

Ruiz presented the game to members of

Congress and Pulitzer Prize winning New York

Times columnist Nicholas Kristof (2006), who

has worked extensively in the region, says it is

"one of the best presentations of life in Darfur" (p.

12). In contrast, immediately after mtvU posted

an early prototype of Darfur is Dying, Julian Dib-

bell wrote an article for the Village Voice entitled,

"Game From Hell." Dibbell writes,

Folks, I've seen some sick and twisted video

games in my day, but I hereby award the cake to

a dark little perversion of the human imagination

entitled Fetching Water, a finalist in the MTV/

Reebok Darfur Digital Activist contest… Currently

playable in demo form at MTV's new college-

targeted broadband site, mtvU, Fetching Water

casts the player as a cute Darfuri child dodging

heavily armed militia gangs through the five ki-

lometers of desert between home and the nearest

well. Fail to outrun the militiamen and the game

ends, with "kidnap, rape, and murder" listed as

your likeliest fates; make it to the well and back,

and maybe your family survives another day of

drought. Is there even a rating for something this

f***ed-up. (2006)

Ruiz and York were mindful of their position

in addressing issues in Darfur and anticipated

the potential for negative reactions. They noted

that Dibbell's response was to a work-in-progress

version of the game that was put online with little

context. "We were leading a group of privileged

college students from a private university to

develop a game about something so far from our

own daily realities. It's understandable that people

would react viscerally to that," says Ruiz (2010).

The team consulted with various individuals

and groups, including those with expertise on the

genocide and those who spent time in the region.

Paul Freedman, a Peabody Award Winning docu-

Take Action Games. Used with permission)

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261

Power to the People

mentary filmmaker who was directing Sand and

Sorrow, a film on Darfur at the time, provided

invaluable consultation about the logistics of the

camps inside Darfur, as well as imagery for the

game's aesthetic modeling. Ruiz and York also

consulted with activists and scholars such as

Donald Miller, Executive Director of the USC

Center for Religion and Civic Culture; and Brian

Steidle, a former U.S. Marine, unarmed military

observer and U.S. representative to the African

Union. Additionally, the International Crisis Group

and International Rescue Committee provided the

team with information, perspective and imagery

that proved critical to an understanding of the

situation. Ruiz says,

These were incredibly helpful to game develop-

ment but we didn't get the opportunity to speak

with Sudanese experts who may have witnessed

what was happening. It was an element that didn't

quite match up with our understandings of equity

in game design. More people from outside of the

situation were contributing to content than those

internal to it. There's no doubt that the game

would have benefited greatly from the perspective

of Sudanese experts who were much closer to the

politics and history of the region. (2010)

Following the production of Darfur is Dying,

TAG co-produced RePlay: Finding Zoe/ReJouer:

Où est Zoé? along with the Metropolitan Action

Committee on Violence Against Women and

Children (METRAC), a Canadian non-profit

organization that prevents violence against di-

verse women, youth, and children. METRAC

approached TAG to develop an online game on

healthy relationships amongst children and youth

aged eight to fourteen with the goal of challenging

gender stereotypes and gender-based violence.

Ruiz says that the partnership with METRAC was

TAG's first opportunity to work so closely with

those engaged in community development work

on the issues. Ruiz says that METRAC brought

invaluable knowledge about the topic and the

target audience that the design team would not

have had on its own as game developers (2010).

RePlay/ReJourer tells the story of two friends

searching for their friend, Zoe. After hearing sexist

and stereotyping rumors about her, they conclude

she is caught in an abusive relationship. During

their search for Zoe, her friends navigate through

their neighborhood and are challenged by situa-

tions that encourage them to work together and

be respectful, confident communicators. Success

in these situations equips them to find Zoe and

cheer for her. The game includes information on

the warning signs of violence and community

services relevant to Ontario youth.

Funded by the Government of Ontario,

METRAC assembled an Interdisciplinary Advi-

sory Committee for the project that included

educators and school board members, experts in

technology and communications, violence preven-

tion organizations, and people who work with

youth. The committee provided guidance for all

stages of the project. METRAC also completed

a literature review on best practices for video

game design and conducted focus groups with

more than 250 diverse young people in the prov-

ince of Ontario. Youth were asked about their

game playing behaviors, ideas and preferences,

information directly utilized in the game's design.

Wendy Komiotis, METRAC's Executive Director,

comments on the importance of focus groups:

As an organization that operates from an anti-

oppressive framework and values equity so much,

we knew we needed to find out what youth wanted

in this game. Instead of settling on the advice of

literature and adult experts, we thought it was

important to listen to youth themselves. Not just

the ones who could afford their own game consoles

at homes. We made sure to ask what they liked in

a game, digital or not, whether played at home

or a friend's house, whether played every day or

not. (2010)

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Power to the People

Komiotis explains that METRAC discovered

new things about the way young people play

games:

They told us that it was action, not violence so

much, that they looked for in a good game. This

was interesting because we were totally new to

the world of social issue games and had heard

all the hype about how games promote and teach

violence. The youth also shared that they wanted

a lot of control, even in the process of playing a

simple online Flash game like RePlay/ReJourer.

They wanted to control the look of their characters.

They wanted to play with characters that looked

like them and looked nothing like them. Choice

is important. In contrast to all the research on

media violence we had read, these youth were

not playing like mindless sponges. They applied

a lot of their own agency in the process. (2010)

The ideas and preferences of the youth who

participated in focus groups directly informed

RePlay/ReJourer's design. For example, a feature

was included where players choose their character,

and conscious effort was dedicated to represent-

ing characters in non-normative ways. Ruiz says

that METRAC and TAG worked hard to reflect

the youth they had met in their focus groups, their

"many skin and hair colors and types, their differ-

ent physical abilities and body shapes, their dress

and styles… The game does not place gendered

limitations on characters, which was important

in creating a game that challenges mainstream

gender roles and stereotypes." (2010) In addition,

a feature was included where players answer ques-

tions about issues of abuse and gender before and

after they play the game and through an abstract

graphic representation, they can view how other

players answered as well. Komiotis explains the

significance of this feature:

It helps us collect data about players' opinions.

But, perhaps more importantly, it helps players

contextualize themselves with other players. They

get the opportunity to see that, for example, most

players answer the question of whether or not girls

can do anything boys can do in the affirmative.

They understand that most people do have some

positive ideas about gender and ending abuse.

Even if it doesn't always translate to peoples'

actions in relationships, seeing that most of us

don't believe abuse is okay is a start to support

Take Action Games. Used with permission.)

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Power to the People

positive attitudes in youth and help them form

healthier behaviors in their relationships. (2010)

Since its release in 2007, more than 10,000

people have played RePlay/ReJourer. It won

three awards for its design, two from Ashoka

Changemakers and one from Adobe. Of the 353

players who chose to answer the post-game survey,

45 percent identified learning "something new."

Additionally, RePlay/ReJourer was translated

into French and updated for Francophone cultural

competency in 2008 through a partnership with

Centre ontarien de prévention des agressions

(COPA), given the bilingual nature of Ontario.

Komiotis explains,

It was important for us not to do a word-for-word

French translation, because it would not be cul-

turally competent. We partnered with COPA, who

used their peer networks across the province to

connect with Francophone youth and make sure

the game's language reflected how they commu-

nicate. (2010)

Komiotis says that the incorporation of youth

voices in the game's content and its diverse im-

agery are two of its greatest strengths. "If youth

were the ones who developed the game" Komiotis

notes, "if they had learned the skills to make the

games and actually did it, equity in the design

process would have been even stronger" (2010).

TAG's current work, In The Balance, consists

of a documentary film and a game. In The Bal-

ance explores the story of six Kentucky teenagers

who were incarcerated for murder more than a

decade ago. The game began as an experiment in

computational documentary and evolved into an

investigation of broader dynamics and personal

stories embedded in America's criminal justice

system and prison industrial complex. Some of the

questions In The Balance provokes relate to the

issue of ethics and documentary filmmaking and to

one of the form's longstanding ethical concerns –

the burden of responsibility documentarians have

as they seek to represent, model and simulate real

lives and situations.

In The Balance's core team engaged in five

years of research. They visited prisons in Tennes-

see and immersed themselves in research on issues

such as capital punishment, life sentencing of

juveniles and the over-incarceration of America's

poorest citizens. York, a trained journalist, notes

that "objectivity is always a constant struggle" in

the process of developing the documentary and

Figure 3. In The Balance game screenshot of a prison modeled after the Tennessee Prison for Women

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Power to the People

game and "the range of opinions on it is something

we were cognizant of and were always negotiat-

ing" (2010). In referencing Brian Winston's essay,

"The Documentary Film as Scientific Inscription,"

York notes documentary filmmaker Frederick

Wiseman's assertion:

[Films] have a point of view that allows you—or,

hopefully, asks you—to think, to figure out what

you think about what's happening. I don't know

how to make an objective film. I think my films are

a fair reflection of the experience making them.

My subjective view is that they are fair films. (as

cited in Winston, 1993, p. 49)

In contrast, documentary scholar Bill Nichols'

believes that a subjective approach can help an

audience examine their preconceived notions

and assumptions. "Subjectivity itself compels

belief: instead of an aura of detached truthful-

ness we have the honest admission of a partial

but highly significant, situated and impassioned

view." (2001, p. 51)

Adopting Nichols' "documentary modes,"

York says,

Our discomfort with calling In The Balance 'ob-

jective' will be reflected in the game's rules and

the game's design. It mirrors the idea that there

is no one 'true' perspective and the fabrication

inherent to a documentary is purposefully and

self-conscientiously exposed. One of the most

challenging and problematic aspects of the project

is discerning what the goals for the player should

be. James P. Gee's [2007] concept of projective

identity requires that we think clearly through

the structure of identification for the player. This

is challenging because ultimately, we don't feel

we're making a project about either one "truth"

or about what other outcomes may have been

possible. Rather, it's about how multiple voices

tell their versions of the story—from individuals

directly involved and affected, to scholars that

speak of broader systemic elements. (2010)

Values at Play

Values at Play (VAP) is a National Science Founda-

tion research project whose principle investigator

Mary Flanagan believes that technology has the

power to transform human behavior, shift cul-

ture, and shape institutions. Flanagan directs the

Tiltfactor game research lab at Hunter College,

which harnesses video games in the service of

humanistic principles, with the recognition that

games hold great potential to educate and inspire.

VAP investigates how designers can be more

intentional about integrating human values into

game systems. VAP seeks to assist designers to

create games that further the understanding and

appreciation of equality and diversity.

In the 1990s, VAP's principle investigator

Mary Flanagan focused on gender equity, creating

software for female players and initiating after-

school programs to build the technology skills of

girls. She says that equity and inclusion have been

essential to her work as a woman designer. The

work of her game laboratory, Tiltfactor, empha-

sizes how white, male, and heterosexual partici-

pants dominate the world of software development

and game design. Flanagan explains:

As a consequence, those who are not white/ male/

heterosexual often feel like they have to conform

to the mores of the dominant culture. A core

principle in the laboratory is to create a space

that celebrates and legitimates difference and

diversity, rather than conformity. A corollary of

this approach is that our games tend to fall outside

of the mainstream (which is where we like them

to be!)—they spotlight voices and perspectives

that are usually found only at the margins. (2010)

VAP develops games as well as game creation

tools. For example, the Grow-A-Game Cards is

a simple and engaging tool that broadens access

to game design by helping people brainstorm

game ideas on social issues and societal values.

Non-designers can also use the cards to create

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Power to the People

powerful, expressive ideas. More importantly,

Flanagan notes, Grow-A-Game Cards help non-

developers view game design as an interesting,

accessible and fun medium for personal, political,

and artistic expression. She believes that increas-

ing contributions of non-programmers and other

non-experts will ultimately contribute to a more

inclusive game development community. Says

Flanagan,

It is relatively easy to see the benefits to a given

design when enhanced by new ways of thinking

due to the diverse voices of the design team and

the player group. These arguments for innovation

are often stronger to those in the industry than

arguing for diversity's sake, just to be inclusive. In

the end, the principle is served, and hopefully, new

ideas, perspectives, technologies, rewards, points

of view, and the like are actively developed. (2010)

Molleindustria

Molleindustria, founded by Paolo Pedercini, aims

to "reappropriate" video games as a popular form

of mass communication. It investigates the per-

suasive potentials of the medium by subverting

mainstream video gaming cliché. Mollindustria

produced a number of online games that explore

issues such as abuse perpetrated by clergy, cor-

porate food production and sexual and gender

fluidity. With respect to incorporating equity in

games, Pedercini says there is a risk in viewing it

as a mere implementation issue, which can lead

developers to creating little more than a series of

guidelines for "politically-correct design practice"

(2010).

For instance, he notes that The Sims allows

players to design characters from every conceiv-

able race and allows characters to form same-sex

relationships with each other. However, gender,

skin color, and sexual orientation are cosmetic op-

tions as the "family" portrayed in the game always

conforms to the same parameters and is always

contextualized into a North American suburban

environment. He says that the game reinforces the

"narrative of the American Dream" by depicting

equal career and opportunities despite race and

gender differences in characters. In this way,

permission.)

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Power to the People

Pedercini questions if The Sims actually reflects

progressive design or just cultural mystification:

Certainly I prefer the highly politically incor-

rect world of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas to

the utopian suburbia of The Sims … at least it

provides a complex representation of the urban

environment. The city of San Andreas, modeled

after Los Angeles, is a space characterized by

inequalities. Social and racial tensions inform

the overarching plot, the player is continuously

confronted with moral dilemmas that arise from

being disempowered as citizen. (2010)

Pedercini refers to the "posturing of equity"

in games when power and access to resources

is so skewed (2010). Pedercini cites the recent

alternate reality game, EVOKE, and how many

of the problems the game purports to solve are

directly or indirectly created by two decades of

Washington consensus. Says Pedercini,

At first sight it appears a great initiative, the comic

that introduces the online game is full of empow-

ered men and women from developing countries

and the promoters are actively trying to recruit

a diverse player population. Except you notice

that the game is sponsored by the World Bank,

the infamous super-national institution controlled

by the richest countries. The same institution

that, together with the World Trade Organiza-

tion and International Monetary Fund, imposed

free-market policies to a number of developing

countries with catastrophic consequences. (2010)

While the developers of EVOKE may be well-

intentioned and there may be positive outcomes

to the game, Pedercini warns about the "photo-

shopped diversity" found in the marketing of

universities and corporations (2010). He notes

that, when there is a large disconnection between

the object of inquiry and the subject producing

the text, misrepresentations and mystifications

are difficult to avoid.

Pedercini explains that Molleindustria's Oili-

garchy game exemplifies radical game design

by allowing players to be the "protagonist of the

petroleum era," where they fuel the world's oil

addiction with the goal of successfully exploring,

drilling, bribing and halting green energies as they

run their oil company with limited resources. As

an "oiligarch," the player manages the extraction

business in the homeland and overseas and lobbies

the government to keep the carbon-fossil based

economy as profitable as possible. Oiligarchy il-

lustrates what Pedercini believes to be the main

potential of game systems. Pedercini says,

Their main potential lays in their ability to easily

represent complex systems such as the economic

and the political ones. Observing and interacting

with a system "from above" allows the player

to abstract from her everyday experience and

think about the invisible threads that connect

our globalized economy. In order to create an

"ethical" game you just have to set up a system

of rewards and punishments that force the player

to be "good." I wish it was that easy! I believe

players are smarter than lab rats in a Skinner box.

If we dismiss the simplistic relation violent games

= violent behavior, we also have to acknowledge

that we need more than good scout simulations

to foster critical thinking. (2010)

Global Kids

Global Kids in New York City reaches out to

marginalized youth, primarily young people

of color, in low-income neighborhoods. Barry

Joseph, director of the organization's Online

Leadership Program, stresses that Global Kids

identifies the potential of young people to learn

and view themselves as global citizens and com-

munity leaders. The Online Leadership Program

builds on youths' existing strengths and assets,

at the same time that it does not underestimate

the impact of internalized oppressions they may

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Power to the People

face. "We look to the youth whenever we can to

shape the content of the games—they pick the

issues, they work out the core mechanics … but

we never leave them to do so on their own and

provide more guidance with some groups than

others" (2010).

Educators and professional game designers

partner with youth throughout the game design

process. While Global Kids cannot expect youth

to have design skills that take experts years to

develop, Joseph notes that youth bring unique and

valuable assets and insights. For instance, a team

of first and second-generation youth Caribbean

immigrants developed Ayiti: The Cost of Life. The

partnering gaming company, GameLab, wanted

to locate the game in China, but the youth team

wanted the game to reflect issues with which they

were more familiar. Joseph explains that the youth

were not shy in contributing their ideas, opinions

and knowledge at key points in Ayiti's develop-

ment. For example, during the first play test, the

youth team noticed how game characters that fell

into debt immediately died. They pointed out that

positive elements should be worked into Ayiti to

more accurately reflect real life in Haiti, that it

was not as stark as the game suggested. The team

advocated for changes to game play, including an

opportunity for players to build things in their

communities. When the question arose about

including cheat codes in the game to get out of

debt, a team member aptly noted: "In Haiti, they

don't have a cheat code" (2010).

Joseph speaks to challenges Global Kids faces

as they seek to incorporate equity in collaborative

digital media and game projects. He notes that

time is often a limiting factor, which hinders the

depth of game design skills they are able to de-

velop. "This pressure means at times we need to

move forward on the project and get youth buy-in

after the fact," he says, a less-than-ideal process

for equitable game development (2010). Time

constraints can also limit learning opportunities

for the young people as well. He offers an example

from the design process of another Global Kids'

game, Hurricane Katrina: Tempest in Crescent

City, noting that the majority of youth on the

design team originally shied away from giving

the game's main character a name that they felt

would be "too black" (2010). Joseph felt that the

team did not get to explore or dissect this issue

fully due to scheduling concerns in the develop-

ment process.

GUIDELINES FOR ANTI-

OPPRESSION IN GAME DESIGN

AND DEVELOPMENT

An overview of anti-oppression principles, as well

as insights provided by collectives and partners on

equity issues and games, informed the guidelines

we suggest in this section. These guidelines serve

as a starting point to understand practicalities in

building anti-oppressive games.

Figure 5. Oiligarchy game screenshot. (Public Domain)

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Power to the People

1. Disrupt Stereotypes

On a preliminary level, anti-oppression in game

development and design entails making conscious

efforts to disrupt the reproduction of oppres-

sive assumptions in the look, feel, and play of a

game. Makers must avoid uncritical stereotypes

and "othering" depictions, especially of groups

that are most marginalized in media and society.

Richard Dyer (1996) draws connections between

stereotypes and unequal power relationships be-

tween groups. He writes that "stereotypes express

particular definitions of reality, with concomitant

evaluations, which in turn relate to the disposition

of power within society" (p. 248). In questioning

"who proposes the stereotype" and "who has the

power to enforce it," Dyer demonstrates how

stereotypes tend to reinforce the worldviews

and position of dominant groups (p. 248). While

stereotypes of dominant individuals and groups

certainly exist, the full harm of stereotypes play

out against those who have less power to define

Figure 7. Hurricane Katrina: Tempest in Crescent City screenshot of gameplay (left) and main character

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Power to the People

reality, to deem who and what is "normal" and

"abnormal."

For example, in creating RePlay: Finding Zoe/

ReJouer: Où est Zoé, mainstream understandings

about gender—how girls and boys are "supposed"

to look—the designers provide players with a

wide range of options in choosing the look of their

character. Given the invisibility and vilification

of dark skin in media and negative connotations

having dark skin carries in mainstream society,

the game makers made a conscious decision to

provide players with the option to choose a dark

brown skin color for characters. However, as

alluded to by Pedercini above, diversity that ap-

pears "photoshopped" can be problematic where

it is tokenizing or exists on a purely surface level.

When consciously representing groups of people

typically underrepresented, game creators should

not simply use a window dressing approach.

Game makers must adopt intentionality and

conscientiousness when broadening diversity and

challenging mainstream stereotypes in games.

The Diner Dash franchise provides an interesting

example. Many incarnations of the game have a

young female character as the diner's server, Flo.

While some may consider this a stereotyping de-

piction, deeper complexity is embodied in the char-

acter and her role. Flo is a former stockbroker who

quit her job to run the diner. She is an entrepreneur

who must utilize a variety of strategies and skills

to successfully manage and expand her business.

In many ways, Flo's portrayal moves beyond a

one-dimensional understanding of women's role

and qualities even if she engages in service and

nurturing work in the game. Dyer (1996) distin-

guishes "social types" from stereotypes in media.

"Although constructed iconographically similarly

to the way stereotypes are constructed," he writes,

"social types can be used in a much more open and

flexible way" (p. 248-249). They can "figure in

almost any kind of plot and can have a wide range

of roles" while stereotypes "always carry within

their very representation an implicit narrative"

(p. 248-249). Inclusion of social type characters

like Diner Dash's Flo is a helpful way to disrupt

stereotypes in game representations.

2. Consider Players and

Communicate with Them

Careful consideration of a game's target players

and their unique experiences—power they may

hold and oppressions they face—is critical to

anti-oppression in game creation. It entails mov-

ing away from the assumption that only one type

of player exists or that all players use games the

same way. Game designers and developers must

think reflectively about assumptions they make

about target players' ideas, preferences, and needs.

Before creating Darfur is Dying, for example,

Take Action Games sought out information about

mtvU's audience and network, as well as the evi-

dence that pointed to their lack of knowledge about

the situation in Darfur. Only then did the team feel

equipped to start designing a game to expose these

complex issues to American college-aged youth,

with the intent of provoking and inspiring those

players to take real-world action.

Communication with target players must have

real implications for the shape a game takes; it

cannot consist merely of testing pre-formed ideas.

For the development of RePlay/ReJourer, focus

groups with diverse Anglophone and Francophone

young people were essential to conceptualizing a

game targeted to youth aged 8 to 14. METRAC

dedicated a segment of the development budget

to travel across the province of Ontario and meet

with children in schools and community settings.

METRAC incorporated principles of community-

based participatory research when it directed

focus groups (Israel et al., 2005). Among other

features, community-based participatory research

"facilitates a collaborative, equitable partnership

… [It involves] an empowering and power-

sharing process that attends to social inequities"

(p. 7). Community-based participatory research

computes with anti-oppression and proves useful

in the design process for anti-oppressive games.

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Power to the People

3. Attend to Multiple and

Hidden Perspectives

An essential element to anti-oppressive practice

involves multiplicity, and game makers should

open space for marginalized communities to share

their ideas, opinions, and perspectives. Developers

cannot assume that their own perspective is defini-

tive and need time in the development process to

proactively search out and reflect upon other per-

spectives, particularly those hidden in mainstream

discussions. Through an anti-oppressive lens, it

is clear that academics and professionals are not

the sole experts on a subject. In the case of Darfur

is Dying, they do not only consist of Westerners

with particular perspectives on the crisis.

Game makers should converse with a diverse

body of experts and witnesses. Chris Swain (2010)

advises game developers to conduct needs analy-

ses with the support of experts, to yield a list of

pertinent concepts. These concepts contribute to

the learning objectives of value-based or ethical

games.

Game makers face a challenging and time-

consuming task of identifying and opening space

for hidden and marginal perspectives, which can

require significant resources. In the Balance's

developer, Take Action Games, experienced a long

and costly research phase because of the difficultly

the creators faced in accessing criminalized people,

especially those implicated in serious and highly

newsworthy crimes. Beyond that, the process of

building trust and comfort between criminalized

youth and the game's developers presented its own

difficulties and implications for project timelines.

Interestingly, hidden perspectives do not only

lie with marginalized groups and can be found

among those who have a great deal of socio-

political power, whose perspectives, understand-

ings and actions may be clouded by anything from

propaganda and mainstream mythology to the

sheer complexity of what they do. Molleindustria's

Oiligarchy highlights oppressive practices of the

oil industry by exploring a dominant perspective

not often addressed in media, government, or

policy development. Some may accuse the game

of exaggerating the predatory intentions of the

industry, but Oiligarchy's depiction of the oppres-

sion and degradation that arise from oil addiction

provokes players to reflect on a complicated and

mystifying system, one with far-reaching but

often hidden impacts on most peoples' daily lives.

4. Marginalized Groups Guide

Design and Development

Applied to games, anti-oppression entails looking

to marginalized groups to guide the process of

design and development. Mary Flanagan speaks

to how the Tiltfactor Laboratory has created op-

portunities for marginalized students, designers,

and collaborators to participate in game design

and build games that better reflect their ideas and

play preferences. Since anti-oppression is a power-

sharing perspective, one that seeks to decrease

the divide between those considered experts and

those viewed as non-experts, it is essential that

game makers provide opportunities for laypeople

to contribute to a game's development. The Grow-

a-Game Cards make the specialized process of

game development accessible and meaningful

to people without game expertise. Global Kids'

community-based initiatives exemplify how game

makers can engage marginalized people to lead the

game design process. Some Global Kids initiatives

transfer programming skills to young people who

may not otherwise have access to them, allowing

them to plan and build their own digital games

and interactive experiences.

Of course, sharing programming skills cannot

be undertaken lightly or quickly. It may require

significant resources and time, and unexpected

issues that directly relate to oppressions margin-

alized people face may arise. A telling example

comes from Joseph, who says they did not have

adequate time to support a young development

team who wanted to find a less "black" name for

a game character. The harms, pains, and internal-

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Power to the People

ized concerns that oppression creates in the lives

of marginalized people reveal themselves in many

ways. For people who do not experience the same

oppressions, it can prove difficult to anticipate

these concerns in the planning process. As a result,

allowing for flexibility in time and resources to

process these concerns proves essential to anti-

oppressive game design.

Game makers can establish balanced partner-

ships with non-governmental organizations and

groups who work to support and learn from diverse

communities as a means to get guidance from

marginalized people. The partnership between

Take Action Games and METRAC was not only

instrumental in accessing funding for RePlay/

ReJourer, it also supported information-sharing

between game developers, Ontario youth and

violence prevention advocates.

CONCLUSION

Anti-oppressive principles are amenable to games

with social issue content as well as commercial

games. Henry Jenkins suggests:

The issues are complex because oppressive as-

sumptions may be more deeply encoded into the

genre norms of commercial games, while serious

games may start from a pro-social agenda. But all

the more reason why you want commercial design-

ers to start reflecting on these concerns. (2010)

Beyond challenging "taken-for-granted" ideals

and ideas about groups with lesser and more access

to power, anti-oppression explores the structure of

the world and how it functions to maintain social

power imbalances between people. Root causes

of society's contemporary dynamics are sought

out and exposed through, among other things, the

very mechanisms explained above—disruption of

stereotypes, connecting with target communities,

listening to multiple and hidden perspectives, and

opening space for the guidance and direction of

marginalized groups.

For all of its heady theoretical underpinnings,

anti-oppression is designed for practical applica-

tion in building societal equity and flattening

hierarchies. It requires reflectivity and holds strong

ethical implications for those who practice it. It

also holds a sense of urgency that changes must

happen and that people on the margins as well as

people with higher access to power and resources

must be involved. A core goal of anti-oppressive

games, then, is to inspire players to contribute to

equitable social change.

Game collective members and partners in-

terviewed for this chapter provided key starting

points to support equitable principles in game

and interactive design and development. These

guidelines only scratch the surface of the poten-

tial anti-oppression principles hold to transform

game design and development, especially games

that seek to expose unequal power dynamics in

society. Anti-oppression can support the process

of giving players space to re-envision a more eq-

uitable world, where, as Flanagan says, working

and fighting for equity, justice, and inclusion is

learned and practiced, where players are agents

of change who can create and share tools for

social change.

REFERENCES: LITERATURE

Adair, M., & Howell, S. (1993). Creating an

atmosphere where everyone participates. In Anti-

Oppression Reader (pp. 11-12). San Francisco,

CA: Global Exchange. Retrieved from http://www.

globalexchange.org/about/AO_Reader_2007.pdf

Bogost, I. (2007). Persuasive games: The expres-

sive power of videogames. Cambridge, MA: The

MIT Press.

Bureau of Justice Statistics. (n.d.). Homicide

trends in the U.S. Retrieved from http://bjs.ojp.

usdoj.gov/content/homicide/gender.cfm

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Chater, N. (1994). Biting the hand that feeds

me: Notes on privilege from a white-anti-racist

feminist. Canadian Women's Studies Journal,

14(2), 100–103.

Clifford, D., & Burke, B. (2008). Anti-oppressive

ethics and values in social work. Basingstoke,

UK: Palgrave Macmillan.

Collins, P. H. (1986). Learning from the outsider

within: The sociological significance of black

feminist thought. Social Problems, 33(6), S14–

S32. doi:10.1525/sp.1986.33.6.03a00020

Dalrymple, J., & Burke, B. (2006). Anti-oppressive

practice: Social care and the law. Buckingham,

UK: Open University Press.

Dibbell, J. (2006, February 7). Game from hell:

Latest plan to save Sudan: Make a

Dumbrill, G. C. (2003). Child welfare: AOP's

nemesis? In W. Shera (Ed.), Emerging perspec-

tives on anti-oppressive practice (pp. 101-119).

Toronto: Canadian Scholars' Press.

Dyer, R. (1996). The role of stereotypes. In Mor-

ris, P., & Thornham, S. (Eds.), Media studies:

A reader (pp. 245–251). New York: New York

University Press.

Exchange, G. (2006). Anti-oppression reader.

Retrieved from http://www.globalexchange.org/

about/AO_Reader_2007.pdf

Findlay, B. (1992). Breaking the colour code:

A white woman un-learns racism. Our Times,

11(4-5), 47–48.

Flanagan, M. personal communication, February

25, 2010

Friedman, S. personal communication, March

1, 2010

Frye, M. (1983). The politics of reality: Essays in

feminist theory. Freedom, CA: The Crossing Press.

Ganeva, T. (2009, November 17). 'Hit the bitch':

Domestic violence PSA goes very, very wrong.

AlterNet. Retrieved from http://www.alternet.

org/blogs/reproductivejustice/144018/%27h

it_the_bitch%27%3A_domestic_violence_psa_

goes_very%2C_very_wrong/

Gee, J. P. (2007). Pleasure, learning, video games,

and life: The projective stance. In Knobel, M., &

Lankshear, C. (Eds.), A new literacies sampler

(pp. 95–114). Bern, Switzerland: Peter Lang

Publishing.

Hall, S. (2003). The whites of their eyes: Rac-

ist ideologies and the media. In Dines, G., &

Humez, J. M. (Eds.), Gender, race, and class in

media (pp. 89–93). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage

Publications, Inc.

http://www.villagevoice.com/2006-02-07/

screens/game-from-hell/

Israel, B. A., Eng, E., Schulz, A., & Parker, E.

A. (2005). Methods in community-based partici-

patory research for health. San Francisco, CA:

Jossey-Bass.

Jenkins, H. personal communication, May 10,

2010

Jill. (2009, November 17). "Hit the Bitch"? Femi-

niste. Retrieved from http://www.feministe.us/

blog/archives/2009/11/17/hit-the-bitch/

Jiwani, Y. (1997, March). Culture, violence, and

inequality [Keynote speech]. FREDA workshop,

Violence against women: Meeting the cross-

cultural challenge, Vancouver, Canada. Retrieved

from http://www.harbour.sfu.ca/freda/articles/

culture.htm

Johnson, D. S. (2009). Webinar on 2008 income,

poverty and health insurances estimates from the

current population survey. Retrieved from http://

www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2009/

djohnson_remarks09iph_revised.html

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Power to the People

Joseph, B. personal communication, February

1, 2010

Komiotis, W. personal communication, March

1, 2010

Kondrat, M. E. (1999). Who is the "self" in self-

aware: Professional self-awareness from a critical

theory perspective. In Social Service Review (pp.

451–475). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago

Press.

Kristof, N. D. (2006, May 7). Heroes of Darfur.

The New York Times, p. 4.12.

Lopes, T., & Thomas, B. (2006). Dancing on live

embers: Challenging racism in organizations.

Toronto, CA: Between the Lines Press.

Mullaly, B. (1997). Structural social work: Ide-

ology, theory and practices. New York: Oxford

University Press.

Nichols, B. (2001). Introduction to documentary.

Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.

Pedercini, P. personal communication, February

24, 2010

Porter, A. (2006). Well meaning men … Breaking

out of the "Man Box". New York: A Call to Men.

Ruiz, S. personal communication, March 1, 2010

Shirky, C. (2005, October 21). Keynote. Presented

at the Games for Change conference, New York.

Sinclair, D. (2003). Overcoming the backlash:

Telling the truth about power, privilege, and op-

pression: Exploring gender-based analysis in the

context of violence against women: A resource kit

for community agencies. Durham Region, Ontario:

The Violence Prevention Coordinating Council.

Strier, R. (2007). Anti-oppressive research in social

work: A preliminary discussion. British Journal

of Social Work, 37 (5), 857–871. doi:10.1093/

bjsw/bcl062

Swain, C. (2010). The mechanics is the message:

How to communicate through the mechanics of

user action and system response. In Shrier, K., &

Gibson, D. (Eds.), Ethics and game design: Teach-

ing values through play. Hershey, PA: Information

Science Reference.

Thomson-DeVeaux, A. (2009). 'Hit the bitch'

game is supposed to deter domestic violence?

Care2. Retrieved from http://www.care2.com/

causes/womens-rights/blog/hit-the-bitch-game-

is-supposed-to-deter-domestic-violence/www.

hitthebitch.dk/

video game dramatizing Darfur. Village Voice.

Retrieved from

Winston, B. (1993). The documentary film as sci-

entific inscription. In Renov, M. (Ed.), Theorizing

documentary. New York: Routledge.

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ference. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

REFERENCES: GAMES AND

GAMES INITIATIVES

ArtsElectronic. (2002). The Sims.

Børn og Unge i Voldsramte Familier. (2009). Hit

the bitch. Retrieved from http://www.hitthebitch.

dk/

Rockstar Games. (2004). Grand Theft Auto: San

Andreas

Global Kids & Gamelab. (2006). Ayiti: The cost

of life. Retrieved from http://ayiti.newzcrew.org/

globalkids/

Kids, G. Creating leaders through experience.

Retrieved from http://www.globalkids.org/

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Power to the People

Kids, G., & Creations, D. (2009). Hurricane Ka-

trina: Tempest in Crescent City. Retrieved from

http://tempestincrescentcity.ning.com/game

La Molleindustria. Retrieved from http://www.

molleindustria.org/en/home

Metropolitan Action Committee on Violence

Against Women and Children. Retrieved from

http://www.metrac.org/

Metropolitan Action Committee on Violence

Against Women and Children, & Take Action

Games. (2007). RePlay: Finding Zoe/ReJouer:

Où est Zoé? Retrieved from http://www.metrac.

org/replay/index.html

Mollindustria. (2008). Oiligarchy . Retrieved from

http://www.molleindustria.org/en/oiligarchy

mtvU, Susana Ruiz, Huy Truong, & Ashley York

[collaboratively with colleagues from the Uni-

versity of Southern California, & InterFUEL].

(2006). Darfur is Dying. Retrieved from http://

darfurisdying.com/

PlayFirst. (2003). Diner Dash.

Take Action Games. (forthcoming). Balance

(Alexandria, Va.). Retrieved from http://www.

takeactiongames.com/tag/criminal_justice.html.

Take Action Games. Retrieved from http://www.

takeactiongames.com/TAG/HOME.html

Values at Play. Designing social values in computer

games. Retrieved from http://www.valuesatplay.

org/

World Bank Institute (Producer). (2010). EVOKE.

Retrieved from http://www.urgentevoke.com/

Designing Games for Ethics : Models, Techniques and Frameworks, edited by Karen Schrier, and David Gibson, IGI Global, 2010. ProQuest Ebook Central,

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275

Chapter 17

INTRODUCTION

Babies are in. Between the Octomom, Jon and

Kate, and the Jolie-Pitt brood, baby stories are

leading media sales (Washington, 2009). Often

missing from these stories, however, is the ever-

increasing use of Assisted Reproductive Technol-

ogy (ART) and the ethical complexities that come

with it. With new technological approaches to

reproduction, such as in-vitro fertilization, pre-

implantation genetic diagnosis, and the use of

sperm donors, egg donors, surrogates and gesta-

tional carriers, come emergent ethical situations.

Ethics, as a socially accepted notion of right and

wrong, have not yet been defined in the United

States as it pertains to ART. The field of fertility

medicine is one area among many in the modern

world where technology has vastly outpaced our

ethical, legal, and social systems leaving us in a

snarl of gray morality. We are becoming increas-

ingly aware of the physical risks that come with

the luxury to control the specific circumstances

The Doctor Will Be You Now:

A Case Study on Medical

Ethics and Role-Play

Nahil Sharkasi

University of Southern California, USA

ABSTRACT

In the eld of fertility medicine, technology has vastly outpaced our ethical, legal, and social frame-

works leaving us in a quagmire of gray morality. Seeds is a role-playing game and ethics simulation

about Assisted Reproductive Technology and its effect on 21st century medical decisions. Players play

the role of a fertility doctor and must make difcult ethical decisions through courses of treatment while

balancing economic, emotional, and scientic concerns. With Seeds, the goal is to foster meaningful

decision-making that may transfer from the game world into the real world through stimulating role-

play and by creating a safe space for exploration of ethical issues. This chapter offers critical reection

on the design choices made in the process of creating this ethical exploration space on the subject of

Assisted Reproductive Technology.

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60960-120-1.ch017

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276

The Doctor Will Be You Now

of the process of birth— chief among them

multiple births and pre-maturity (Mundy, 2007).

The rapidly growing population of parents and

caretakers of premature children, and children

conceived using ART, face unique challenges and

may benefit from a game experience that allows

them to explore these ethical issues.

At the core of each ethical conflict surround-

ing ART is the essential question of life and death

that resonates intimately with each individual.

Regardless of whether players have specifically

considered this topic before, everyone has an

opinion. The conflicts that arise from the avail-

ability of new reproductive technologies are

receiving more and more coverage in popular

media. While the drama unfolds—how many

embryos to implant, or which donor to choose,

this project, Seeds, specifically explores what it

would mean to more actively engage with these

ethical situations.

Ethics simulations are a niche in the field of in-

teractive media, and are becoming an increasingly

necessary tool to navigate the murky waters left in

the wake of speeding technological advancement.

Ethics simulation software is currently available

for training in corporate ethics, financial ethics,

biomedical ethics, and many other fields. Last

year, the United States Office of Government

Ethics developed their own ethical training soft-

ware CD-Rom based on their established ethical

training protocol (USOGE, 2009).. Laws often

represent a society's commonly agreed upon ethi-

cal standards, though legal codes cannot always

be equated to ethical codes. Like most ethics

simulation software, this CD-Rom uses some

multimedia and limited interactivity to teach users

a pre-determined code of ethical behavior, which

is already established by law. For example, in a

sexual harassment training simulation, the goal of

the experience is to clarify the established right

and wrong codes of behavior, even within socially

ambiguous situations.

In areas of emerging technology, however,

there are many ethical questions to which a right

or wrong has not yet been commonly agreed upon

and codified by law. Whereas the goal of many

current ethics simulations for established fields is

to direct audiences to a so-called correct answer,

role-playing games can provide alternative ways

of understanding and evaluating ethics (Simkins,

2010). There is an increasing need for a virtual

space for ethical exploration that lets the user

understand their own ethical decision-making

process and the implications of the choices they

make to help navigate areas like ART where new

technology yields emergent ethical conflict. Fur-

ther, the model for ethical exploration outlined

in this chapter may also be useful in revisiting

areas of established ethical codes, as well as with

emergent ethical codes.

In the next section, I will discuss my approach

to creating a virtual space for ethical exploration

in a role-playing game about fertility medicine

called Seeds. I will describe the game and my

design process, as well as my results and obser-

vations. Finally, I will discuss challenges I faced

and outline directions for future research.

SEEDS OVERVIEW

The challenge of using role-playing game me-

chanics in an ethics simulation emerged from

my graduate thesis project at The University of

Southern California's Interactive Media Division

with a game called Seeds. Seeds is a thought-

provoking, interactive experience that positions

players at the center of bio-ethical debate. Part

serialized medical drama, part online role-playing

game, Seeds prompts players to assess their own

beliefs to determine an ethical treatment solution

using Assisted Reproductive Technology. Through

engaging role-play in which players treat and di-

agnose infertility using controversial technologies,

players learn how each decision shapes their world

and the fate of the characters in it. By illuminating

some of the consequences of using ART, this game

could prove instructive for people facing some of

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The Doctor Will Be You Now

the real challenges these technologies give rise to

(Levitt, 2010). The goal of Seeds is to provide a

compelling narrative environment that facilitates

reflection and safe exploration of ethical issues.

I developed Seeds over the course of one

year with a team of graduate and undergraduate

students, and with fellowship funding from Fox

Interactive. Seeds was developed using Adobe

Flash and Flex and can be run as a stand-alone

Adobe Air application or in a web browser.

Where Seeds differs from other ethical simula-

tion software is in the fact that the ethical code

for the field of fertility medicine is emergent. In

other, more established disciplines, where the ethi-

cal standards are widely known and agreed upon,

the purpose of ethical training and simulation is

simply to educate the users on those established

ethical standards. In the United States, within the

field of ART, a sharp distinction between right

and wrong has not yet been fully established and

codified by law. The primary need is to better

understand the implications and consequences of

ART, rather than to train an audience on a code

of ethical behavior. Thus, Seeds is designed more

as a space for safe exploration of ethical issues

than a simulation that drives players to arrive at a

pre-determined conclusion. The goal of Seeds is to

spark an "Aha!" moment that lets the user under-

stand their own ethical decision-making process

and the implications of the choices they make.

Seeds utilizes standard role-playing game

structures: multiple characters (patients), quests

(treatments), resources (money) and inventory

(eggs, sperm, embryos). An embodied first-person

experience puts the player in the decision maker's

shoes for them to face making personal, gut-level

decision. Seeds begins with the premise that the

player is a new doctor at a top fertility clinic. The

player is asked by "The Board of Directors" to take a

survey as part of the new-employee paperwork. The

results of the survey cast the player as one of three

profile types, described in detail below. Next, the

game starts, and the player consults with patients,

treats them and follows-up with the results, making

critical ethical decisions at each step of the way.

Meanwhile the game system tracks each decision

the player makes and evaluates it to see whether

the player's behavior is consistent with his or her

beliefs as declared in the introductory survey.

GOALS AND MEASURES FOR

SUCCESS

When the goal of an interactive experience or

game is more than to entertain, game designers

Figure 1. A screenshot from Seeds

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The Doctor Will Be You Now

often invoke the notion of meaningful play. As

described by Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman,

meaningful play "occurs when the relationships

between actions and outcomes in a game are both

discernable and integrated into the larger context

of the game" (2003). The communicative and

persuasive power of a game lies in the game's

mechanics, or procedures (Bogost, 2007). While

the in-game procedures of Seeds are not faithful

representations of what a doctor does, they are a

comment on the mechanization of reproduction,

and are prompts for ethical reflection on conflicts

that are representative of conflicts outside the

game world. Miguel Sicart defines players of

computer games as ethical beings interested in the

actions and goals defined by a game's design and

therefore implicitly interested in "how that design

can affect our moral fabric as ethical players"

(2009). Whereas meaningful play is contextualized

within the "magic circle" of the game, meaningful

decision-making is about connecting the player

as an ethical being to the game world's actions

and consequences.

The goal of Seeds is to evoke not only mean-

ingful play, but also meaningful decision-making

that may suggest parallels between the game world

and the real world. The strategy employed in the

service of this goal draws parallels between the

fiction and actions of the game world that exist

within the magic circle to the conflicts and ac-

tions of the real world that the player inhabits.

Meaningful decision-making is a necessary ele-

ment of ethical reflection, and both meaningful

play and meaningful decision-making are best

fostered when contextualized within a rich and

immersive narrative world.

To address this objective, Seeds uses role-play

that involves the player's own personal beliefs.

The game system challenges those beliefs through

traditional role-playing game mechanics. The deci-

sions the player makes are then evaluated within

an ethical framework that is constructed accord-

ing to real ethical situations from the scholarly

literature in this field of medicine. The result is

an immersive narrative-driven game experience

that both educates and provokes thought without

leading players to a predetermined resolution.

There are several user cues and behaviors used

to evaluate whether or not each design decision

serves the goals of the project. The first is the

experience of the "yuck" factor.. The "yuck"

factor is described in this field of medicine as the

gut reaction against a particular decision, case, or

procedure, and is a key factor used to determine

the ethical soundness of treatment decisions (Kohl,

2007). Doctors rely on an elusive gut reaction

to inform their ethical choices, and if the player

experiences the same reaction, this indicates that

they are engaged with the content and the connec-

tion to the doctor role is successfully established.

The second cue is the "aha!" moment; an emo-

tional response that would indicate a revelation

or surprise where the game compels the player

to understand an ethical issue in a different way,

or change their mind. An "aha!" moment could

also result when the consequences in the game

reinforce the decisions made and strengthen a

player's convictions. The key in either case is an

emotional response that confirms that the player

is engaged and is somehow connected into the

network of responsibility in the game world.

In the next section, I will describe in detail

my approach to designing a way for players to

arrive at a point of ethical reflection created by an

emotional response to the content and game play.

METHODOLOGY FOR PROVOKING

ETHICAL DECISION-MAKING

The methodology used in Seeds to elicit emotional

response and ethical reflection has four parts.

First, the game assesses the user's ethical point

of view; second, it challenges that stance through

rich media; third, it solicits a response to that chal-

lenge; and fourth, it compares that response to the

initially declared ethical point of view.

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279

The Doctor Will Be You Now

Survey

Three opposing forces frame the ethical issues

surrounding Assisted Reproductive Technology:

scientific advancement, economic constraints,

and patients' desires (Hull, 2005). These three

vectors shape the exploration space of the game.

Upon starting the game, the player is asked by

"The Board of Directors" to take a survey assesses

the player's general point of view on some key

ethical issues surrounding Assisted Reproductive

Technology. Each of the choices to the multiple-

choice questions in the survey represents one of

these three opposing forces. Based on the survey

results, the player is assigned one of three player

profiles: The Entrepreneur, The Mad Scientist,

The Miracle Worker-as well as a mission state-

ment appropriate to that profile.

• The Entrepreneur believes fertility medi-

cine is a service industry where the cus-

tomer is always right.

• The Mad Scientist supports the advance-

ment of science, experimental technolo-

gies, and research.

• The Miracle Worker favors strong familial

relationships.

These profile types, as coarse as they are,

provide necessary boundaries for the explora-

tion of ethical conflict. The main function of this

survey is to calibrate the player's ethical position

to evaluate the decisions he or she makes, and

to determine whether they are indeed consistent

with their declared mission statement. This also

allows the system to track whether the player has

changed their mind over the course of play. The

tertiary function of the survey is to prime the player

to own the role and decisions he or she makes,

supporting the player's embodiment of the role.

The survey contains 8 questions that each cor-

respond to the ethical decisions the player will have

to make in the game. These questions touch on the

key areas of controversy in the field of Assisted

Reproductive Technology as outlined in Ethical

Issues in the New Reproductive Technologies, and

other literature.

These topics include:

• Right to treatment—Is reproduction an

inherent right? Should treatment be cov-

ered by insurance? Who sets the price for

treatment?

• Risky technologies—Should ART be

regulated?

• Donor anonymity—Does a donor's right

to anonymity trump a child's right to know

his or her biological origins?

• Third party parents (donors, surrogates,

gestational carriers) —what is the legal and

social status of these individuals? Does a

social, legal, or biological relationship take

precedent?

• How many embryos should be created in a

course of treatment? How many should be

implanted with each transfer?

Table 1. Phases of play in Seeds

Introduction Consultation Phase

(Act I)

Treatment Phase (Act

Results Phase

(Act 3)

4-part Methodology Survey Challenge Response Evaluation

Game Interface Player completes introduc-

tory survey.

Player watches consulta-

tion scene.

Player responds to prompts

and makes decisions about

treatment.

Player receives results

and feedback on his or her

actions.

Internal Mechanics System assigns player a

profile type based on survey

answers.

System delivers patient

cases that specifically chal-

lenge the player's profile.

System collects data on

each response.

System compares player's

pattern of decisions against

his or her profile type.

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The Doctor Will Be You Now

• When is the best time implant the embry-

os? An early, three day transfer is riskier.

Waiting until blastocyst stage (ve days)

is safer but could ultimately lead to more

disappointment.

• Selective reduction— is this practice ethi-

cal? Can you risk the life of one to save

many, or many to save few? On what ba-

sis can we selectively reduce a pregnancy

(gender, health, ease of access)?

• What to do with leftover embryos? Can

they be used for scientic research? Should

they be destroyed or kept frozen in perpe-

tuity? (Hull, 2005)

Challenge

Once the player's profile is established, the sys-

tem delivers custom content to challenge their

particular stance. For example, if a player in the

intro survey states that donor anonymity should

be outlawed, once the game starts that player will

receive a patient case with a compelling request for

an anonymous donor. These cases are presented as

integral stories told in three acts: 1) consultation,

2) treatment, 3) follow up, and presented using a

variety of media. The first act of each patient case

is told in a brief Consultation scene with actors

playing the patients. The second act, Treatment,

consists of interactive game play, and the third

act, Follow Up, is told in images and text with

mild interactivity.

Response

Once the player's ethical stance has been as-

sessed and challenged, the final step is to codify

and systematize their reactions, and the risks and

rewards associated with each decision. In uphold-

ing the design goal of creating a safe space for

ethical exploration, it is vitally important that the

game's reward system not reflect the designer's

own personal ethical stance. Rather than simply

rewarding morality points for some actions over

others, the system is entirely context specific,

ensuring that ethical decisions can be evaluated

differently depending on what the player's mission

statement is. The player's pattern of behavior is

tracked and each decision is tallied into the score.

One conceit of the game is that the player, as

the doctor, is the sole decision maker. In reality,

the critical decisions featured in the game are

made by doctors, patients, sperm and donors, and

a variety of other stakeholders. For the purpose

of maintaining a compelling single-player experi-

ence that exposes the player to a range of ethical

decisions, the game assumes that the doctor has

the final say, and the patients will always agree

with the doctor's recommendations.

Evaluation

An essential part of the player feedback system

is meaningful consequences for each action taken

in the game. Each action deserves a substantial

reaction from the game system, however all

actions are not weighted equally. The game's

evaluation system is based on ethical and legal

frameworks currently in use in this field, such

as the guidelines issued by the UK's Human

Fertilization and Embryology Authority (Deech

and Smajdor, 2007). Each decision in the game

is evaluated by the game system for both its

magnitude, such as how many people it affects,

and directionality, such as which profile type the

decision favors. For example, a decision to sup-

port the donation of leftover embryos to scientific

research involves a group of people, such as the

family, doctors, and researchers, and favors the

Mad Scientist player profile, while a choice of

an open donorship involves only the family and

favors the Miracle Worker profile. These decisions

are then aggregated and compared to the profile

type chosen by the player.

The game becomes more complex when play-

ers make choices counter to their declared profile

and mission statement. Once the system satisfac-

torily tracks and evaluates each ethical decision,

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The Doctor Will Be You Now

the next challenge is to provide feedback and

consequences so that the player feels the weight of

their actions in the world. Players receive feedback

in the form of letters from the Board of Directors,

which either congratulate them for upholding the

mission statement or reprimand them for diverging

from it. When a player's decision pattern skews

too far in one direction, the player is presented

with consequences in the form of news events or

correspondence from non-player characters, for

example, a headline related to recent game actions

that may have positive or negative implications

for the player. Again, it is important that the game

not steer the player to make one decision over

another, but provide an engaging environment to

make different decisions and see the repercussions

for those decisions in world.

In the next section, I will describe the internal

logic of the system for weighting and evaluating

ethical decisions made in the game.

MECHANICS OF ETHICAL

EVALUATION

The treatment phase of the game, also the sec-

ond act in each patient case, is where the player

practices his or her ethical decision-making. The

game's evaluation system is influenced by the

ethical and legal frameworks currently in use

in this field, such as the guidelines issued by

the UK's Human Fertilization and Embryology

Authority (Deech and Smajdor, 2007). Ethical

decisions are classified as having consequences

in personal, professional, group, and government

arenas (Hull, 2005). Each decision in the game is

weighted based on sphere of influence, and how

many people it affects (See Table 2).

Each ethical decision in the game is tracked

with three indices for each of the three profile

types. Each decision is evaluated on which profile

type it favors as well as by how many people it

affects. The treatment phase of game play intro-

duces the use of an ethical decision-making

weighting matrix (Table 3). The matrix assigns

point values to each decision in the game accord-

ing to level of impact of the decision, and which

profile type it favors. For example, a decision in

favor of the Mad Scientist profile that only has

impact on a personal level is valued at +1 (a deci-

sion that just passes the Yuck test), while a deci-

sion that impacts governmental policy, such as a

life-defining policy decision, is valued at +4.

Conversely a decision that hinders the cause of

the Mad Scientist on the Government level would

receive a -4, and a decision that doesn't pass the

Yuck test is given a -1.

The first decision the player makes in consult-

ing with a new patient is the decision to accept

or reject the patient for treatment. The only infor-

mation the player is given at that point is narrative

information about the patient. The game is solic-

iting a pure gut-reaction, and this decision should

be made purely based on the player's personal

feelings. Since financial information does not

factor into this decision, it can be classified as a

decision that only affects the personal sphere. In

applying the above-mentioned ethical framework

as a weighting system, a personal decision has

less weight than a professional, group or govern-

ment decision. The "accept/reject" decision is

weighted as either a positive or negative 1, given

which profile type the case naturally favors.

Table 2. Weighting decisions for level of impact

Level of decision's impact Point value weight

Decision For Government +4

Group +3

Professional +2

Personal +1

Neutral 0

Decision

Against

Personal -1

Professional -2

Group -3

Government -4

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The Doctor Will Be You Now

The second decision the player impacts on

a professional level. After accepting a patient,

the player must then prescribe a treatment. The

player is given two options for treatment. Each is

described in terms of how much revenue it will

generate for the clinic and what the likelihood

of success is. This decision is about balancing

economic concerns and professional concerns,

while still not violating a player's personal gut

choice that made them accept the patient in the

first place. The choice of treatment is weighted

at a positive or negative 2.

Once a course of treatment is prescribed, the

next set of decisions is about considering the family

as a group. This is called the Check List phase,

and is where the player verifies that the patient

has all the right components in order to proceed

with treatment. The ethical decision presents itself

if the patient requires the use of a sperm or egg

donor, surrogate, or gestational carrier. When third

parties are involved in the reproductive process,

the consequences can often be unpredictable for

the doctor who may, in some cases, be held re-

sponsible for facilitating the relationship. In the

Check List phase of the game, the patient has two

ethical choices to consider: the donor agreement

and the choice of donor.

The donor agreement is the contract that details

the relationship the donor is to have with his or her

offspring. In the real world brokers, or agencies

outside the medical establishment often negotiate

this contract, but for the purposes of including this

Table 3. Ethical decision making weighting matrix

Decision Entrepreneur Mad Scientist Miracle

Worker

1 Accepting a patient** -1/+1 -1/+1 -1/+1

Rejecting a patient* -1/+1 -1/+1 -1/+1

2 Prescribing experimental technology 0 +2 -2

Prescribing more expensive treatment +2 0 -2

3 Choosing Donor Anonymity 3 3 -3

Choosing Open Donorship -3 3 3

Choosing Delayed Disclosure 0 0 3

4 Harvesting the maximum number of gametes 3 3 -3

Harvesting the minimum Number of gametes -3 -3 0

5 Fertilizing the maximum number of eggs -3 3 -3

Fertilizing the minimum number of eggs 3 -3 3

6 Choosing 3 day transfer 3 -3 -3

Choosing blastocyst-stage transfer 0 3 3

7 Choosing to selectively reduce a multiple pregnancy 4 0 4

Choosing not to selectively reduce a multiple pregnancy 0 0 -4

Reducing a multiple pregnancy to a single 4 0 4

Reducing a high-order (quadruplets +) multiple pregnancy to low order

multiples (twins, triplets)

4 0 4

8 Keep Leftovers Frozen 4 0 4

Donate to Science -4 4 -4

Donate to Adoptive Family -4 -4 4

Destroy 0 -4 -4

* The specific value of these decisions depends on the nature of the patient case, and which profile would favor it.

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The Doctor Will Be You Now

important ethical choice in the game, the player

is asked to advise his or her patient on a donor

agreement. The three choices are 1) anonymity,

2) open donorship, and 3) delayed disclosure. In

choosing anonymity, the player is effectively plac-

ing the rights of the customers, the parents, above

the rights of the child. This decision is weighted

positively for the Entrepreneur and Mad Scientist

profiles, because studies show that anonymity

encourages donation (Mundy, 2008). In choosing

open donorship, the player is supporting a child's

right to know his or her biological parent. This

decision is weighted positively for the Miracle

Worker profile and negatively for the Entrepre-

neur. Choosing delayed disclosure is somewhat

of a middle ground, it is considerate of a donor's

privacy for a limited time, but ultimately favors

a child's right to know his or her genetic origins.

This third choice is weighted as a neutral for the

Entrepreneur and Mad Scientist and positively

for Miracle Worker. Regardless of the choice, the

decision is based on a consideration of another

person or small group, and is thus weighted with

a positive or negative 3.

Similarly, the decision of how many eggs to

retrieve and fertilize, how many embryos to trans-

fer, and when to transfer them is most relevant to

the patient family as a group, so this decision is

also weighted as a positive or negative 3.

The decisions in the remaining portion of

the treatment cycle, through the Conception and

Results phases, are weighted the highest, with a

positive or negative 4 because of their relevance to

an ongoing national dialogue on the nature of life

and death, and have implications for policy deci-

sions in those areas. These decisions are weighted

much more heavily because of legal precedents

that link fertility medicine to the abortion and

end-of life debates.

One of the most common risks of Assisted Re-

productive Treatment is the possibility of multiple

pregnancy. When a patient has multiple embryos

implanted successfully or an implanted embryo

unexpectedly splits (as becomes increasingly

common with age) (Mundy, 2008), the doctor

and patient are faced with the difficult decision of

selective reduction. They must consider, especially

in the case of high order multiples, reducing the

pregnancy to ensure the health of the mother and

the remaining embryos. In the game, if a patient

has a multiple pregnancy, the player has the choice

to reduce or not, and is also asked on what basis to

choose the fetuses that will be reduced—gender,

health, or location in the uterus.

The final ethical decision in the treatment cycle

comes up after a positive result is achieved from

IVF treatment. As multiple embryos are often cre-

ated in the process, the player must advise his or

her patients on what to do with left-over embryos.

There are four choices: keep them frozen, donate

them to science, donate them to adoptive families,

or destroy them. Each choice has advantages and

disadvantages for each profile type. For example,

donating leftover embryos to adoptive families

is favorable to the Miracle Worker but not to the

Mad Scientist who would rather use the excess

embryos for research. Destroying leftover embryos

seems like a waste to the Mad Scientist and the

Miracle Worker, but to the Entrepreneur it's seen

as the elimination of a liability.

In the next section, I will describe how the

above described ethical evaluation system is

employed to issue consequences to the player for

his or her actions.

ETHICS AND CONSEQUENCES

Ethical game play arises when the game world

responds to the player's values, and the player is

positioned within the "network of responsibility

of the game" (Sicart, 2009). Consequences tie

the player to the game world and the network of

responsibility. The evaluation process described

above is hidden from the interface, and feedback

on the player's ethical choices and behaviors is

presented in terms of consequences. Periodically

throughout the game, when a pattern of behavior

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The Doctor Will Be You Now

emerges (i.e., behavior favoring one profile be-

comes dominant), the player is given feedback

about the decisions he or she has been making.

There are two tiers of consequences in Seeds:

the player level and the level of the game world.

On the player level, the system tracks the ethical

decisions made in the game, and periodically as-

sesses whether or not they are consistent with the

player's profile. If the two scores are consistent,

and the player indeed is acting according to his

or her stated beliefs, he or she is awarded a finan-

cial bonus from the clinic's Board of Directors.

If, however, the player's pattern of decisions is

inconsistent with his or her stated profile—if the

self-declared Miracle Worker is behaving more

like an Entrepreneur, for instance—the player

takes a financial penalty accompanied by an ad-

monition from the Board of Directors. This penalty

or bonus is small and serves less to encourage or

discourage specific choices, but rather to point

out to the player what their beliefs and choices

might look like if manifested in real scenarios.

The second tier of consequences is in the game

world. News Events arise periodically from the

game world indicating what the world would be

like if the decisions the player has supported were

proliferated throughout society. For example, if

a player consistently decides against anonymous

donorship, he or she might get a News Event that

anonymous donorship has been outlawed.

An advantage of playing through different

ethical decisions in a virtual space is the abil-

ity to compress time, and explore the diverse

consequences of different choices. In Seeds, the

consequence of making one ethical choice over

another is framed as pushing the game world's

ethical position towards the worldview of one

of the profile types. I wanted to be careful not to

impose my own opinions on the content, but to

allow the player to use the game system to see

what would happen if everyone in the world made

the same decisions they had made in the game.

Consequences in this game are not inherently

positive or negative, but are relative to the player's

profile and the choices he or she has made.

As a formal game element, consequences ap-

pear like chance cards in Monopoly. Every so often,

the player is dealt a consequence event that carries

a financial penalty or bonus, or other rule change.

As a narrative element, it appears in the player's

in-game inbox as a news article, message from

a colleague, or other correspondence. If a player

consistently chooses an open donor agreement

for his or her patients, he or she might receive a

consequence event with a headline declaring that

anonymous donorship has been abolished and sub-

sequently the inventory of donors has decreased.

The system tracks which profile type the player is

most closely following, and issues consequence

events related to the worldview that each profile

represents. For example, the Entrepreneur favors

a world with an unregulated fertility industry; the

Mad Scientist favors a world with government

funding for human embryo research; the Miracle

Worker favors a world with laws that support and

protect children and families.

In the next section, I will discuss the challenges,

as well as the positive and negative results of the

design decisions described above.

ENHANCING A POSITIVE

PLAY EXPERIENCE

Many designers who create games whose goal is

to educate or inform (sometimes called Serious

Games) face the challenge of reconciling these

goals with player's expectations of having an

entertainment experience when playing a game.

Though it may not be appropriate for this type of

game to be "fun" in the same way many enter-

tainment games are fun, the experience must be

engaging, and the reward structures must encour-

age continued engagement with the system.

By the time of the second round of playtests,

all the ethical content points had been incorpo-

rated, but balancing the content with compelling

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The Doctor Will Be You Now

game play remained a challenge. In the initial

playtests of the paper prototype, the probability

of successful treatment in each patient case had

been set at 60% to 90%. In reality IVF usually has

a 30% probability of success per cycle. As much

as ART has become a game of skill and resources,

conception still holds an undeniable random ele-

ment that needed to be represented in the system.

The question presented itself: can a game still be

engaging if there's only a 30% chance of success?

Paper-prototyping was re-introduced at this stage

to try to reach a design that would simulate a 30%

success rate and avoid frustrating game play. First

a statistical 30% for each round over multiple

rounds was tested without much improvement

on the original design. In the next attempt, the

probability of success was increased slightly each

round, so that by the fourth round, the player had

a 75% chance of achieving a positive result. This

solution was a little more satisfying to the player

but still lacked a strong enough sense of agency.

In the next iteration of tests, a more nuanced

approach to calculating success rate included the

specifics of the patient case factored in with the

user's inventory (power ups) and experience (the

player's success rate). The quality of the sperm,

egg, and womb each comprise 30% of this score;

5% was given to power-up inventory items such as

fertility drugs, new equipment, etc.; and 5% was

given to the player's own success rate indicating

the doctor's experience in the game. This became

known as the Check List Score in the game. The

science on infertility supported this breakdown,

but it still did not give the player much agency.

To address the problem of user agency, I

decided to introduce a series of skill-based mini-

games that simulate the various reproductive

technologies featured in the game: In Vitro Fer-

tilization (IVF), Intra-uterine Insemination (IUI),

and Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI). Each

game presents a variation on a targeting or shooting

mechanic, whether the player are targeting eggs

in petri dishes, sperm cells under a microscope,

or an egg traveling down a fallopian tube. The

simple mechanic is a rhetorical comment on the

mechanization of reproduction and makes players

Figure 2. A screenshot from Seeds related to IVF

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The Doctor Will Be You Now

aware of the doctor's hand in the reproductive

process where ART is used.

The results of treatment would be decided by

a combination of statistical data and performance,

giving the player much more of a sense of agen-

cy than would a simple dice roll. The mini-games

also provide a break from the rhythm of the game,

creating a more dynamic and varied experience.

The success or failure of a patient's treatment

would be calculated by multiplying the mini-game

score by the Check List Score mentioned above.

The Check List Score was turned into a percent

value that is used as a multiplier for the mini-game

scores.

The scoring system for each mini-game is

slightly different depending on the mechanic. The

IVF mini-game is an inverted shooting gallery

where the player must inseminate eggs in Petri

dishes as they move along a conveyor belt. In

this case, the final results would be calculated as

follows: if the patient's checklist score is 85%,

each of the Petri dishes that the player successfully

targets would be given an 85% chance of survival.

The system would generate random numbers for

each, and calculate how many embryos were

successfully created.

The Intrauterine Insemination (IUI, also known

as Artificial Insemination) mini-game uses a more

standard shooting mechanic where the player must

target a single, slowly moving egg at the right time.

Once again, the patient's checklist score would

be multiplied by the player's accuracy score in

the mini-game, which would in turn be used to

calculate final results.

Another challenge of creating a positive play

experience while staying true to the content and

balancing the ethics goals of the project was

providing rewards for each unique player profile.

Was it sufficient to have money be the key scoring

mechanism in the game and reward system? The

Entrepreneur player type would certainly play to

earn the most money, but what would motivate

the other two profile types?

To address this, other achievements and narra-

tive awards were incorporated that would appeal to

other player types. To appeal to the Mad Scientist

profile, the content of the game inventory was

adapted into reward badges and achievements so

this player profile could be rewarded with new

equipment, technologies, and scientific honors.

A Mad-Scientist player who would be motivated

by these rewards, rather than focusing on earning

money to purchase these items and thereby behav-

ing out of character, could focus on the aspects

of game play that he or she finds compelling and

subsequently be rewarded for that.

Similarly, to appeal to the Miracle Worker

player, narrative rewards in the "Baby Wall"

feature. Almost all fertility clinics display pho-

tographs of patients who have been successfully

treated along with their new children. In the game,

when a patient is successfully treated, their pho-

tos go up on the Baby Wall. Players can visit the

Wall at any time and review their achievements.

Clicking on the photos in the wall also reveals a

flash-forward-style follow-up that tells the final

chapter in the patient's story, so players can con-

tinue to visit with patients as time passes. This

is also another way to illustrate consequences

on a smaller scale than the formal consequence

events, but still keeps the player involved with

and responsible for these characters.

The user interface of Seeds is presented as a

first person view of an office, with interface ele-

ments representing items that might be commonly

found on a doctor's desktop such as and email

inbox and patient files. The player is meant to

feel like doctor and what he or she sees on screen

is what the player character would see seated at

his or her desk in the game world. In addition,

during playtests and presentations, players have

been given the option of wearing lab coats. The

embodied first-person experience increases the

player's subjectivization as the agent in the game,

and thus increases the player's installation in the

player character role (Sicart, 2009). This subjec-

tivization is key for both the ludic experience of

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The Doctor Will Be You Now

the game, but also for the player to own his or her

actions as an ethical player.

DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

The project has been through three phases of

development. The first stage of development

consisted of paper prototype. The second phase

of development saw the implementation of the

system developed with the paper prototype in a

digital form. The integration of the ethics meth-

odology also happened in the second phase. The

third phase of development was about refining

the digital prototype and testing the methodology.

Paper Prototypes

The first iteration of Seeds was developed as a

paper prototype that was played by teams with an

emphasis on discussion and cooperative decision-

making. The goal was to see if the narratives based

on research with fertility specialists and patients

were compelling enough to sustain engagement

in the system. The focus was on the potential

for episodic narrative and dramatic suspense to

motivate game play.

In the first playtest, three teams of two people

each played. They first agreed on a name for their

clinic and a mission statement. Asking players to

first agree on something helped established a core

game mechanic and inviting them to customize

their clinic added a sense of ownership that adds

to the weight of the choices.

Each team was asked to keep track of their

revenue and success rate. On each turn a folded

slip of paper was distributed to each team. The

first paper revealed the first act of each patient

story, the Consultation. It also indicated a dol-

lar amount for revenue and a percentage for the

probability of success. The teams were asked to

read the consultation and decide whether or not

to take the case. If they decided not to take the

case, it was thrown into the center for another

team to pick up. After they made their decision,

they were dealt another patient. The turn lasted

five minutes, and scores were tallied at the end.

At the end of the turn, each team calculated the

revenue they had received from each patient, and

then began "treatment."

In this early paper prototype, treatment con-

sisted of a random draw of a coin out of a bag,

given the statistical probability for success for that

patient. The treatment phase introduced a branch-

ing narrative, where the next act of the story was

revealed and would be different depending on

positive or negative results. After all the patients

in the round were treated, teams were assessed

based on which had earned the most money, and

which team had the highest success rate. Winning

teams were rewarded with 'follow up' points,

limited resources they could use in subsequent

rounds to reveal the final act of each patient arc.

The goal was that players would seek the follow

up points so that they could learn the final act of

each story.

The results of this early play test provided a

proof of concept for player engagement in ethical

decision-making. In deciding whether to accept

or reject patients, players were considering the

mission statement they had declared during game

set up, and basing their decision on those criteria.

This was an important moment that informed the

use of mission statement and the design for the

decision evaluation system in the final digital

game. Players were indeed engaging in social

discussion within the team. Players also found

the narratives compelling, and were successfully

motivated by the desire to reveal each successive

act of the patient's story.

One unanticipated mode of play emerged out

of the discussion of patient stories. Players began

to discuss other similar stories that they had heard

in the news. They were asked to write down the

stories in the same format as the patient profiles

and those were added to the deck for the next

round of play testers. As a result, the addition of

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The Doctor Will Be You Now

user generated content feature was subsequently

incorporated into the final design.

Digital Prototypes

The first playtests confirmed that the content

was compelling, and it did map well onto a game

system. The system that emerged began to seem

more and more like a role-playing game system.

More elements from the role-playing game genre

were added, including an inventory of machines,

drugs, and technologies that could improve the

probability of successful treatment. Inventory

items could then be purchased with the money

earned. The three specific aforementioned player

roles were defined, each with their own mission

statement, and unique ability.

This increased detail and specificity made for

more interesting game play, but it did not address

issues of player agency, and ethical choice. The

random assignment of positive or negative results

of treatment left players feeling unsatisfied. After

researching the subject further, the simplicity of

basing the success/failure outcome of treatment

on one statistic was both unsatisfying and untrue

to the sophistication of the science and system

being modeled. To avoid creating a manage-

ment simulation about running a fertility clinic,

ethical decisions and consequences need to be

incorporated into the game's core mechanic. The

complexity of the treatment phase of the game

was increased to match the content, specifically

by including all the key ethical decisions that a

doctor and patient would have to consider in the

course of fertility treatment.

Testing

Seeds was developed using an iterative process,

with informal testing integrated at each stage of

development. In the ongoing formal testing of

the methodology for ethical game play, behav-

ioral cues from the players supported what the

research suggested—that role-play and emotional

engagement with rich content is a sound strat-

egy for encouraging ethical reflection. If, upon

responding to the ethical challenges each patient

posed, players developed a play pattern that was

inconsistent with their profile type, and the players

recognized their behavior in the new play pattern,

the system is working.

Proof of concept for this project came early

on during the paper prototyping phase. During a

playtest, a player self-identified as an Entrepre-

neur, believing solidly that, like any other medical

service, fertility medicine was primarily a busi-

ness. She began by accepting all lucrative patients

regardless of their low probability of success. By

the fifth patient, her behavior suddenly changed,

and she began rejecting patients with low prob-

abilities of success, stating that she was "feeling

like slime" for taking advantage of patients and

giving them false hope. The player confessed to

changing her mind about one aspect of Assisted

Reproductive Technology.

Players often voiced a conflict between their

own beliefs and the beliefs of the character role as

they understood it. Though the performance of the

Entrepreneur, Mad-Scientist, or Miracle-Worker

role sometimes influenced how players made

decisions during the game, this also provided an

experience to explore a point of view that was not

their own. During a later playtests of the digital

prototype, one player exhibited a struggle with

the introduction survey. With each question, she

vocalized what she thought the "correct" answer

was, though her personal opinion differed. This

illustrates recognition of an ethical debate with

multiple valid points of view. This player was

profiled as a Mad Scientist upon starting the

game. After losing money early in the game, she

began to consistently prescribe the more expen-

sive treatments. Her play pattern cast her as the

Entrepreneur profile type. Similarly, another play

tester who was profiled as a Miracle Worker type

at the start of the game, found herself playing more

like the Mad Scientist, when she wanted to her

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The Doctor Will Be You Now

patient to donate her leftover embryos to science,

rather than have them adopted.

As players are confronted with more developed

characters, rendered in video and images, as well

as text, players were less inclined to reject patients

casually illustrating an emotional connection to the

characters and the ethical struggles they present.

Where players do consistently reject patients, it is

because of a clearly stated moral objection. This

at least proves that players are ethically engaged

in the content.

FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS

As testing continues, it has become apparent that

the project would benefit from a more sophisti-

cated method for assessing player's ethical point

of view at the start of the game. A method that

captures the nuance of each ethical conflict and all

the gray areas in between the three major vectors

outlined in this iteration of seeds may provide for

a more credible and stimulating experience. The

three profile types currently featured in the game

represent the primary archetypes and viewpoints

in this field of medicine. Expanding upon these

three roles and increasing the level of detail and

nuance would enrich the experience.

Future possibilities for expanding on Seeds

also include further developing the narratives

featured in the game. Further, developing the

patient characters and their narrative could also

increase empathy for the characters and enrich the

experience. Similarly, the addition of rich non-

player characters, or a return to the social play

model tested in the early phases of development

may also increase the level of engagement

Further, as the methodology for ethics evalu-

ation continues to be rigorously tested, it may

prove useful to apply this methodology to other

fields of study with emergent ethical conflict,

such as financial ethics or military ethics, to better

understand where the strengths and weaknesses

of this methodology lie, and if it indeed is an

improvement on ethical simulation software as

it stands today.

CONCLUSION

Assisted Reproductive Technology allows us to

create life in ways that have never before been

possible, however the long-term risks involved

in using this technology are not fully understood.

The fertility industry is largely privatized and un-

regulated. Profit motives lead to rapid growth and

sometimes irresponsible and reckless treatment

of patients. Also, as a consumer industry, doctors

are often compelled to honor patients' requests,

even where they conflict with the patients' best

interest. These three forces map very clearly onto

traditional role-playing game elements. Players

earn money by treating (or cheating) patients.

Doctors advance science by taking risks, and

putting your patient first may help or hurt you.

Each patient the player treats presents a unique

ethical conflict, and within each treatment cycle

the player must make an array of decisions ranging

from choosing donors to what to do with left over

embryos. Regardless of what a player's ethical

stance is upon entering the game, there is enough

provocative material to challenge a wide range of

beliefs. Also, knowing the player's profile allows

us to customize the experience so that that we can

challenge their specific beliefs.

Further, few of the currently available ethics

simulation software products take advantage of

the natural affordances of interactive digital media

and the game literacy of modern audiences. Role-

playing games, for instance, focus on developing

characters through experience, accumulating

wealth and status, and managing resources or

inventory (Fullerton, 2008). Map the real world

concerns of growing a business and personal

character growth to this type of framework and

you have a natural fit for an ethics simulation

game. In this case, however, rather than leveling-

up the status of your player character, you would

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The Doctor Will Be You Now

be developing your own moral character. Digital

games, virtual spaces, and interactive media

are commonly used to place the user in another

character's shoes, to experience his or her world

and conflicts from a designed point of view. As

a passive spectator it is easy to pass judgment on

the right or wrong choice, or the obvious ethical

choice given a particular narrative. Actions, how-

ever, speak louder than words. Ethical choices are

simply easier said than done.

As the ethical complexity of our world in-

creases, so does the need for our instructive and

entertainment media to engage that complexity.

For centuries people have used drama to engage

and discuss ethical struggle. Interactive media has

the capacity to not only involve us directly in the

drama, but more deeply into the ethical conflict.

By feeling, rather than watching, the dramatic ten-

sion over these ethical questions, we may better

prepare ourselves to answer these questions when

we come to face them in our own lives.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The author would like to thank her thesis advi-

sors Professors Tracy Fullerton, Steve Anderson,

and Topper Lilien of The Univeristy of Southern

California's School of Cinematic Arts, as well as

Laird Malamed, Senior Vice President of Produc-

tion, Activision. This project was funded by a

fellowship from Fox Interactive.

REFERENCES

Bogost, I. (2007). Persuasive games: The expres-

sive power of video games. Cambridge, MA: The

MIT Press.

Deech, R., & Smajdor, A. (2007). From IVF

to immortality: Controversy in the era of

reproductive technology. Oxford, UK: Ox-

ford University Press. doi:10.1093/acprof:o

so/9780199219780.001.0001

Fullerton, T. (2008). Game design workshop.

Burlington, MA: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers.

Hull, R. T. (2005). Ethical issues in the new re-

productive technologies (2nd ed.). Amherst, NY:

Prometheus Books.

Kohl, B. (2007). Embryo culture: Making babies

in the 21st century. New York: Farrar, Straus and

Giroux.

Levitt, P. (2010). USC Zilkha Neurogenetic Insti-

tute. Interview taken on February 3, 2010.

Mundy, L. (2007). Everything Ccnceivable: How

assisted reproduction is changing our World. New

York, NY: Anchor Books.

Salen, K., & Zimmerman, E. (2003). Rules of

play: Game design fundamentals. Cambridge,

MA: The MIT Press.

Sicart, M. (2009). Ethics of computer games.

Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

Simkins, D. (2010). Playing with ethics: Expe-

riencing new ways of being in RPGs. In Schrier,

K., & Gibson, D. (Eds.), Ethics and game design:

Teaching values through play. Hershey, PA: In-

formation Science Reference.

United States Office of Government Ethics.

(2009). Technology saves time and money in eth-

ics training. Retrieved December 10, 2009, from

http://www.usoge.gov/ethics_docs/agency_mod-

el_prac/tech_saves.aspx

Washington, A. T. (2009, February 18). Babies,

pregnancy, grab media's glare. Washington Times.

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291

Chapter 18

INTRODUCTION

Within the following chapter we use two simu-

lation games to focus on better understanding

ethical ambiguities that arise from the design and

play of games whose themes and content relate

to contemporary social and political conflict.

Building upon Shaffer, Squire, Halverson and

Gee's (2005) argument that games are "...most

powerful when they are personally meaningful,

experiential, social, and epistemological all at the

same time" (Shaffer, Squire, Halverson & Gee,

2005, p. 3), we believe a specific subset of games—

simulations—offer particularly rich and textured

opportunities to explore the ethical ambiguities of

design and play. As game designers and research-

ers, we borrow our definitions of simulations from

Aldrich (2006, 2004), de Freitas (2006), and Frasca

Games, Ethics and Engagement:

Potential Consequences of Civic-

Minded Game Design and Gameplay

Sharman Siebenthal Adams

University of Michigan-Flint, USA

Jeremiah Holden

InGlobal, USA

ABSTRACT

This chapter examines ethical ambiguities confronted by the design and play of serious games focused on

civic engagement. Our ndings derive from our examination of two educational simulation games that

focus on contemporary issues related to social and political conict. We believe game simulations are

complex in nature and offer particularly rich environments for cognitive learning. Within the following

chapter we examine the relationship between games and learning, specic approaches to game design,

and the ability of games to encourage civic engagement. While we found that game participants gained

knowledge of curricular content and practiced democratic skills during their experiences with the online

simulations, there also occurred unintended consequences. In turn, we believe it is critical to analyze

deeper ethical ambiguities related to the consequences of civic-minded game design and gameplay and

support research efforts to further recognize and expand upon the development and research of serious

games involving civic-minded educational online simulations.

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60960-120-1.ch018

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292

Games, Ethics and Engagement

(2003), noting that participants in these types of

games adopt and interact through defined roles,

often work collaboratively, solve problems based

upon real-world dilemmas, and are immersed in

virtual and in-person experiences with outcomes

not easily categorized by wins and losses. Having

created and studied games and simulations, we

believe that when the dynamics of design and play

intersect, the opportunities for learning are as rich

as the possible ethical conflicts are complex. As a

result, we argue that the importance of games to

learning is deepened when the ethical ambiguities

associated with design and play are studied and

better theorized. In particular, it is our hope that

the present research contributes to a growing dis-

cussion about the importance of learning, games,

and ethics as applied to serious games involving

civic-minded simulations.

In this chapter, we first exam and substanti-

ate our position on the type of game 'play' found

within our case studies. In doing so we delve

into the role of serious games and the triad that

exists between ludology, narratology, and affect.

Examination of this triad sets up analysis of our

work further by first pulling apart the importance

of the third component of the triad, that of affect.

In turn, we examine important aspects of affect

related to game design and gameplay to further

substantiate our research work on civic-minded

game design and gameplay. These include; (1)

the relationship between games and learning, (2)

specific approaches to game design, and (3) the

ability of games to encourage civic engagement.

Following these sections, our research describes

and analyzes two case studies involving educa-

tional online simulations that focus learning on

civic engagement through participants' exposure

to simulations that place individuals in ethically

challenging contexts. These case studies are The

Arab Israeli Conflict (AIC) and First Wind (FW).

Findings from these two case studies are then

presented in the form of intended and unintended

consequences that affect both game designers and

players. Following summation of our findings, we

offer important avenues for scholars to consider

in terms of potential future research involving

serious games and the inclusion of civic content

and action. Finally we provide concluding remarks

in the form of ethical concerns that we believe

should be considered by game designers, play-

ers, and individuals who use serious games for

learning purposes.

Defining Gameplay

Once thought of as simply opportunities for "play,"

games have proven to be far more complex than

initially given credit. As Malaby (2007) points

out, it is often our misinterpretation about the

power of games that impedes our greater under-

standing of these resources. One salient entrance

into our examination of ethical ambiguities and

game simulations begins with Frasca (2003) and

her discussion of ludology, the formal discipline

of game studies. While primarily concerned with

introducing ludology within contexts of game

authorship and narrative, Frasca differentiates

between the design of games and the design of

simulations as experiences for "experimentation

where user action is not only allowed but also

required" (Frasca, 2003, p. 229). Building upon a

discussion of ludology, Simkins and Steinkuehler

further posit that working in combination, "...

the triad of ludology, narratology, and affect can

help us understand how story, play, and feeling

intertwine to create effective gameplay" (Simkins

& Steinkuehler, 2008, p. 19).

As we move to examine the second aspect of

the triad, we see that narratology within the role

of game design and gameplay is described by the

differences between "narrauthors" and "simau-

thors" (Frasca, 2003). Within contextual settings

where "winning" a game is seen as a primary

objective, and threat of loss is a motivation for

rigidly defined success, games are designed by

narrauthors who base their narratives upon fixed

sequences of cause and effect events. Alternatively,

games that allow for different degrees of fate, or

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Games, Ethics and Engagement

possibilities of outcomes, are akin to simulations

and are designed by simauthors. Importantly,

simauthors "'educate' their simulations: they

teach them some rules and may have an idea of

how they might behave in the future, but they

can never be sure of the exact final sequence of

events and result" (Frasca, 2003, p. 229). The

ambiguity surrounding unknown events and re-

sults derives from a key characteristic of simula-

tions–the role of rules. As Frasca notes, "Rules...

can be manipulated, accepted, rejected and even

contested" (2003, p.229). Consequently, simau-

thors become similar to legislators who "craft

laws," as "they do take more authorial risks than

narrauthors because they give away part of their

control over their work" (Frasca, 2003, p. 229).

We agree with Frasca and believe that simulations,

the simauthors who design them, and the events

of play all have complex relationships related to

rules, control, and outcome. Indeed, we propose

it is because simulations invite rule negotiation

and the relinquishing of control that they become

ripe locations for the study of learning, games,

and ethics involving civic engagement.

The third portion of Simkins and Steinkuehler's

triad, affect, guides game designers and players

in their ability to further effect the game itself.

It is this aspect of the triad we feel most greatly

impacts the following two case studies. Simkins

and Steinkuehler (2008) note that the "...ability to

make choices that affect the game world is one of

the most basic in creating opportunities for ethi-

cal decision making" (Simkins & Steinkuehler,

2008, p. 16). As a result they argue that their "...

first criteria for fostering ethical decision mak-

ing within the context of a game is fairly simple:

Player choices must have the potential to effect

change in the world of which they are a part"

(ibid, p. 16). Within the case study portion of

this chapter, we describe and analyze two cases

of educational online simulations that illustrate a

variety of ethical conflicts associated with affect,

and most notably the effects of game design and

play. In critically examining this area of research, it

is necessary to first review three important aspects

of affect related to game design and gameplay: (1)

the relationship between games and learning, (2)

specific approaches to game design, and (3) the

ability of games to encourage civic engagement.

Games and Learning

During the past few decades researchers have seen

increased scholarship related to the educational

value of games; from who plays games and what

is played, to how games are played and designed,

to where games are played (including within

school environments) to myriad connections

between games as social media and their role in

digital literacy. Games can now be defined as "…

applications using the characteristics of video and

computer games to create engaging and immer-

sive learning experiences for delivering specified

learning goals, outcomes and experiences" (de

Freitas, 2006, p. 9). As a result, games are now

recognized as "…more than a multibillion-dollar

industry, more than a compelling toy for both

children and adults, more than a route to computer

literacy, videogames are important because they

let people participate in new worlds" (Shaffer,

Squire, Halverson & Gee, 2005, p. 105).

While we do not concentrate on proving

whether games should in fact reside within social

or educational contexts, or a mix of both, it is

worth citing Gee's argument that the "...theory

of learning in good videogames is close to...best

theories of learning in cognitive science" (Gee,

2007, p. 4). As a result, we argue that this anal-

ogy also applies to simulation games and while

many would acknowledge that there are in fact

both "good" games and "good" school learning

environments, the opposite of both is also pos-

sible. Further, it is not only possible, but prob-

able, that one could envision a poorly designed

and/or underutilized game as much as a poorly

planned and/or under-implemented classroom

curriculum; one or both of these scenarios may

not in fact support strong learning practices. Gee

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Games, Ethics and Engagement

argues that "...good videogames build into their

very designs good learning principles and that

we should use these principles, with or without

games, in schools, workplaces, and other learning

sites" (2007, p. 214).

Because games allow players to think, talk, and

act in new ways (Shaffer et al, 2005), educational

videogames and simulations are frequently being

utilized in school settings as "...learning happens

best when learners are engaged in learning by mak-

ing, creating, programming, and communicating"

(Bers, 2008, p. 145). Bers (2008), Kafai (2006),

and Peppler and Kafai (2007) have built upon

Papert's (1981, 1980) long argued stance about

the differences between "constructionist models

of learning" and "instructionist models of learn-

ing," with the former placing learning more in

the hands of the learner. Games and role-playing

simulations allow for constructionist learning,

providing students as players with strong identities,

the opportunity to see the world in new ways, and

"a real sense of agency, ownership, and control"

(Gee, 2005, para 7). Additionally, game cultures

feature participation in a collective intelligence,

are designed to foster knowledge through creative

productive acts (Squire, 2008), emphasize exper-

tise rather than status, and promote international

and cross-cultural media and communities (Squire

& Steinkuehler, 2005). The educational benefit of

constructionist games and simulations as learning

experiences is well documented (de Freitas, 2006;

Gee, 2008, 2005, 2004; Squire, 2006; Games for

Change (n.d.); Papert 1981, 1980).

Since Clark C. Abt's Serious Games (1970),

game studies researchers have increasingly ex-

amined the intentionally designed educational

purposes of games in contrast to more traditional

understandings of games as activities played

primarily for amusement. Bogost's Persuasive

Games: The Expressive Power of VideoGames

(2007) defines serious games as "videogames

created to support the existing and established

interests of political, corporate, and social insti-

tutions" (Bogost, 2007, p. 57). In turn, serious

games engage learners, keep motivation for

gameplay high (de Freitas & Griffiths, 2007),

and have led to the emergence of communities of

practice that share practical knowledge in pursuit

of social change.

Despite growing acceptance that videogames

and simulations proactively contribute to learn-

ing, some scholars have contested the ability

of educational videogames to produce concrete

learning outcomes and suggest that if the impact of

computer games is to shift from malign to benign,

issues of learning versus play, transference of game

knowledge to other contexts, and the surrounding

social environment must be concretely addressed

(Egenfeldt-Nielsen, 2005).

With respect to ongoing discussions about the

relationships between games and learning, this

chapter examines the ethical ambiguities resulting

from games designed to support civic content and

action while generating constructionist learning

experiences.

Approaches to Game Design

The overall importance of game design is evi-

denced by the fact that serious games have become

rigorously "designed experiences," capable of

achieving a variety of educational objectives,

including recruiting diverse interests, promoting

creative problem solving, creating productive acts

such as game modification and modeling, and es-

tablishing digital literacies that produce meaning

and tangible artifacts (Squire, 2008). If serious

games are to serve a purpose greater than play

and amusement, effective design elements must

guide players' specific behaviors and attitudes,

as well as influence the substantial relationship

between players and game knowledge.

Squire (2006) argues that a game's learn-

ing objectives, whether perspective-taking or

creative problem solving, are dependent upon

a game designed and sustained by "powerful

constraints" that promote engagement and foster

learning (Squire, 2006). Such powerful constraints

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Games, Ethics and Engagement

acknowledge the thoughtful approach taken to

serious game design, an approach aptly summa-

rized by Squire and Jenkins (2003); "Ultimately,

educational game design is not just about creating

rules or writing computer codes; it is a form of

social engineering, as one tries to map out situa-

tions that will encourage learners to collaborate

to solve compelling problems" (p. 30).

Collins and Halverson (2009) cite Squire's

research on the game Civilization, noting that

students who played strategy games based upon

history began to "...check out books on ancient

cultures and earn better grades in middle school"

(2009, p. 132). Gee argues that gamers are required

to "...draw on resources that reside in other gamers

and their associate websites, and social interac-

tions, resources such as strategy guides ('faqs'),

cheats, boards, game modifications, magazines,

review sites, Local Area Network (LAN) parties,

and even schoolyard trading of Pokemon secrets"

(Gee, 2007, p. 8). Effective and intentional game

design can encourage a variety of learning activi-

ties, from reading broadly across a range of related

fields (Squire & Jenkins, 2003), to the self-initiated

research gamers are motivated to engage so as to

improve game performance (Gee, 2007).

While some have noted that "we are a long way

from having tapped the full pedagogical potentials

of existing game hardware and design practices"

(Squire & Jenkins, 2003, p. 30), designers and

researchers have begun to proactively address the

question; "How do good game designers manage

to get new players to learn long, complex, and

difficult games?" (Gee, 2004, p. 15). One possible

answer to Gee's query is to approach game design

through a framework sensitive to and supportive

of specific values. Both simulation case studies

examined within this chapter were significantly

influenced by the role of values as an influence

upon the design process. In terms of design, the

creation of certain serious games can be analyzed

using the Value Sensitive Design (VSD) frame-

work, a methodology that examines the relation-

ship between human values and computer systems.

Historically, the VSD framework emerged from an

interest concerning the inclusion of human values

in the design of computer systems such as digital

media. VSD primarily focuses upon "enduring

human values" (Friedman, Kahn & Borning,

2006, 2001), values such as autonomy, welfare,

and accountability–and how these personal

orientations are incorporated into the technical

development and design of interactive technolo-

gies. Accounting for human values in the design

process by integrating ethical considerations

in development, for example, is accomplished

through the VSD approach (Friedman, 1997).

The methodological approach to game design

offered by VSD is useful for examining various

elements and dynamics central to serious games

as educational technologies, and aligns well with

the two simulations examined within this paper.

In addition to gameplay that encourages com-

petitiveness and perseverance, a game's content

or play might be designed to promote a set of

values aligned with equality, conflict resolution,

and advocacy–values directly associated with the

ideals and practices of an engaged citizen. Game

creators and researchers Flanagan and Nissenbaum

(2007) argue in favor of such a complementary

relationship between game design, values, and

civic-mindfulness, demonstrating how game

design may inherently incorporate certain social

and civic values. Educational technologies such

as serious games can promote values and engage-

ment "to which the surrounding societies and

cultures subscribe. These values might include

liberty, justice, inclusion, equality, privacy, se-

curity, creativity, trust, and personal autonomy"

(Flanagan & Nissenbaum, 2007, p. 2). In turn,

serious games can be designed to offer play ex-

periences promoting distinct sets of values, and

as such value orientations may directly encourage

role-play and democratic skill building in support

of civic engagement.

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Games, Ethics and Engagement

Videogames and Civic Engagement

As game designers and players, we are encouraged

by the opinions of individuals such as Michael

Mino, director of the Education Connection's

Center for 21st Century Skills, who believes that

"if we have any hope of saving the real world from

real problems, we must embrace teaching students

through computer games and virtual simulations"

(Libby, 2009, p. 2). As games studies researchers,

however, we must critically examine such hopes

by further investigating the possibility of games

that may lead students towards "saving the real

world from real problems." Scholars such as

Bennett (2008) have examined the relationship

between digital media and civic engagement,

noting the emergence of new paradigms such

as "Actualizing Citizens" who demonstrate a

higher sense of individual purpose, personally

define meaning associated with civic acts such as

consumerism and volunteering, and favor loose

networks of community action maintained by

interactive technologies.

Critics, however, have questioned how tradi-

tional or novel conceptions of civic engagement

may be related to or supported by games. Given

such concerns, our research draws upon current

interest regarding videogames and civic engage-

ment. In addition to designing games to promote

democratic and civic values (Flanagan & Nis-

senbaum, 2007; Flanagan, Howe & Nissenbaum,

2008), games may be designed to include content

that is political in nature–such as the activities

and tasks characterized by the two simulations

within this chapter. Importantly, research has

now confirmed that the processes of gameplay,

regardless of whether game content is specifically

political, can promote dispositions towards civic

engagement (Lenhart et al., 2008). In regards to

our present research, we define civic engagement

gameplay as play that is based upon civic content

such as politics, economics, and society; play that

encourages democratically oriented skills such as

communication, negotiation, and problem solv-

ing; play that fosters responsibility to co-create

the game; and play that provides advocacy op-

portunities.

Research by Jenkins (2007a) and Jenkins,

Clinton, Purushotma, Robison and Weigel (2006)

has documented how digital, internet-based games

and other media represent one concrete means to

facilitate and engage in interactive participatory

cultures that support artistic expression, informal

mentorship, collaboration and sharing, social con-

nections, and civic engagement. More specifically,

virtual environments and games may be designed

to provide "access to a wide range of informa-

tion and resources, communication mechanisms

for engaging in critical debates, and tools for

supporting collaboration and for enabling new

expressions of social life, [and] they can serve

as powerful platforms for developing educational

programs to promote civic education" (Bers, 2008,

p. 141). The process of playing digital videogames,

especially those games whose content explicitly

relates to political and social issues, parallels the

dynamic and complex nature of the real world and

real problems, and "understanding [these social

and political problems] involves analyzing cause

and effect, multiple viewpoints, and rapidly shift-

ing scenarios. Games easily mirror this fluidity"

(Platoni, 2009, p. 1). Indeed, the growing rela-

tionship between games and civic engagement is

further inspired by the belief that our society can

"reimagine the relationship between participatory

culture and participatory democracy, embracing

new political language and images that mobilize us

as fans as well as citizens" (Jenkins, 2007b, p. 1).

The ability of digital videogames to mobilize

players as citizens invested in civic engagement

is highlighted in the recent Teens, Videogames

and Civics (Lenhart et al., 2008) study. This study

offers a mixed assessment related to specific civic

engagement indicators such as following politics,

persuading others how to vote, contributing to

charities, volunteering, or staying informed about

politics and current events, and reveals some

encouraging signs related to the relationship

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Games, Ethics and Engagement

between videogames and teenage civic engage-

ment. Some critics noted that the study found no

positive correlation between the frequency of

gameplay or amount of time spent playing games

and a significant increase in civic and political

outcomes. However, findings did confirm that:

Certain kinds of gameplay do appear to foster

higher levels of civic engagement. The social

context of gaming offers opportunities for "civic

gaming experiences," in which players have op-

portunities to help or guide other players; learn

about problems in society; think about moral or

ethical issues; help make decisions about how a

simulated community, city, or nation should be

run; and organize game groups or guilds. (Perkins-

Gough, 2009, p. 94)

Perhaps the most significant finding of the

Teens, Videogames and Civics study relates to these

"civic gaming experiences." Study participants

who identified themselves as encountering these

types of gaming experiences "sometimes" while

also having several experiences "frequently"–a

full 25 percent of all respondents–reported "much

higher levels of civic and political engagement

than teens who have not had these kinds of ex-

periences" (Lenhart et al., 2008, p. 75). Specifi-

cally, these game players were "more likely to go

online to get information about politics or current

events, to raise money for charity, to say they are

committed to civic participation, to express an

interest in politics, to stay informed about current

events, and to participate in protests, marches, or

demonstrations" (Perkins-Gough, 2009, p. 94).

Findings related to civic gaming experiences were

statistically significant for all eight of the civic

outcomes considered (Lenhart et al., 2008), and

have been further supported by additional studies

confirming that videogame play can lead towards

civic engagement (Library Technology Reports,

2009a, 2009b). Similar to the constructionist edu-

cation tradition helping to establish meaningful

relationships between learning and videogame

play, so too has research begun to prove a positive

relationship between games and civic engagement.

CIVIC ENGAGEMENT THROUGH

GAMEPLAY: TWO CASE STUDIES

Overview of Cases

We believe games are more than playful distrac-

tions or theoretical exercises in narrative construc-

tion; rather, they can be designed to introduce

players to real world problems through content

and play processes that are serious, a benefit to

learning, and a means to engage in civic action and

discourse. To design and study games as experi-

ences central to constructionist learning processes,

we draw upon Malaby's (2007) analysis of the

relationship between games and society. Writing

about games as social artifacts characterized by

process, Malaby notes, "Ironically, it is how we

have sought to account for what is remarkable

about games by setting them apart (as play-spaces,

as stories) that is the largest roadblock to under-

standing what is powerful about them" (Malaby,

2007, p. 96). We wish to remove that roadblock

and place games front and center in a discussion

concerning learning, play, ethics and real world

civic engagement. The following two case studies

aim to demonstrate how power and meaning are

generated as games promote civic engagement and

create ethically ambiguous consequences related

to principles of design and practices of play.

As game designers and researchers, we inves-

tigate simulations that draw upon a tradition of

constructionist education, invest players in solv-

ing problems based upon real world social and

political conflict, and—we hope and believe—

encourage civic engagement and mindfulness.

Simulations, unlike some games, allow players

to "replay" history (Collins & Halverson, 2009;

Squire 2008, 2006), and this "replay" factor is of

particular importance as it can repeatedly expose

students to content about political and social

conflict, and allow for repetitive participation in

play processes and game activities that encourage

civic engagement and discourse. Additionally,

the play of simulations—which we believe is

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Games, Ethics and Engagement

both powerful and valuable for learning–is, as

noted earlier when discussing Frasca's (2003)

distinctions between narrauthors and simauthors,

textured with dynamics of control and negotia-

tion. Consequently, gameplay of these interactive,

educational experiences is inherently ethically

ambiguous.

Just as the simulations we describe offer players

opportunities to adopt and interact through various

roles, the authors have themselves "played" many

roles in the creation, implementation, and study

of each simulation. These roles included game

player, mentor to other players, administrator and

designer, developer and programmer, professor,

research supervisor and finally research assistant.

Following the presentation of these two case

studies, we offer a comparative analysis related

to learning, civic engagement, and the ethical

conflicts and consequences that arose from design

and play processes.

Case Study One: The Arab

Israeli Conflict (AIC)

The Arab Israeli Conflict (AIC) is a web-based

game that simulates geopolitical crises and ne-

gotiations associated with various Middle East

conflicts. Hosted for nearly two decades by the

University of Michigan Department of Education's

Interactive Communications and Simulations

(ICS) group, teams of students are assigned roles

as politicians and other influential government

and cultural leaders who work together in coun-

try and organization-specific teams to role-play

a variety of political, economic, and social sce-

narios through online interactions. For example,

three students may play a team representing the

Israeli government, with students role-playing the

prime minister, foreign minister, and chief mili-

tary commander, while another team of students

represents the United Nations and various offi-

cials within that organization. Nearly two-dozen

teams, comprised of students at K-12 schools in

numerous countries around the world, play the

various countries, international organizations,

and political entities critical to the negotiation of

conflict throughout the Middle East. Amongst

its goals, AIC exposes players to civic-minded

social studies content such as history, politics, and

culture while simultaneously managing the use

of this content in simulated teamwork and com-

munication challenges that facilitate processes of

conflict resolution and non-resolution.

Before the play of AIC begins, participating

students prepare for gameplay by conducting

research about the political figures whom they

will be role-playing, the countries they are repre-

senting, historical events critical to understanding

tensions within the region, and policies that cur-

rently shape society and governance in the

Middle East. After preparation concludes, play

begins for a period lasting approximately ten

weeks. While AIC is based upon real world cir-

cumstances, once gameplay begins only decisions

and events internal to the game change the course

of action. For example, were a real world Syrian

politician to be wrested from office due to scandal

a week after play commenced, the role of the

politician within AIC would remain unchanged.

As students communicate and propose actions in

the best interest of their countries, organizations,

or political entities, various groups of adults sup-

port and facilitate the progress of play. Classroom

teachers provide immediate assistance with both

content and decision-making, and an additional

group of advisors comprised of faculty and stu-

dents at the University of Michigan provide

technical assistance, guidance in strategy, and

determine final actions within the game.

When looking specifically at the interactions

between players, AIC is characterized by a variety

of play patterns. These forms of interaction occur

both in-character, as students play various politi-

cians and government officials, as well as out-of-

character, as students make decisions based upon

their own ideas or motivations when working with

their country teams. In-character communication

most frequently occurs online as students commu-

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Games, Ethics and Engagement

nicate with other teams by sending communiqués

between characters (a simplified form of email),

write and publish press releases to a game-wide

audience in order to report on events or comment

upon policy proposals (similar to blog posts), and

submit action forms (a plan outlining a team's

proposed action), which, upon approval from a

game mentor, determine actions related to various

game scenarios. Out-of-character communication

most frequently occurs offline between players

on the same country team, and is often related

to decisions about the game content and future

interactions with other characters and teams.

Case Study Two: First Wind

First Wind, also a web-based game, simulates the

economic supply chain of product creation and

consumption as these processes relate to fair labor

and globalization. First Wind was developed in

partnership between the University of Michigan-

Flint's Masters Level Global Program: Technology

in Education, and the Fair Labor Organization

(FLA), an international nongovernmental organi-

zation dedicated to ending sweatshop conditions

(Fair Labor Association, 2008). The game was

named after the real world Chen Feng silk factory

outside Shanghai, China, a factory itself in partner-

ship with the FLA. First Wind was piloted for a

single semester in the spring of 2008 between four

teams of high school and college students in five

different locations throughout the United States.

Teams of players were assigned to various roles

in the supply chain, including factory workers and

managers, business executives, code compliance

officers from the Fair Labor Association, and

American consumers. The goal of First Wind was

to provide players with opportunities to construct

understandings of economic and political issues,

negotiate the complexities of globalization and

Figure 1. A screenshot from AIC that shows an example of the game

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Games, Ethics and Engagement

fair labor, and encourage the translation of learn-

ing experiences into advocacy for social change.

Like AIC, First Wind began with weeks of

preparation as players researched issues and sta-

tistics related to labor, production and consump-

tion, learned about the political and economic

history of China, and researched the history and

policies of fair labor practice. Players also all

learned about the Fair Labor Association and its

role as arbiter of compliance code, policy, and

business partnership related to international fair

labor standards. Play in First Wind was structured

around successive rounds of interaction, with each

of the four role-groups leading a weeklong round.

Rounds began with a specific action initiated via

interactive tools based upon a design structure

similar to that of AIC, where action forms proposed

a single event or a series of events to alter game-

play within a round, and press releases reported

on actions or policies to the entire game com-

munity. Once one role-group began a round with

an action, the three other groups reacted to the

initial action, establishing cause and effect inter-

actions between players and teams. Actions and

their related communications and press releases

began, sustained, and concluded weeklong rounds

of play, all of which were guided by classroom

teachers serving as simulation facilitators. After

completion of four rounds of play, players re-

flected on lessons learned and created a fair labor

best practices document suitable for submission

to the FLA and real world businesses as a form

of political and economic fair labor advocacy.

Online player interactions and communication

in First Wind were distinguishable between those

that were distinctly in character versus those that

were considered out-of-character. In character

communication was facilitated online through

messages using a simplified email system much

like that of the aforementioned AIC communiqués.

Such messages allowed players to communicate

with other teams in order to discuss events and

send messages to fellow role-group members to

help in decision-making processes. In character

communication also occurred off-line as players

worked as a team to make decisions about game-

play, such as submitting action forms or writing

press releases. Out-of-character communication

also occurred both online and offline. Online, out-

of-character communication took place within a

reflection forum (modeled after typical blog posts)

that allowed players to comment on the progress

of the game throughout the four rounds of play.

Semi-structured reflection questions facilitated

this out-of-character communication within the

reflection forum. Offline out-of-character com-

munication occurred as players commented on the

progress of the game and reflected upon conse-

Figure 2. A screenshot from FW that shows an example of the game

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Games, Ethics and Engagement

quences of action and patterns of interaction that

emerged over the four rounds of play.

Similarities of Games Encouraging

Civic Engagement

We define civic engagement as play based upon

content related to politics, economics, and society;

play that allows for the practice of democratic

skills such as communication, negotiation, and

problem-solving; play that encourages a sense of

responsibility to co-create the game; and play that

provides game-based and real-world opportuni-

ties for advocacy. The following chart outlines

similarities of game-based civic engagement

that exists across AIC and FW. Similarities of

civic content and action included play with civic

content, democratic skill building, co-creation of

gameplay, and civic engagement opportunities.

Case Study Methodology: Game-

Based Civic Engagement

Our case study methodology draws upon the

qualitative research work of Miles and Huberman

(1994), as well as a variety of narrative analysis

devices that constitute what Lincoln and Guba

(1985) call an "audit trail." Constructing audit

trails for both AIC and FW occurred over many

months, and in one case over many years, and

included field notes, participants interviews,

digital audio recordings, digital video recordings,

and reflection and process notes. The following

examples of game-based civic engagement draw

from this primary research, with information

about play and patterns of interaction in AIC

from Kupperman (2002) and in FW from Chao

and Holden (2008). Each are salient instances of

engagement with civic content and action, and

Table 1. Comparing characteristics of AIC and FW

Characteristic/

Game

Playing with Civic

Content

Democratic Skill-Building

Through Play

Responsibility to Co-

Create the Game

Opportunities for Civic

Engagement

The Arab Israeli

Conflict

Players wrote proposals

and actions with best in-

terests in mind, selectively

analyzed data and history

to support political agendas,

manipulated allegiances and

international governance or-

ganizations, and introduced

facts or reports to create

bias and/or support of play

actions.

Players debated actions, pro-

posed solutions, and solved

problems while working

as a team. They also com-

municated, negotiated, and

resolved conflicts with those

who disagreed, both on-line

and off-line and between

their own teammates and

across other teams.

Players actively introduced

content, made decisions

based upon interpretations

of content, and produced

strategies in order to win.

Winning required the re-

sponsibility of creating

innovative strategies. Also,

players initiated advocacy

and introduced negotiation

to manage content and game

interactions.

Players advocated for policy

positions and specific action

plans, argued in support of

agendas and policies with

both team members and with

members of other country

teams. Advocacy was seen

as an essential component

of successful strategy.

First Wind Players manipulated civic

content to fit the "world

view" of specific group role.

Players both disregarded and

promoted the importance of

selective content and back-

ground information. Players

and teams relied upon hierar-

chical systems of economic,

social, and political power,

whether real or imagined.

The action and reaction,

cause and effect, structure

of the four-round game

provided unique engagement

with the democratic practices

of negotiation and commu-

nication. This trial and error

approach to problem solving

and conflict resolution paral-

leled democratic processes

of decision-making used in

a variety of simulated and

real world contexts.

Players had a responsibil-

ity to test and implement

effective strategies as the

four-round structure of

play allowed players to

reflect upon the successes

and failures of actions.

This provided repetitious

"replay" opportunities to

advocate for policies and

actions, and further enforced

cyclical learning processes

that players created, owned,

and controlled.

Participants were provided

with formal advocacy oppor-

tunities post game play after

having developed fair labor

best practices. These best

practices were presented to

the Fair Labor Association

and, in turn, real world busi-

nesses invested in practicing

and promoting fair labor as

one aspect of a commitment

to greater corporate social

responsibility.

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Games, Ethics and Engagement

are indicative of similar play experiences that

occurred throughout both games.

The four characteristics and similarities of

simulations encouraging civic engagement from

Table 1 are each highlighted with an example from

either AIC or FW. Given predominant similarities

in design and play between the two simulations,

the following examples note instances of play

that were particularly salient to a characteristic

of civic engagement.

Playing with Civic Content in First Wind

Participants in FW engaged, manipulated, and

reflected upon play with civic content. A scenario

established before gameplay was referenced as

a starting point for action and exposed players

to the impact of economic policy and instability

through a fictitious crisis involving the Organiza-

tion of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

Summaries of four rounds of FW play reveal an

influence on team choices and decision-making.

The first round was characterized by unilateral

decision-making regarding regulations for product

consumption and distribution, with the factory

and brand each creating new independent busi-

ness partnerships to increase sales. Round two

focused upon the impact of economic and health

care policies on factory workers and consumers,

ultimately resulting in decreased sales and a new

brand-initiated company partnership. The third

round centered upon negotiations concerning

product volume, commitments towards the use

of alternative energy and increased health care

benefits, and greater consumer confidence. The

fourth and final round revealed fair labor code

compliance violations, resulting in corporate

social responsibility proposals and charges of

manipulation and fabrication.

Reflections made by FW participants, after

each round, further support the engagement

individual players had with civic content and

realistic and constructed notions of economic,

political, and social power. Data from participant

transcripts illustrate interaction patterns revealing

how decisions were made as students continued

to play with civic content. A reflection after the

fourth round by a player of the brand team em-

phasized how playing with civic content involved

selective use of data and manipulation of strategy

within fluctuating hierarchies, resulting in deci-

sions intentionally aligned to an ideal win state:

Player 3: "When I'm trying to manipulate or

figure out how to win, I'm thinking about how to

get over the factory workers, and how to slip by

the FLA and I guess I should also want to please

my consumers but I feel like I don't think about

that unless I feel threatened by them. I assume

they'll always be there ready to buy from me un-

less they're like, 'Amazon,' and then I'm like, 'Oh

no no no, wait, wait, wait."

Democratic Skill-Building through

Play in The Arab Israeli Conflict (AIC)

By playing with civic content, participants in AIC

developed a fluency in the practice of certain demo-

cratic skills. Democratic skill-building occurred as

participants debated actions within team groups,

chose courses of action, made recommendations or

demands to other teams, negotiated solutions, and

engaged processes of conflict resolution and non-

resolution. By developing and experimenting with

certain democratic skills, players' actions aligned

to civic values such as equality and independence

reflected by their broader society and culture.

Throughout the course of the simulation, players

and teams in AIC refined the use of democratic

skills, established more effective interaction and

win strategies, and increased investment in play

based upon civic content.

The prevalence of democratic skill building

through play is illustrated by a post-simulation re-

flection by a player concerning the effectiveness of

negotiation. The following example demonstrates

a player, and that player's team's, struggles with

various dynamics associated with negotiation

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Games, Ethics and Engagement

processes, including effective communication,

goal development, and resolution:

As Ehud Barak, Israeli prime minister, it was

imperitive [sic] that the Israeli team constantly

negotiate with many teams in order to accomplish

any of our goals. Despite numerous attempts

to negotiate with many teams, we had trouble

negotiating. There was one main reason for this.

Many countries could not specifically state their

demands or goals, and this made it very difficult to

negotiate. Although Israel was willing to negotiate

with many countries, we were unable to since the

countries we wanted to talk to would not provide

us with specific goals which we could work from.

If countries did provide specific goals, they usually

addressed a separate topic, not the one currently

being discussed. In the one case where a country

provided very specific and tangible goals, they did

not represent the aims of there own country, but

that of three others. Therefore, it was impossible

to work with that country.

Co-Creation of Gameplay in The

Arab Israeli Conflict (AIC)

It is worthwhile returning to Frasca (2003) to

emphasize that the nature of simulations given

their design is one in which it impossible to "be

sure of the exact final sequence of events and

result" (Frasca, 2003, p. 229); simulations, by

definition, require students to take responsibility

in co-creating the game. Participants in AIC did

so actively, co-creating the events and outcomes

of gameplay based upon their knowledge and in-

terpretation of geopolitics and history, experiences

with conflict and negotiation, and individual cre-

ativity. Through individual communications sent

between players and actions initiated by teams,

the simulation's design afforded those participat-

ing in AIC unique opportunities to determine the

direction of gameplay, raise and debate policy,

and create an environment within which to make

their own decisions.

A communication sent by a student role-playing

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak to Syrian For-

eign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa is illustrative of

game co-creation. In this example, the broad issue

of security in the Golan Heights is discussed in

relation to five specific measures. The decision to

include and emphasize these measures, however,

was initiated through student-centered research

and decision-making, just as the broader focus

on negotiating Golan Heights security was an is-

sue co-created by participants through play. The

communiqué reads in part:

I believe we need to first focus on small details,

and not on solving the entire Golan Heights prob-

lem. Israel would first like to discuss the issue of

security. We believe that before anything can be

done in the heights the issue of security needs to

be resolved. Therefore, Israel would like to provide

some of the security measures that we would like

to see in the area, and that we can talk about in

our negotiations.

1. Israel would like to keep our early warning

station in the region.

2. Israel would like a peace keeping force oc-

cupy the area after Israel has left, UN or

otherwise.

3. Israel would like a new demilitarized zone

in the Golan Heights.

4. Cooperation from Israel and Syria to control

terrorist and militant groups from travelling

through the area into either of the countries.

5. All citizens living in the Golan Heights to

comply to strict security measures.

I believe that by negotiating on these measures

can lead to further negotiations dealing with the

entire Golan problem. Lets us negotiate about

security, and let us meet soon.

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Games, Ethics and Engagement

Civic Engagement

Opportunities in First Wind

Following gameplay, participants in each FW team

created a role-specific best practices document for

use in real world civic engagement activities. For

example, students who role-played the Entemo

brand executives reflected upon their gameplay

and then created a document highlighting corpo-

rate social responsibility and the protection of fair

labor. Students concluded that, "A company that

values corporate social responsibility will integrate

visionary executive leadership and collaborative

corporate governance into its business practice."

Similarly, students who role-played Fair Labor

Association code compliance officers stated, "A

successful relationship between a factory and the

Fair Labor Association (FLA) should demonstrate

effective communication, stakeholder involve-

ment, and transparency." These best practices

documents extrapolated game-based experiences

to real-world dynamics of a globalized economy.

Significantly, these documents were then shared

with real-world business owners and representa-

tives from the Fair Labor Association, providing

participating students with an opportunity to share

lesson learned while advocating for economic,

business, and social policy in an authentic civic

engagement activity.

AIC and FW offer the field of game studies

important findings related to game design, game-

play, gaming as civic engagement, and ethics.

AIC and FW successfully demonstrate how to

incorporate content related to political and social

conflict in game design. The games also encour-

age sustained civic engagement and advocacy

through accessible, user-friendly platforms and

play experiences. These characteristics, however,

also present ethical concerns evidenced by various

intended and unintended consequences associated

with game design and gameplay.

ETHICAL ISSUES,

CONTROVERSIES, AND

PROBLEMS: INTENDED AND

UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES

The following section is divided into two sub-

sections; the intended consequences found

across both gameplay and game design, and the

unintended consequences that researchers found

analyzing participant use of The Arab Israeli

Conflict (AIC) and First Wind (FW).

Intended Consequences

The intended consequences of gameplay and

design may result in ethical conflict as students

engaged real world problems and realistic sce-

narios constructed and facilitated by the game.

1. Game design characteristics promoted the

practice of democratic skills as participants

played each game. The games forced players

to practice a "messy" process of decision-

making that included interacting with other

players and teams, in turn requiring com-

munication skills, negotiation tactics, and

engagement in simulated civic processes.

The design of both games dictated that par-

ticipants become part of democratic process

through their practice of what Swain (2007)

describes as "wicked problems." This pro-

cess of play was neither easy nor "clean,"

and encompassed a complex set of ongoing

and to-be-determined outcomes that arose

from complex interactions and that could

frequently conflict or become ethically

challenging.

2. Engagement with civic content and action

occurred, though participants may not have

intended, or volunteered, to play a game

where civic engagement was a norm. From

a design perspective, however, engagement

with civic issues and processes was an ex-

pected outcome of both AIC and FW. While

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Games, Ethics and Engagement

the practice of civic engagement happened by

default within these gaming environments,

the nature of this engagement is of ethical

importance and may be a concern for the

design and play of similar games.

3. AIC and FW gameplay encouraged connec-

tions between what players wanted to learn

and what educators believed they should

know. Students may have desired to learn a

topic dichotomous to the intentions of the

instructor, however these gaming environ-

ments were designed to blend the act of play

with comprehension of critical content is-

sues. The relationship between expectations

of gameplay and content delivery may have

led to further ethical ambiguity associated

with civic content and action.

4. Constructionist learning principles guided

gameplay and encouraged students to make

connections between school-based learning

and broader engagement with real world

political and social issues. Gameplay sought

to promote civic engagement activities as a

way of learning and as a realistic real world

activity, rather than only as a school-based

topic or assignment. While some players did

internalize game roles and transfer knowl-

edge and skills to broader civic engagement

issues, this concept of transference may raise

ethical concerns related to game design.

5. Gameplay exposed controversial content

and scenarios without discrete or "right"

answers. The interactive nature of role-play

ensured that no single player could anticipate

future scenarios or outcomes. Also similar

to Swain's (2007) embrace of "wicked prob-

lems," difficult and controversial scenarios

developed unexpectedly and players were

required to work within the game param-

eters to collaboratively find solutions. As

topics and action did not correlate to one

single right answer, players were forced

to learn from one another and experiment

with interventions. In working with one

another, ethically complex, and sometimes

conflicting, solutions were devised based

upon negotiated strategies and interactions.

Unintended Consequences

Unintended consequences related to the imple-

mentation games promoting civic content and

action also present ethical conflicts and concerns.

The following unintended consequences resulted

from this research.

1. Play strategies were driven by a desire to

win, leading democratic processes within

the game to conform to win strategies.

For example, as players negotiated policy

proposals the quality of content and the

democratic action of negotiation frequently

deteriorated in favor of quicker, easier,

less-equitable solutions. This often led to

one constituency emerging more dominant

and in a position with a greater likelihood

of winning. As players sought to win games

they pursued less ethical means of achieving

victory rather than concentrating on civic

engagement issues or game practices. In

turn, the practice of resolving conflicts could

become a vulnerability that jeopardized pros-

pects of winning, and was therefore often

pirated by players trying to win. Researchers

found that some gaming practices were not

ethically "clean;" instead, they were based

on individual desires to win. In the end,

some players' interest lay more solidly in

the basic premise of a game to be won rather

than a civic-minded activity requiring cycles

of practice and negotiation. Our research

found that gaming practices can be ethically

ambiguous concerning the motivation and

practice of participant gameplay.

2. Alternatively, AIC and FW allowed for

civic engagement in meaningful ways not

previously considered. Some students sought

resources external to the game in order to

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Games, Ethics and Engagement

enhance the efficacy of their play. In some

instances this taught players to meaning-

fully participate as citizens of both the game

and the world at large. One such example

included a student who began reading the

newspaper each morning as part of his par-

ticipation with AIC. In conjunction with his

experiences in gameplay and in relation to

life outside the game, this former student

carried a new awareness about social justice,

advocacy, and civic engagement into his

adult life and now seeks out such news on

a daily basis.

3. In both games, researchers found that pro-

moting civic engagement required complex

political, economic, and social issues to be

simplified. While useful as a mechanism

for clarifying content comprehension and

implementing gameplay, this process may

have caused participants to believe that civic

engagement is, likewise, a simple process.

In practice, civic engagement and political

advocacy are as intricate and nuanced pro-

cesses as are the complex real world issues

they seek to address.

4. The curricular content and civic focus of

AIC and FW placed the central issues of

these games (for example, Middle East peace

and fair labor) on a pedestal that may have

caused participants to believe these issues

were of primary importance in the realm of

real world politics and civic engagement.

Whether these social and political issues

are of a greater importance is not the issue.

Rather, designers must consider that the

real world beliefs of players may become

intertwined with the designed focus of a

game based upon a simulated reality. The

priorities and social values of game design-

ers can become the real world priorities of

game players. As a result, possible misrepre-

sentation of the importance of political and

social issues can occur, with game designers

emphasizing a priority that may, or may not,

be either realistic or ethically appropriate.

5. Participants may perceive their individual

agency, as it relates to civic engagement, as

dependent upon the construct of a game and

the medium of gameplay. It is important that

games promote civic engagement and knowl-

edge of political and social issues as games

have the opportunity to become vehicles for

broad civic engagement. However, games

should not train participants to believe that

this medium is the only mode of individual

agency leading towards civic engagement,

or that civic engagement is a form of "play"

with little to no real world consequence.

FUTURE RESEARCH

DIRECTIONS: ANALYSIS OF

ETHICAL CONSEQUENCES

In addition to the previously documented in-

tended and unintended consequences related to

the design of games supporting civic engagement

through civic content and action, researchers were

pleased to discover that game participants gained

knowledge of curricular social studies content and

practiced democratic skills during their experi-

ences with the simulations. Researchers also noted

that many players developed new understandings

of issues related to social justice, ethics and civic

engagement. Furthermore, this body of research

caused designers and researchers to reflect upon

the idea of what is most important to both gameplay

and game design. As a result, researchers found that

games could act as vehicles for civic engagement

by connecting players to important global issues

through civic content and action. When games

serve as vehicles for civic engagement we found

that players were exposed to controversial content

and scenarios without discrete answers. As such,

players were encouraged to pursue civic engage-

ment activities more as a way of life rather than

only as a topic or assignment. Findings related to

conflict and ambiguity, as outlined in the previous

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307

Games, Ethics and Engagement

section, illustrate the intended and unintended

ethical consequences of gameplay and design,

and also reveal the following four significant ethi-

cal concerns that should be considered by those

interested in the relationship between educational

gaming and civic engagement.

Forced Civic Engagement

and Gameplay

The design of civic-minded games intends for play-

ers, whether or not they are interested or aware, to

engage in highly structured ethical scenarios and

civic engagement activities. In turn, researchers

must examine these experiences perhaps more

closely than that of players' perceptions towards

more traditional games. In other words, an ethical

challenge exists related to game design due to the

fact that players may not have agreed to engage

in gameplay with civic engagement processes in

mind; rather, they may have assumed play was to

be of a more traditional process. As a result, par-

ticipants' experiences can and do have an impact

on their perception of the world around them and

future game design and research on civics-focused

gameplay must take the ethical implications of

forced civic engagement into consideration.

Corruption of Democratic Practices

Because the setting of these civic-minded activities

is located within the context of a game, winning can

threaten to overtake goals of civic engagement and

democratic processes. Separate from an analysis of

value associated with winning, the emphasis of a

win-strategy can corrupt the practice of democratic

processes such as conflict resolution, negotia-

tion, and communication. This distortion leads to

ethically dubious outcomes as players pursue a

strategy to win rather than an ethic of play based

upon values aligned with egalitarian ideals. For

one player, such as the student who sought out a

daily newspaper, this quest for external resources

made him more knowledgeable and engaged with

game content. Conversely, another player could

potentially use similar or alternative strategies to

manipulate gameplay. As such, participants may

learn that they can manipulate group practices,

teamwork norms, and communication patterns so

as to win or even 'position' certain other players to

win. There are severe ethical implications related

to players using civic engagement practices within

games as a means for mastery or for winning the

overall game. This in turn reveals the potential for

further dubious action and the need for extended

future research.

Changing Perspectives of

Gameplay and Game Design

In examining our findings we realized that one

might view many of the intended and unintended

ethical consequences from multiple perspec-

tives–namely, from either the perspective of game

design or gameplay. This change in perspective

sometimes alters whether or not the ethical con-

flict becomes itself an intended or unintended

consequence. This ambiguity, in itself, is an ethical

dilemma. While one participant may in fact see

an outcome as an intended consequence, another

participant may contradict this perspective by tak-

ing an inverse approach. In reexamining this body

of work, we realize that certain design elements

may themselves be ethically ambiguous conflicts

related to the relationships between game design

and gameplay, and between game designers and

game players.

Ethical Assumptions of Civic

Engagement Game Designers

Civic engagement game designers have inherent

biases about the importance of civic engage-

ment, political advocacy, and social justice issues

presented within games. Values are intentional

components of game design, are built into the

intended consequences of gameplay, and are

revealed in the unintended ethical consequences.

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308

Games, Ethics and Engagement

In revisiting the issue of exposing players to con-

troversial and civic-minded scenarios, we further

realize the potential for manipulation on behalf of

game designers and note this ethical assumption

and potential conflict of interest as an important

direction for future scholarship and research.

CONCLUSION

We believe that assumptions made by game devel-

opers about civic engagement and specific values

orientations must be further examined as central to

the process of creating and implementing serious

games. Questions must be asked: What qualifies as

an acceptable social justice game scenario? How

can developers design ethical civic engagement

gaming practices? And, how are important social

justice, advocacy and civic engagement issues

realistically incorporated into game design so they

are both relevant to constructionist learning while

also limited in ethical ambiguity? As we attempt

to accurately portray social and civic causes, do

we, as game developers, researchers, and play-

ers, do justice to the causes? We support Gee's

(2007) arguments concerning the importance of

recognizing and developing strong cognitive learn-

ing opportunities that not only enhance gaming

experiences but also learning experiences inside

schools. Given the potential for games to influence

students in various educational environments, such

as school, we support future research efforts that

focus not only on the design of serious games and

the implementation of these games, but also on the

ethical conflicts resulting from the consequences

of that design and play.

In examining our work we believe that game

designers and researchers of AIC and FW had

good intentions, and valued important educational

foundations related to constructionist learning, civic

engagement, and game studies. However, our find-

ings indicate this is but one perspective, and per-

haps an idealistic one, when considering alternate

scenarios. Reflecting upon the broader theoretical

frameworks of designing and researching games

that encourage civic engagement, we believe ethi-

cal considerations related to the consequences of

gameplay must be taken into consideration. Our

findings have implications for game designers

creating games and also researchers observing

players interacting with games that promote civic

engagement values and processes. Additionally, we

find that it is not enough to only examine whether

events and actions within games are successful or

not, lead or do not lead towards winning outcomes,

support learning, or encourage civic engagement.

Rather, we believe it is critical to analyze deeper

ethical ambiguities related to the consequences of

game design and gameplay. In turn, we support re-

search efforts to further recognize and expand upon

the development and research of serious games that

provide all participants, at levels of both design and

play, with strong cognitive learning opportunities.

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312

Chapter 19

Sasha Barab

Indiana University, USA

Tyler Dodge

Indiana University, USA

Edward Gentry

Indiana University, USA

Asmalina Saleh

Indiana University, USA

Patrick Pettyjohn

Indiana University, USA

Uganda's Road to Peace

May Run through the

River of Forgiveness:

Designing Playable Fictions to

Teach Complex Values

ABSTRACT

While gaming technologies are typically leveraged for entertainment purposes, our experience and as-

piration is to use them to encourage engagement with global, politically-sensitive issues. This chapter

focuses on our game design concerning the struggle of Uganda, a design that allows players to expe-

rience the atrocities and inhumane conditions and, by illuminating such values as peace and justice,

helps them more generally to appreciate the moral complexity of a humane intervention. Rather than

theoretical constructs to be debated in the abstract, the ethical struggles involved in determining a hu-

mane intervention in the game setting are grounded in different Non-Player Characters' perspectives

and operationalized within the underlying game dynamics. Beyond reporting on the designed game, the

chapter draws the reader into the struggles of designing such an ethically contentious game.

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60960-120-1.ch019

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313

Uganda's Road to Peace May Run through the River of Forgiveness

INTRODUCTION

One of the most persistent problems of this pe-

riod is how to reconcile conflicting goals in the

aftermath of severe criminality…. The regime

responsible for crimes against humanity or geno-

cidal behaviors [remains] as part of a bargain by

which its impunity was "purchased" in exchange

for its voluntarily relinquishment of power (Falk,

2000, pp. 24–25).

The violence committed by the Lord's Resistance

Army (LRA) for over 20 years on the Acholi

people of northern Uganda has resulted in the

death and displacement of millions, and left count-

less others mutilated, raped, or enslaved as child

soldiers (Eichstaedt, 2009). Reports suggest that

torture continues to be practiced among security

organizations, including the arrest and beating

of opposition members of Parliament (Central

Intelligence Agency, 2008). In 2007, the President

of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni, requested support

from the International Criminal Court (ICC),

which then issued arrest warrants for top LRA lead-

ers. However, a year after the warrants were issued,

Museveni offered the LRA amnesty in exchange

for an initial ceasefire and eventual comprehen-

sive peace agreement—despite the fact that the

warrants were issued at Museveni's request. This

example highlights the tension between seeking

peace and attaining justice. Ugandan human rights

lawyer Barney Afako argued that seeking justice

through the courts will prolong violence, stating:

"Justice needs to be justified in terms of lives,"

adding that "the [international] criminal justice

system is isolated from the moral consequences

of its intervention" (Legalbrief Today, 2006). Oth-

ers, however, maintain that peace is dependent on

justice, as only through attaining justice can there

be reconciliation and rehabilitation (Falk, 2000).

A core question illuminated in this chapter is

how these particular dilemmas and the underly-

ing universal struggles that they involve might be

translated into game play. More generally, we are

interested in how to leverage videogames to engage

citizens in challenging situations so that they can

appreciate the ethical and moral complexities of

social issues while experiencing the problem in

a personally-relevant way. This challenge—to

structure engagement with issues in ways that

both address their complexity and bear relevance

beyond the specific context—is what we regard

as central to our work as designers of games. To

tease out these challenges, we use the complex

case of Uganda. Solutions to Uganda's situation

that are prominently advocated by the international

community and in human rights statements have

emphasized the need for justice to achieve peace,

as if this were a universal truth. Such a perspective,

that peace is dependent on justice being enforced,

is regularly adopted regarding global justice more

generally (Falk, 2000). However, as one inquires

deeper into the local phenomena, which in this

case is the Ugandan story of justice, the accepted

disciplinary "truths" become complexified (Han-

num, 2006). Indeed, as our design work advanced,

we examined more perspectives and even talked

with local Ugandans, and such lofty statements

became less useful, compelling us to question

whether peace in Uganda is necessarily dependent

on justice being enforced.

Such grounded engagement with any theo-

retical claim, shifting from general platitudes to

specific instances, is necessary not only for the

struggles of Uganda and the tension between

peace and justice but for other concerns as well.

The hesitation to accept such a ready-made solu-

tion as the correlation between justice and peace

and, instead, the patience to discern an emergent

solution, synthesized from alternative perspec-

tives, represents a sophisticated and adaptable

approach to a wide range of important problems.

It reveals aspects of Uganda's struggles not previ-

ously appreciated and offers, if not a path to their

resolution, then at least a step toward that path.

And to consider the Ugandan context from this

perspective equips one with the experience of

engaging complex issues in a manner bearing rel-

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314

Uganda's Road to Peace May Run through the River of Forgiveness

evance to all walks of life. Our work is predicated

on the belief that contemporary videogames can

afford such forms of engagement: they constitute

complex, ideological worlds in which players can

work individually and in large groups to engage

and overcome sophisticated challenges (Barab,

Dodge, Ingram-Goble et al., 2010; Squire, 2006).

Being narratively elaborate yet capacious, thus

inviting players' own elaborations, they allow the

player to take on roles that might not be accessible

in their everyday life, and in the context of these

roles, players make decisions and experience

the consequences as they unfold in the designed

world of the game (Barab, Gresalfi, Dodge, &

Ingram-Goble, 2010).

This chapter focuses on our game, The River of

Justice, which centers on the struggles of Uganda

by embedding the player in the fictional, virtual

world referred to as Bunala. The game was de-

signed to help players to experience the atrocities

and inhumane conditions of that country and, by

illuminating such values as peace and justice,

help them more generally to appreciate the moral

complexity of a humane intervention. Game play

begins in the briefing room of a company that has

been commissioned to advance a recommendation

regarding how to proceed with the Bunala situa-

tion, specifically the Liberation Resistance Move-

ment or LRM (a fictionalized LRA). The player's

character, a freelance investigator, represented in

the three-dimensional world as an avatar, is re-

quired to travel to in-game villages where they talk

to local Bunalians and determine which response

to the LRM is most appropriate: amnesty, justice,

or forgiveness (see Figure 1 for an illustration of

the virtual world, the dialogue of a game character,

and the player game meter). Using their keyboard,

the player moves their in-game avatar around a

three-dimensional world, unlocking different vil-

lagers and talking to different types of people in

the fictional world by clicking on them, listening

to what they have to say, and choosing responses

from a menu of choices. The implicit objective

of the game is to raise the Satisfaction level of

most Victims (unless they are resentful, desiring

Justice), and to lower the Satisfaction level of

most Perpetrators (unless they can be redeemed

through Forgiveness). The explicit outcome is to

recommend a decision to the fictional ICC, with

the player's in-game boss judging the alignment

between the recommendation and particular game

play interactions and choices.

Beyond offering a simulation of the conditions

and struggles, which might draw upon arrays of

factual data to show and speculate the outcomes

of a user's actions, our goal with the game is to

Figure 1. Screen shot depicting the virtual world in the left, the dialogue of a game character Teresa on

the right, and the player game meter above the dialogue

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situate the player as a decision-maker immersed

in the dramatic setting, enmeshed in its tangle of

possibilities and consequences. To illustrate, at

one point in the game discussed further below,

the player meets a member of the rebel army and

must decide whether the member's actions were

born of necessity, thus warranting their forgive-

ness and rehabilitation, or of choice and desire,

thus demanding justice to achieve long-term

peace—in short, demanding their death. More

than a theoretical question, the game forces the

player to commit to a decision and, in the subse-

quent scene, directly witness the consequences

of their choice, thus making salient the player's

own beliefs and biases instantiated as irrevocable

outcomes.

Given our emphasis on dramatic agency (Mur-

ray, 1997) in which the player actions in part

determine how the game story unfolds, we refer

to our game designs as playable fictions. Play-

able fictions are interactive stories in which one

is positioned as a protagonist who makes game

choices that have consequence in the fictional

world. The design of any playable fiction involves

defining a storyline as well as the game dynamics

that make game play challenging and enjoyable.

For a playable fiction concerning an actual and

politically-sensitive event, the design challenges

involve choosing which aspects of the narrative

to fictionalize, and doing so in such a way that the

design affords an experience that is pedagogically-

illuminative yet narratively coherent. Additionally,

for the designers to operationalize their own beliefs

and biases into a narrative rule set (i.e., decision

X causes outcome Y) requires a defensible com-

mitment. That is, because the actual game choices

serve to reify the designers' beliefs, those beliefs

must be scrutinized and found to provide a valid

platform upon which to base the gameplay. For

example, it is one thing to argue that ends justify

means, yet quite another to force the player to

sacrifice a Ugandan child if she is to save a larger

number of people and possibly bring an end to

the atrocities.

In this chapter, we discuss The River of Justice

so that others can consider the process and prob-

lems we faced in reifying the Ugandan situation

into representative characters, proxy variables,

interactive rule sets, unfolding plotlines, and other

design decisions. First we discuss our design

methodology, including outlining the affordances

of fictionalization and of playability. Next, we

analyze the game design, providing details that

illuminate the design problems, decisions, and

solutions. Finally, we explicate the lessons that

we learned through the design work and that want

to share with others.

THE EDUCATIONAL AFFORDANCES

OF PLAYABLE FICTIONS

While considered by some as mere amusement,

videogames are becoming critically recognized as

sophisticated vehicles for participation, including

academic and civic engagement (Jenkins, 2008;

Lenhart, Kahne, Middaugh, Macgill, Evans, &

Vitak, 2008). In many contemporary videogames,

players do not simply click buttons without think-

ing, but instead engage rich narrative storylines

and employ complex discursive practices and

problem solving strategies as they come to mas-

ter and appreciate the underlying game dynam-

ics (Barab & Dede, 2007; Gee, 2003; Shaffer,

2007). In fact, scholars have been documenting

the discursive richness, depth of collaborative

inquiry, complexity of game play, opportunities

for consequentiality, rich perception-action cycles,

exploration of situated identities, and sophisticated

forms of learning and participation that can oc-

cur during game play (Barab, Gresalfi, & Arici,

2009; Gee, 2003; Shaffer, 2006; Squire, 2006;

Squire & Jan, 2007). Videogames can stimulate

rich forms of participation that enlist member-

ship and identity in ways that often occur only

in advanced curricular designs, story books, or

other media (Murray, 1997).

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Uganda's Road to Peace May Run through the River of Forgiveness

Central to our work is the conviction that

through game play, one can be experientially

situated within a space that entwines real with

fictional details, and authentic with playful activi-

ties, to embed the player and the subject matter

within an engaging and dynamic context (Barab,

Gresalfi, Dodge, & Ingram-Goble, 2010). An

important component, and one highlighted in this

chapter, is their power as playable fictions, that

is, a story to be realized or completed through

the act of making choices and solving play tasks

that co-determine with the designer how the game

narrative will unfold for a particular player. In this

way, playable fictions can position the learner in a

consequential role that personalizes the narrative

challenges, affording players an investment in

the situation and responsibility for the direction

of the narrative. Gee (2003) hypothesized that

while playing a videogame the player develops

a hybrid identity that is part real player making

decisions, and part in-game character execut-

ing those decisions and part player-character as

the real player reflects on themselves as people

who make decisions that cause particular game

character and world outcomes. This dynamic, in

which the player and the context co-define each

other and evolve together through meaningful

inquiry, epitomizes Dewey's (1938) notion of

transactivity, or how "every experience enacted

and undergone modifies the one who acts and

undergoes…for it is a somewhat different person

who enters into them" (pp. 35). As Vygotsky

(1978) argued, through play one can act a head

above oneself, with play providing an effective

scaffold for expanding one's zone of proximal

development, that is, for understanding more than

one could understand by oneself.

As Gadamar (1976, p. 112) argued, when

playing a game, one is "playing out oneself" or,

at least, an extension of one possible self. Play

invites us into an experience that plays us, af-

fording particular actions and at the same time

leaving us as one who has realized these oppor-

tunities in a particular way. By being playable,

our pedagogical designs contextually bind the

learner and content affording a sense of inten-

tionality, legitimacy, agency, consequentiality,

accountability, and reflexivity (Barab, Dodge,

Ingram-Goble, & Gresalfi, 2010; Barab, Gresalfi,

& Arici, 2009). This is in part because the designs

position the learner as a first-person protagonist

doing epistemological work on the context by

allowing the player a sense of dramatic agency in

terms of the underlying narrative (Murray, 1997).

Such a design involves a curricular context that is

less a set of information to be acquired and more

a world to be played. Learning in such dynamic

environments becomes a way of seeing the world

or of being in the world (Thomas & Brown, 2006),

one that requires enlisting general concepts and

understandings (e.g., justice, amnesty, and for-

giveness) as tools for considering, determining,

and ultimately transforming particular storylines,

and this, in turn, can foster deep understanding of

complex and value-rich domains.

Videogames can enable players, even if they

are novices in a subject area, to recognize its

complexity through engaging with it in a person-

ally meaningful way. The player's regular life

largely precludes such engagement for a host of

reasons: for instance, the object of inquiry may

be abstruse or precious; the procedures may be

uncommon, complicated, or objectionable; the

outcomes may be offensive or dangerous; and

so forth (Frasca, 2000). In contrast, videogames

can be structured around an issue to, in essence,

constitute an ideological world that establishes a

rich context for participation and learning (Squire,

2006), including learning of ethics, and invites

the player to adopt hybrid roles in that world

neither limited to nor divorced from the player's

natural sense of self (cf. Gee, 2003). Leveraging

the power of videogames, we have been design-

ing pedagogical worlds that deliberately foster a

sense of agency and explicitly present educational

tasks, pedagogical scaffolds, social interactions,

and reflective moments to support meaningful

learning about significant issues (Barab, Jackson,

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Uganda's Road to Peace May Run through the River of Forgiveness

& Arici, 2004; Barab, Thomas, Dodge, Carteaux,

& Tuzun, 2005; Barab, Sadler, Heiselt, Hickey,

& Zuiker, 2007).

Such work combines literary techniques, game

principles, and academic pedagogy to achieve nar-

rative cohesion, immersive experience, academic

utility, and meaningful play. The types of virtual

worlds we create are educationally valuable and

socially meaningful because they are designed

such that the solving the embedded problems

require that players enlist conceptual understand-

ings to make effective choices (Barab, Gresalfi,

and Arici, 2009; Barab, Zuiker et al, 2007). In

our design work, the most important pedagogical

utility derives not from the hard affordances of

videogame technology such as multisensory im-

mersion or instantaneous interactivity, but from the

soft ones like hybrid roles, emergent challenges,

and unfolding storylines. These affordances can

be conceptually organized in a way that, while not

suited to all domains, helps to guide designs for

teaching values. As playable fictions, videogames

entail two families of affordances conducive to

scaffolding experience with values: fictionaliza-

tion and playability.

Both the technology and the culture of contem-

porary videogames allow for designs that afford

one the opportunity to play through fictions in a

way that does not necessarily place game play

and storyline in conflict. By fictionalization, we

mean the process of turning particular content into

a story that, while sometimes featuring veridical

elements, involves imaginative or even fantastical

ones across the domain of the story, including its

setting, characters, and dramatic conflicts. The

fiction in a game responds to the player's direc-

tions yet must be designed to retain integrity and

cohesion; it accommodates the player's projection

yet bears specificity and nuance; it resonates with

the player's experience yet suggests widespread

and enduring wisdom (Calvino, 1999; Gee, 2003;

Murray, 1997). Fiction and play each serve to

shelter the experience as a space with specifica-

tions that structure both the fiction and the game

play. Through fictionalization, we are able to

design with pedagogical liberty about issues that

have political sensitivity, ethical subjectivity,

and interpretive contestation while still ensuring

intrinsic fidelity and projective capacity.

The context entwines real and fictional ele-

ments designed to embed the learner and the cur-

ricular content within a complex and credible situ-

ation. This embedding occurs, in part, because of

the player being positioned with dramatic agency

in making choices that influence the direction of

the story and that make apparent to the player his

or her own biases. However, the field of game

design has not established best practices and we

have limited powerful exemplars regarding how

to illuminate political events and contested his-

tories, foster appreciation of what transpired, and

position the player to struggle with the underlying

ethical decisions that arise during these moments.

In using games to complex ethical struggles with-

out simplistic answers, the game designers must

confront both pragmatic confounds and theoretical

tensions and accordingly must pose many design

decisions as conjectures to be tested through actual

game play. Choices regarding how to fictionalize

the history or operationalize the values reveal as

much about the designer's biases as about the

phenomena being illuminated.

In the next section, we show how our ethical

biases became reified as we made choices on

what aspects to include in our virtual world, in

terms of what tasks the player would be expected

to engage, and in deciding what outcomes would

result from particular actions. Toward this end,

we describe our designed game (see a multimedia

presentation at http://ijlm.net/knowinganddo-

ing/10.1162/ijlm.2009.0023; Barab et al., 2009),

occasionally inserting meta-reflections to illumi-

nate the struggles we went through in building

this game and the power of playable fictions for

teaching ethics.

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Uganda's Road to Peace May Run through the River of Forgiveness

RIVER OF JUSTICE OVERVIEW

Setting the Stage

The player, after choosing his or her gender's

avatar and other features, begins in the lobby of

a company named A Just World, which has been

commissioned by the ICC to advance a recom-

mendation regarding how to proceed with the

situation in Bunala, a country wrought with civil

strife and violence. Here, she takes on the role

of a freelance investigator and is briefed on the

assignment by Timothy Deckard, an experienced

field agent who is also the boss:

Glad to hear it! Let's get you through this thing.

First, have a look at some documents. There's some

general information about the situation here, as

well as some letters from some Bunalan citizens.

More importantly, you'll see how the Bunalan

government cried for help but then tried to call it

off. That's a no-no. You're required to read them,

but you and I both know the real information is

on the ground.

Examining the company documents, the player

learns about the severity of the crimes occurring

in Bunala (a fictionalized version of Uganda) and

gains additional background that justifies the ICC

arresting a number of members of the Liberation

Resistance Movement (LRM, a fictionalized ver-

sion of the LRA). For example, the player reads

a newspaper article on the discovery of a mass

grave that was attributed to the LRM and another

article asserting that the LRM is responsible for

killing thousands of citizens and for kidnapping

children and raping women, with estimates of 1.4

million internally displaced persons (see Figure

2 for an example of the fictional newspaper they

engage). Likewise, the player reads a letter from

an ex-LRM member who was forced to kill his

family to preserve his own life. Statements from

Bunalan citizens, official letters, and other docu-

ments all help the player understand the current

assignment.

To help the player understand his assignment,

Timothy recounts stories from other engagements

in which A Just World failed to deliver swift

justice, resulting in genocide. Thus, he empha-

sizes the importance of company policy and

impresses upon the player, as a company repre-

sentative, to consistently advocate justice. Timo-

thy explains that one's field reputation reflects

how legitimate the player's philosophy is, based

on one's consistency of advocacy. For example,

if in the end of the game the player recommends

amnesty but has been consistently advocating and

making choices in dialogues with game characters

that reflect justice, Timothy comments on the

apparent disconnect. The player's Advocacy is a

game score comprised of several values and dis-

played in a meter in the sidebar beside the vir-

tual space. Timothy also urges the player to

quickly pass the company exam so that the

player can enter the field and collect the interviews

necessary to justify bringing in the military and

securing the arrests. Soon after the player starts

the first mission, he and his colleague, Teresa

Teresa (a non-player character, NPC) are sitting

in the back of a truck driving to where they can

interview locals, but is attacked by the guerilla

army.

They are captured by the LRM, and the player

begins to experience first-hand the cruelty and

complexity of the situation. This is initially done

through a series of dialogue bubbles with cut-

scenes, presented as hazy memories, informing

the player that he is regaining consciousness.

While previous game play usually took place in

the virtual window where the player had some

agency of what they focused on in the scene, in this

moment and a few other occasions, player-driven

game play is interrupted with the presentation of

cut-scenes, or sequences of still images based on

actual photographs germane to the game narrative.

Commonly used in videogames, cut-scenes can

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Uganda's Road to Peace May Run through the River of Forgiveness

provide plot or character development or back-

story information, and they are used in this way

in River of Justice. Here, the cut-scene conveys

the physicality of the wreckage and the extent, in

terms of both distance and time, of the abduction,

all in a manner that might be less manageable

and effective if transpiring in the virtual space

as part of a playable scene. Further, by divorcing

the scene from the space and flow of game play,

cut-scenes shift the player from an active to a re-

flective stance and by thus positioning the player

once again as a witness, cut-scenes can reclaim

the reality and poignancy of the story content that

may be neglected during game play.

As the cut-scenes stop, the player experiences

being held captive in a roughly-built shack, bare,

apart from an interrogation chair and other pris-

oners (see Figure 3). Teresa, also in the room,

informs the player that they have been prisoners

for three days. Appearing bruised and with ripped

clothes, she hints at the harrowing experiences

that she underwent while the player's character

was unconscious, including physical and sexual

abuse. She becomes quiet when a teenage boy,

Mukasa, enters the detention room.

Mukasa is an LRM guard, and he approaches

the player's character, stating, "I have brought

you some food, my friend." The player is given

Figure 2. Screenshot showing one of the fictional news documents that the player interrogates in the game

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Uganda's Road to Peace May Run through the River of Forgiveness

a list of choices that reflect choices of how to

respond:

a) Please, please let me go. I just want to go

home.

b) Thank you. [Take food.]

c) [Say nothing and refuse food.]

As a non-player character (NPC) programmed

by the design team, Mukasa responds in one of

three ways, depending on what the player chooses

above:

a) This is your home now. You are with the

LRM. Your life is their life. You come with

me now, we have much work to do. You must

pay us back for this delicious food and the

warm shelter.

b) You are most welcome! Food is the least

of the many benefits of being in the LRM.

Please, bring your food and come with me.

There is much to do! If you do good, you

will get more good stuff.

c) You do not want our hard work to make your

food and give you shelter? That is not good,

my friend. Come with me. There is work to

do. Maybe if you do good, I will not tell the

Captain that you were rude.

The Captain hates rude people. If you keep that

attitude, he might not let you join us.

In this way, the NPCs treat the player's char-

acter in differing ways, depending on the player's

choices. Similarly, in a later scene, the captive

player wakes to witness a young boy who has his

hands and feet bound by tight rope. Mukasa tells

the player, "You meet this boy. His name is Bale.

We caught him stealing food from our stores." The

player has two available responses:

What are you going to do to him? Just leave him

alone!

He's just a child. Let him go or…!

If the player chooses option (b), the Justice

value of the Advocacy meter increases. Mukasa's

programmed response follows:

a) Oh, but no. To let him go would not be good

for us. In Bunala, if you do not show your

strength, people will take from you. No. We

Figure 3. Screenshot depicting NPCs in a prison cell

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Uganda's Road to Peace May Run through the River of Forgiveness

cannot let that happen. You will help us teach

him a lesson today.

The player could reject Mukasa by replying,

(a) "I won't help you! If you hurt him, I'll make

sure you die when they rescue me!" But, with the

goal of self-preservation and with hopes to avoid

further bloodshed, the player can inst ead choose

to respond, (b) "I understand. Just don't hurt me.

What do you want me to do?" Upon choosing this

response, a meter is then revealed to the player

and he or she may notice the Amnesty value of the

Advocacy meter increase. Mukasa then responds

with the second of the two programmed responses:

b) You will shoot this thief with my own gun.

If you do not, we will do it anyway. But we

will do more, too. We will shoot two other

prisoners. Maybe you will pick them for us.

Then we cut off this girl's hand. You will

watch us do this. After that I will offer you

my gun again. If you still do not shoot her,

then we start over with two more people and

the other hand. Or, you can punish her like I

say. We maybe even spare another prisoner

that you choose who has done us wrong.

Here, again, a cut-scene is used, as the virtual

world is replaced with a series of images depict-

ing the player shooting the boy. We chose to use

a cut-scene here to prompt a reflective moment,

to make the player stop and reflect on the deci-

sion not simply in terms of the videogame, but by

divorcing the scene from the flow and by using

more realistic images the consequences of the in-

game decision are given enhanced significance.

In an interview with one player, she stated:

The feeling of helpless rage which that scene

engendered in me completely changed the way

I view my personal values... you might say it

transformed my sense of self and the world… I

am no longer so smug in my feeling of moral su-

periority... and I will never forget that in the end

my values didn't protect me from being forced to

take an intolerable action.

Such uses of cut-scenes serve to deliver particu-

lar content with an authenticity not easily afforded

by immersion in the virtual space. While this scene

might seem extreme, it is in fact consistent with

the horror of the events being fictionalized.

However, and quite germane to this chapter, it is

not simply the horror that our game is designed to

illuminate. Rather, our goal is to embed the player

in the complicated ethical struggles that the rest

of the world has undergone in deciding whether

to take action on the nation's behalf. Reflecting

on the Uganda situation and on political violence

more generally, one might argue that unless justice

is served, countries like Uganda will never have

peace. In fact, as one reads about the atrocities or

witnesses the thousands of dead bodies and vacant

eyes of kidnapped children, it is hard not to desire

justice. As educators and game designers, it was

this message that we initially wished to share,

but it was also our commitment to help the reader

appreciate the complications of such a simplistic

conception in practice. Consider, for example, this

interaction between the player and an NPC, Bacia,

midway through the game. Bacia is the mother of

a Bunalan family; her husband was killed by the

LRM, her nephew was kidnapped, and her son is

bitter with vengeance. She is angry but also weary

of the suffering, and she simply wants to salvage

what is left of her family. Bacia says,

You think I want it this way? I am so tired, stranger.

Tired of sleeping through the sounds of guns. Tired

of wondering where my nephew disappeared to in

the middle of the night. Tired of watching my son

get so bitter that he wants to kill people. He has

not even experienced any of the joys of life yet!

She beseeches the player to recommend am-

nesty to the ICC so that the soldiers can leave

and the villagers can be safe (see Figure 4). The

player can then respond with a choice:

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Uganda's Road to Peace May Run through the River of Forgiveness

a) What about the crimes they've committed?

Shouldn't they have to face punishment?

What about justice?

b) I understand, Bacia. With the LRM gone,

you could be safe…

In this instance, Bacia believes that Justice

would prolong her troubles, while Amnesty would

help solve them. Therefore, if the player chooses

response (a) above, the Justice level of his Ad-

vocacy increases, but Bacia's Satisfaction level

decreases. Conversely, if the player chooses (b),

his Amnesty level increases, as does Bacia's level

of Satisfaction. These visibly impact the player's

Advocacy meter, as the levels change based on the

bias of her choices. Not displayed, but nonetheless

affecting the ensuing game dynamics, are an array

of variables reflecting each character's level of

Satisfaction with regard to the value being advo-

cated by the player. They understand this through

the language of game characters and, in some

places, the actions required of the player. These

game mechanics are further elaborated below.

Revealing the Mechanics

The game design underlying the player experience

requires of designers a deep appreciation of their

own ethical biases and social commitments. Such

self-understanding informs, and becomes evident

in, not simply their writing the storyline and de-

veloping selected backstory elements but further

in their scripting of the options, determining the

consequences, and engineering the game dynamics

driving the meters and other outcomes. To explain

the game design using loosely the language of

mathematics, the ethical values like amnesty and

justice become variables in a narrative expression,

wherein player choices serve as operations on

the variables toward the resulting solution. By

developing awareness of and experience with the

values as they function in specific contexts, the

player develops personal understandings both of

the dynamics related to these particular values

and, more broadly, of how to work with disparate

values in complex ways to integrate seemingly

incommensurate perspectives into a systemic and

nuanced conception.

Specifically, each choice presented to a player

is associated with the value that it implicitly serves

Figure 4. Screen shot depicting Kihini, a village Elder, with another NPC. She is prompting the player

to consider forgiveness as an option

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Uganda's Road to Peace May Run through the River of Forgiveness

to advocate (initially either Amnesty or Justice and

later they unlock forgiveness). The level of each

value is persistently displayed to the player in a

meter that he may consult to gauge his reputation

acquired through his fieldwork thus far, though

the association between his choices and the vari-

able levels is never explicated. Two fundamental

roles in the conflict (Perpetrator and Victim) are

each differentiated into various stances toward the

dilemma (Perpetrators: for Evil, or by Necessity;

Victims: Resentful, Tired, or Forgiving), defining

five character types for the NPCs. Each NPC is

associated with a particular character type (their

"bias") and individuated with a unique name,

narrative function, and baseline Satisfaction

level, which is not displayed but which figures

into the game dynamics. However, each character

type (and thus all NPCs with that bias) responds

uniquely to the possible value statements advo-

cated by any player choice. The player enacts his

choice by selecting one of the multiple choice

response options, and in response to that choice,

the Satisfaction level of each character is adjusted

either up or down, depending on the valence of the

choice in relation to their bias (see Table 1). As

an example of these causal relationships between

player choices and Satisfaction levels, a Resentful

Victim (VR), intent on vengeance, is satisfied by

a choice advocating Justice, but a Tired Victim

(VT ), weary of the struggle, is dissatisfied.

Table 1 describes player Advocacy choices

along the rows and NPC Satisfaction levels along

the columns, with the intersecting cells indicating

the effect of a particular Advocacy represented in

a choice. Again, some decisions increase and some

decrease the Satisfaction levels, depending on the

bias of the NPC type. Though this operation

chiefly corresponds to their role in the conflict

(i.e., Perpetrator or Victim), for some NPCs, the

response to an advocacy runs counter to the gen-

eral rule. For example, a Resentful Victim (VR)

is satisfied only if the player adopts their particu-

lar agenda for justice. To illustrate these mechan-

ics in terms of game play dynamics, consider

Ochen (VR), a young Ugandan boy whom the

player meets when rescued by Ochen's family.

Ochen is bitter and resentful of the LRM, due

largely to the murder of his father. The player has

just met the boy's mother, who expressed her

desire for amnesty for the LRM to clear them out

quickly. Ochen, on the other hand, tries to recruit

the player to fight the LRM, to which the player

refuses. Ochen retorts,

Do you believe that I like to kill? That I am good at

soldiering? Maybe I like this life? You are foolish

if you think so. I like to run around and act silly.

I like to play games with my friends. But do you

know why I cannot? Because my friends are dead

or captured. I have no choice. Now that you are

here…you have no choice, too.

Ochen believes that soldiers of the LRM should

be killed, but the player can choose to respond

with one of the following:

Table 1. Data operations on NPC satisfaction as a function of player advocacy

Satisfaction by Character Type

Perpetrator Victim

Advocacy Evil

(PE)

Necessity

(PN)

Resentful

(VR)

Tired

(VT)

Forgiving

(VF)

Justice - - + - -

Amnesty + + - + +

Forgiveness - + - - +

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Uganda's Road to Peace May Run through the River of Forgiveness

a) Won't that just piss them off? They'll just

send more soldiers...

b) I agree that they should be punished…but

what about trials?

If the player selects choice (a), then the level

for Amnesty increases in the player's Advocacy

meter, and Ochen's Satisfaction level decreases.

Alternately, if the player chooses (b), then the

player's Justice level increases, Ochen's Satis-

faction level rises slightly, but that of his mother

drops slightly.

In this way, player choices serve to advocate

ethical values, and both the momentary and cu-

mulative Advocacy for each value is dynamically

reflected in the responses made by each NPC ac-

cording to their bias toward the player choices.

These choices bear differential effects on each of

the main NPCs—the six victims, three perpetra-

tors, and three stakeholders (see Table 2) —and

they are also sometimes referred to by NPCs, who

may respond to the ethics inherent in a choice.

In one instance, if the player advocates justice,

an NPC who had lost her husband to the LRM

expresses frustration with the choice, stating that

the player does not understand the extent of tor-

ment that the people have experienced and what

a blessing even amnesty would be for the country.

As a broader example, the player can choose to

either escape or cooperate with the LRM soldiers,

thus changing the sequence and details of the

subsequent acts of the unfolding drama. Finally, in

the most sweeping example, one's closing recom-

mendation for the ICC transforms the experience

of the ending such that some players might return

jobless to Bunala, where they implement forgive-

ness, while other players espousing the company

line enjoy the comforts of their new position. In

this way, based on both individual and cumulative

Table 2. Backstory details for NPCs

Name Gender Role Bias

Victims

Bacia F Mother of Amebe Family VT

Miremba F Eldest Sister of Amebe Family VF

Acanit F Middle Sister of Amebe Family VT

Ochen M Youngest Brother of Amebe Family VR

Akello M Villager nearby Family VT

Jendyose F Villager nearby Family VR

Kaikara F Mother of slain boy, Bale All three possible

Perpetrators

Mukasa M LRM Recruiter PE

Dembe F LRM Soldier; Sister of Sahnde PE

Stakeholders

Timothy M Senior Worker Justice

Sahnde F Government Soldier; Brother of Dembe Amnesty

Kihini F Council Elder of Village Forgiveness

Others

Theresa F Colleague at A Just World –

Bale M Tortured boy accused of theft –

Sandra F Ambassador –

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Uganda's Road to Peace May Run through the River of Forgiveness

choices, the player directs the unfolding dialogue

and, in other cases, broader storyline.

Forgiveness is not initially represented along

with Amnesty and Justice in the Advocacy options;

rather, it becomes available as an option after the

player has engaged with certain characters,

chiefly Kihini, the Council Elder of the village

(see Figure 5). Further, because of the record that

his choices will have left, unless the player prac-

tices a particular value, he will not, in the end, be

able to convincingly advocate that value as a

solution. The game design accommodates any of

the three final recommendations, but the impor-

tance of forgiveness is reflected in all of the

endgame feedback, such as this response to the

player in a final letter from Kihini:

Our people have suffered at the hands of the

LRM for many years. I believe it would take over

100 years of restitution to begin repaying us for

what they took…. In the end, the oppressed de-

velop into oppressors, new prejudices form, and

the cycle of violence will rear its ugly head and

devour us again…. I hope that you will personally

choose to free yourself from your oppressors and

seek forgiveness.

This statement, combined with the other forms

of endgame feedback (discussed below), sug-

gests recommendations for how the player might

improve his score if he replays the game, and it

also articulates important lessons about broader

ethical struggles and the role of the game values

in relation to those struggles.

Note that, as for the player, forgiveness was

not among the initial choices considered by the

design team; rather, it emerged through a ground-

ing experience during the design phases. As we

worked to implement the conception that peace

requires justice, the first author was given the

opportunity to visit Uganda and South Africa,

where meetings with individuals there began to

complexify the choices being made available in

the game. More than idiosyncratic encounters,

our team member travelled through South Africa,

experienced Gibbon Island, the holding place for

Nelson Mandela, and spent time at a local orphan-

age in Uganda. These experiences revealed that

our previous studies had resulted in an inadequate

set of response options for the player. As South

Africans and Ugandans shared their stories, we

learned that for many of them, acts of forgiveness

are much more important than are notions of

justice. They explained that, unlike justice or

amnesty, only forgiveness gave them, as victims,

power. By granting themselves the ability to de-

Figure 5. Screen shot depicting interaction with Bacia, an NPC who is advocating amnesty

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Uganda's Road to Peace May Run through the River of Forgiveness

termine how they viewed their plight and to

forgive their transgressors, they could control

some portion of the situation. The other solutions

did not allow them that control. As a result, we

began to wonder if the international conception

that peace demands justice is a theoretical senti-

ment that problematically belies real-world ex-

perience, and we questioned whether the interna-

tional community should enforce its perspective

on those who must live out the consequences.

It was a turning point in our work, as we

endeavored to explicate a satisfactory offering

of in-game options, when we realized the power

of this game narrative and why some consider

videogames as becoming a dominant storytelling

medium in the 21st Century (Herz, 1997). Thinking

through the Ugandan dilemma as game designers,

we were forced to consider the actions a player

might take, the potential consequences of those

actions, and the sufficiency of those consequences

as compared to the real world. This involved, in

our work, examining our own biases and deter-

mining how best to fictionalize the narrative in

terms of the setting and backstory, the character

types, and the unfolding plotline, as well how

best to operationalize our moral and ethical biases

into a playable game grammar. In practice, these

all emerge dialectically, and this account while

attempting to illuminate that trajectory, oppor-

tunistically relates events and delimits histories

in a manner that privileges our goal of providing

the reader an illuminative account of our work

without them necessarily playing the game itself.

Bringing Closure

Central to the purpose of River of Justice is its

bearing on real-world issues and on players'

engagement with these issues, both particular

to the tragedy of Uganda and more broadly on

players' ethical stances in their daily lives. To

scaffold this engagement, the connection between

players' game participation and their daily lives

is established at the beginning and made increas-

ingly explicit during the game. To illustrate, in

the introductory briefing, players complete a

personality profile in which they reveal certain

attitudes and beliefs, some of which later impact

the course of the narrative. For instance, if one

expresses support of corporal punishment, then

their in-game colleague Teresa is later killed,

instead of being merely beaten and abandoned,

and the guard responsible states that his decision

was in response to the profile, discovered when

the player was taken prisoner. Likewise, in the

ending, the player receives a letter from Teresa's

fiancé lamenting her murder. Such customization

of game play serves to prompt players to reconsider

the attitudes and beliefs that they harbored before

playing the game.

The game also prompts reflection on the align-

ment between one's beliefs and actions, evident

especially in the ending. After the lengthy ordeal

in the field, the player submits a final recom-

mendation regarding how the company should

direct the ICC. Notably, if the player's decision

is inconsistent with their record of advocacy

throughout the game as favoring Amnesty, Justice,

or Forgiveness, then Timothy, the company boss,

balks at the discrepancy. Further, depending on

the player's recommendation and its alignment

with not only the company policy of advocating

justice but also the player's Advocacy scores,

Timothy announces the player's new status at the

company as promotion, demotion, or dismissal,

thus consolidating the span of game play into an

opportunity for reflection. Then, as a final occa-

sion of grounding for the player the challenges

of realizing ethical bias in their own game deci-

sions, the player is bedridden after falling ill. The

player is visited by Mukasa, the young guard who

had previously held her hostage and forced her

to shoot a young boy; Mukasa had fled the LRM

and is trying to leave Bunala. Confronted by the

situation at hand, the player must make a deci-

sion: (a) to seek justice on Mukasa by notifying

the nearby guard of his past actions, (b) to express

forgiveness toward his former captor, or (c) to

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Uganda's Road to Peace May Run through the River of Forgiveness

show amnesty by not alerting the guard but not

forgiving the boy either. Just as the player had

advanced a recommendation affecting the fate

of Bunala, she now must decide the fate of this

boy—and, like the boy, accept the decision as one

she must bear henceforth.

Our interviews with players indicate that this

particular scene was quite challenging for some,

inviting them to reflect on and question their

own ethical biases. As one player recounted her

experience, "I started believing in forgiveness"

after earlier scenes, but said, "… that sense of

forgiveness was shaken to its core when I was

handed a gun and given that impossible choice.

How can you forgive someone who has forced

you to take an action that you find intolerable?"

Another player stated, "Just having a decision like

that that feels so embodied… it feels so real… it

makes it more than an academic question in ways

that talking about it just doesn't do. Because he's

not a real boy—I'm stunned that it mattered so

much."

It is our conviction that the reason it mattered

so much is because, in part, of the player's his-

tory with the narrative and the fact that she has

dramatic agency on how the story unfolds. For,

in a game, the decision has not been determined.

Instead, in a game, it is our choices that move

the narrative forward. In this instance, the player

likely struggles with resentment she has towards

the fictional character who previously forced the

player to kill a helpless boy or accept responsibil-

ity for additional deaths. At some level, choosing

not to forgive the guard is a personal accusation

that one's own crimes in the game were also not

justified, but forgiveness brings an additional set

of ethical conflicts in that it could be construed

as vindicating the guard of his responsibility,

potentially establishing an ethical dilemma for

the player.

Completing the game play story, the player

once recovered at the hospital either returns to the

office or, if fired from the company job, returns to

Bunala, where, reunited with Kihini as support,

they help advocate and disseminate the power of

forgiveness. In either case, the player undergoes a

final debriefing that facilitates a closing reflection

on the issues addressed by the game. Now neither

actively in role-play nor withdrawn from the nar-

rative, the player reviews a series of artifacts or

representations describing the outcomes for vari-

ous characters and for the country of Bunala as a

whole (see Table 3 for a listing of the artifacts).

These forms of feedback serve not only to illumi-

nate for players the broader consequences of their

choices but also to motivate them to replay the

game, perhaps with different choices in the hopes

of different outcomes. The first is a reminder of

the player's changed status at the company, and

the second is the letter pertaining to Teresa, who

had been either harmed or murdered. Another is a

letter from Kihini, with insight about the implica-

tions of the player's recommendation as it affects

the people of Bunala. The last is a newspaper

clipping that speculates and outlines the broader

impact of the player's recommendation.

Once the game is complete, the player may

access the game Codex, a review of the player's

Table 3. Relationship between player recommendation and endgame representations

Endgame Representation

Recommendation Job Status Village Elder

Newspaper

Short Term Long Term

Justice Promotion Accusatory Violence Peace

Amnesty Demotion Advisory Peace Violence

Forgiveness Dismissal Grateful Isolated Violence Peace

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Uganda's Road to Peace May Run through the River of Forgiveness

game choices and outcomes (see Figure 6). First,

it includes summary scores of the Advocacy

choices that the player made as they relate to the

three ethical biases, showing how many times the

player chose each of the values, Justice, Am-

nesty, and Forgiveness. It also presents a report

of the player's final recommendation as well as

its implications in terms of the game artifacts

already encountered but presented again in the

context of review. The benefit of the Codex for

teaching values is that it demonstrates the relation-

ships among values, decisions, and consequenc-

es, thus explicating the agenda embedded in the

game design and scaffolding reflection on the

multiplicity of perspectives and the need to con-

sider value-based solutions within a systemic

context. Its benefit for the field of game design

is that it invites conversation with players about

how, through their game play, they take up our

designs to become lived-through stories. Such an

understanding will help to establish best prac-

tices in designing games that serve to narrate

problematic issues and foster appreciation of the

underlying values.

LESSONS LEARNED AND

IMPLICATIONS

Although there have long existed technologies

for engaging learners in understanding ethical

struggles, we regard videogames as especially

efficacious in that they can foster a state of en-

gagement that involves projection into the role

of a character who, enmeshed in a partly fic-

tional problem context, must develop and apply

particular understandings to make sense of and,

ultimately, transform the context (Barab, Gresalfi,

& Ingram-Goble, 2009). While typically gaming

technologies are leveraged for entertainment pur-

poses, our experience and aspiration is to use them

to afford engagement with complex and sensitive

issues transpiring around the world. Significantly,

designers of such games must attend not simply to

the database of facts and probabilities of outcomes,

but also to the implications of players' decisions

and to the in-game and user-created narratives

that give meaning to such decisions. To curtail the

creation of pedagogically imperialistic games, that

is, ones presuming the legitimacy of a hegemonic

perspective, socially responsible game designers

must remain cognizant of important questions:

How do we represent the various perspectives

on an issue, especially issues as complex and

volatile as those discussed above, and do this in

the context of a game design? How do we decide

which choices to make available to the player and

determine which consequences should be linked

to particular player actions? How do we advance

an agenda and do so in a way that doesn't simply

promote the biases of the designers or of one

political perspective at the exclusion of others?

Figure 6. Screenshot depicting the Codex review

of in-game statistics

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Uganda's Road to Peace May Run through the River of Forgiveness

The following is a list of lessons that other

designers may derive from the experience that we

have recounted above. In particular, we briefly

reflect on issues of cultural sensitivity, empirical

legitimacy, pedagogical lesson, player reflection,

and identity transformation. Each of these are

expanded on below, grounded in our experience

but discussed in relation to concerns of others as

they reflect on their own work and that of others.

Cultural Sensitivity

This work can be considered an example of what

Barab, Dodge et al. (2005) described as critical

design work, referring to design work that calls

in to question and even prompts users to critique

commonly held beliefs or practices. Similarly,

Thomas, Mitchell, and Joseph (2002, p. 44) wrote

that designers need to bear an "ethical commit-

ment to creating culturally sensitive products."

Indeed, through advancing such a design, we have

developed a richer appreciation of why critical

curriculum scholars are so impassioned against

claims of "truth." In critical work, one begins to

question whether idealized notions are useful or,

instead, problematic in that they communicate an

extraneous, locally immaterial, and potentially

hegemonic perspective on the world (Apple, 1976;

Freire, 1970/2000; Giroux, 1991). When designing

a game, one must not only develop a particular

story about the core ideas, but also position play-

ers such that they experience outcomes associated

with particular choices. This can be challenging

in practice because, in choosing which outcomes

to associate with given actions, the designer must

necessarily privilege particular perspectives over

others. In the case of designing an educational

game about Uganda, the "win" condition is that

which achieves enduring peace, but should this

condition be dependent on retributive justice? Or

should the game tell a more locally contextual-

ized story, even if such a claim may violate what

is more generally argued, namely that justice is

prerequisite for peace? We chose to allow for all

three choices as possibly bringing about a satis-

fying closure to the game, but with forgiveness

producing the optimal outcome in terms of citizen

satisfaction although the player is fired as a result.

Empirical Legitimacy

This design challenge requires intimacy with the

situation, the underlying struggles experienced

by people who have actually lived the story and

it demands recognition of one's own biases.

As anthropologists and historians have argued,

cultures and histories are human constructions,

but their constructed nature should not suggest

unconstrained liberty for the designer. Rather,

due to both what these works represent and

what they will engender, the designer bears a

responsibility to ground the work in empirical

storylines and locally-felt experiences (Geertz,

1978; Marcus, 1981). It is our experience—and

a fundamental argument of this chapter—that it is

in the particulars that meanings are engaged and

transformation occurs. For us, the Uganda story

remains a compelling one, albeit tragic, but not

our own story. Though we could have translated a

textbook-style articulation of a resolution strategy

into a game design (i.e., necessarily advocating

justice over amnesty), and though this resolution

would still represent an experiential articulation,

through more deeply engaging with those whose

experiences brought the story to life, we began

to understand the limitations of such a simplistic

resolution. Through fictionalization, we are able

to design with pedagogical liberty about issues

that have political sensitivity, ethical subjectivity,

and interpretive contestation while still ensuring

intrinsic fidelity and projective capacity. The con-

text entwines real and fictional elements designed

to embed the learner and the curricular content

within a complex and credible situation, establish-

ing what Riffarterre (1990) and Walton (1990, p.

21) referred to as "fictional truths." Clearly, the

explicit details and even the unfolding trajectories

of our game are fictional, but it s based in very real

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Uganda's Road to Peace May Run through the River of Forgiveness

events and is designed to foster a real experiential

state within the player. In fact, it is this freedom

to fictionalize that, we believe, makes playable

fictions so pedagogically powerful.

Pedagogical Lesson

A core question raised by this project is how best

to illuminate particular situations as well as the

universal struggles that they manifest. In response

to this question, the challenge becomes how to

scaffold players in a balanced sense of engage-

ment, neither remaining as mere witnesses, nor

interacting with such simplistic rules that the

ethical struggle feels trite, nor performing within

such a complex game system that the lessons be-

come obscure. In this case, the Ugandan struggles

reflect universal tensions and enduring concerns

that arise in diverse forms in diverse contexts

but still demonstrate underlying aspirations and

disappointments. Such honoring of the particular,

simultaneous with appreciation of commonality,

is a challenge likewise embraced in the field of

historical empathy. These practitioners engage

in cognitive empathy characterized by informed

perspective taking, not projection, sympathy, or

personal distress (Foster, 2001; Polman, 2006).

They retain their cultural and individual charac-

ter in order to understand another context, and

this paradox bears implications for the present

purpose. Specifically, our designs seek to bridge

between local happenings and enduring issues in

a way that does not disperse their local meanings

but, rather, positions them within the conversa-

tion and, at the same time, engages them in a

universal debate (Geertz, 1976). As designers,

we strive to recognize not only the commonal-

ity of the issues but the shared responsibility for

their consideration and, hopefully, solution: our

players are implicated in the history of Uganda

and invested in its resolution toward peace. It is

in the player's reflection on the deeper meaning

of these struggles that the pedagogical value of

these spaces is realized.

Player Reflection

Intricate game design can not only instantiate

such dynamics as these but also foster player re-

flection about them, and ideally these reflections

can involve not only self-reflection in relation to

the game space but, more toward our objectives,

reflection on the dynamics of the content, that is,

the themes and issues of the game. Such reflection,

however, is not an affordance directly borne by

videogame technology. Media affording precise

depiction serve learning that sort of content, such

as the visual features of a botanical species, just

as media affording fluid motion serve learning

content like the principles of physics. Pictures,

films, and even videogames may be suited to

these ends. For learning less concrete, objec-

tive, or instrumental content like values, media

affording narrative, interaction, and inquiry are

advantageous because such media afford reflec-

tion on dynamics of interrelation and mutuality. A

player engaged in fictional play is ideally situated

to consider multiple perspectives and to integrate

them in novel, tentative, productive ways, exhib-

iting deep learning of values and their meaning.

However, if the game does not provide experiences

that afford or even necessitate reflection, then the

player might not engage deeply with the underly-

ing messages even if he potential to do so exists.

Identity Transformation

A game space like this one serving to illuminate

such complex values as peace and justice does not

merely portray for players the shocking atrocities

and inhumane conditions. In our game, the player

inhabits the role of a representative of the ICC

who enters Bunala (i.e., Uganda) expecting to

implement a plan for rehabilitation—a workable

path to peace. As players engage the Bunalan situ-

ation, the game context, characters, and dynamics

scaffold their progress from initially comparing

justice and amnesty to eventually conceiving an

alternative solution based on forgiveness. This

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Uganda's Road to Peace May Run through the River of Forgiveness

synthesis emerges through reflection on the

game dynamics and, ideally, the player's own

transactive identity, and such reflection fosters

deep understanding of the dynamics of values

and their function in the player's own life. Gen-

eralizing from this experience, education might

be broadly conceived as a process of transfor-

mation (Engeström, 1987). Understanding what

conditions lead to true transformation is part of

the larger agenda of the work, but minimally we

are arguing for embedding learners in situations

where they must adapt general concepts to appreci-

ate and transform virtual worlds and, ultimately,

reflect on what their critical choices say about

themselves. As designers as well as players, not

despite but because we retain our identity when

engaging with these issues, do we recognize our

role in their unfolding and resolution (Clifford &

Marcus, 1986).

In closing, it is our belief that through the

power of gaming technologies and specifically the

affordances of play and fiction, designers are able

to invite others to engage in the experience of their

own story. Such opportunity and responsibility can

be daunting. While we created a game, the play

dynamics were about real people and real happen-

ings. We had to continually ask ourselves, are the

in-game solutions respectful and empowering or

naively problematic? Are we helping players to

better understand both Uganda and themselves,

or might offering our perspective do them a dis-

service? Asking such questions is essential to a

reflexive design process. In answer, we believe

that history is less likely to be repeated if these

stories are understood. More importantly, despite

the disheartening stories that we tell through this

work, we continue to believe in people's capac-

ity to reflect on their experiences and to develop

their own perspectives: perspectives that may or

may not align with those we have designed but

that nonetheless allow one to better engage and

embrace the stories that our designs illuminate.

It is for this reason that we are committed to the

design of these stories, even as biased and prob-

lematic as they are when designed and played.

We further view games and the dramatic agency

they support as providing a powerful medium for

establishing fictional spaces that through player

actions in relation to the virtual world can help

to foster a more ethically sophisticated society in

the real world.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The work reported in this manuscript was sup-

ported by the National Science Foundation (Grant

# 9980081 and 0092831) and by the John D. and

Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation (Grant # 06-

88658-000-HCD). Also, thanks to Eric Hamilton

for all his support in helping us come to terms with

the ideas included in this manuscript.

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... He/she may be concerned with individualisation models, which are built up from various modules (general professional module, special module, independent activity module, research module, clinical experience module) [11]. Students also have the use of creativity and innovation [12,13] • Innovations: Innovative curricula design, supportive notes [14], distance learning and its impact on the quality of education [15], portfolio method [16], competencybased approach [17], responsive management system [18,19], ICTs [20][21][22] • Moral development issues: Learning progression [23], methods for fostering an ethical-deontological culture in Latin classes [24], digital games -a powerful learning environment for moral development [25] • An informal approach to teaching (museum -an informal platform for teaching) [26] In innovative education, medical students should learn by a new model of education that would fit the healthcare industry [27,28]. ...

Nurila Maltabarova
Alexey Kokoshko
Aigul Abduldayeva
Galiya Smailova

Adaptive learning technologies, applied with supportive symbols and signals allow developing the subject and communicative competencies, as well as shaping the creative abilities of students. This article provides the assessment criteria for preliminary, formative, midpoint and summative assessments. This article substantiates the hypothesis on improving the Emergency Medical Service student's independent performance at the stage of supportive notes introduction. Methodology is original as it contains the following method: students are the one to write notes as an effective means of independent activity organization. Besides, this method can be useful as an alternative recording technique. Accordingly, innovation-driven education (in our case, independent learning and skills developing for quality outcomes) is one of the main components of the teaching and learning process. The statistics have revealed that students gain better subject knowledge through this learning technology.

... Ethical discourse and reasoning are essential to democratic citizenship (Schrier 2010). As I noted earlier, some digital games have been the subject of controversy in relation to ethics. ...

Morag Munro

Both as discourse and as practice, e-learning in Higher Education (HE) is shaped by many factors, the most critical of which are the political motivations driving its adoption. In this dissertation I attest that e-learning policies relevant to HE issued by government departments and non-departmental public bodies in the United Kingdom (UK) between 2003 and 2013 were predominantly underpinned by neoliberal ideology. The enquiry is grounded in the Critical research paradigm's intention to expose, critique, and ultimately overcome sources of oppression. Thirteen policy texts were analysed via two critical lenses. First, via thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke 2006) of the corpus I identified recurring themes. These were then clustered around a trilogy of master narratives: Marketisation, Instrumentality, and Modernisation. Through an ideology critique of these master narratives, I uncovered and unpacked the motivations underpinning claims made in relation to e-learning. My second mode of analysis was a detailed Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) of each document. CDA sees the wider context as essential to making sense of a text (Bloor and Bloor 2007; Van Dijk 2008). My critique, therefore, considered each document within its historical and socioeconomic context, and examined the extent to which the three master narratives were evident both over time, and across England, Scotland, and Wales. How policy is communicated and presented is as important as what is said (Barnett 2000). Indeed, ideologies can be both enacted and obscured by language (Jones and Stilwell Peccei 2004; Henriksen 2011). My analysis, therefore, also examined the role of visual presentation, lexical choices, and rhetorical techniques in communicating the policies. Taken together, the two prongs of my analysis demonstrate that − although there are variances in different contexts and at different times − overall, the policies considered were motivated by neoliberal imperatives aimed at placing HE within the realm of the market and enhancing the UK's economic competitiveness. The policies also persistently reflect a deterministic and uncritical perspective towards technology. Furthermore, many of the claims made are exaggerated, unsubstantiated, contradictory, and even duplicitous, or are justified via reference to contested discourses. While neoliberal ideology is privileged and promoted across the corpus, alternative value systems are not. I argue that this problematic framing of e-learning is intensifying the negative impacts of neoliberalism on HE's role as a public good, as well as exacerbating social inequalities. Furthermore, it is channelling e-learning into a restricted form that limits any possible pedagogical or egalitarian opportunities that the judicious application of digital technologies in HE teaching and learning might support. I reflect on the implications of this for HE and for society, and for the professional practice of Learning Technologists. Finally, I present an alternative vision for e-learning in HE.

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In this article, the notion of game design value is proposed and explored utilizing three design theory frameworks: Holm's design values, Lawson's guiding principles and Schön's appreciative systems. Game design, as other design fields, is affected by the designers' personal attitudes, beliefs and values. To gain a deeper understanding of design work by game developers it is imperative to introduce the consistence and development of these design philosophies to the field of game development. The proposed framework assists the organization of future research into game design values.

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Lindsay D. Grace

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Owen Gottlieb

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Mary Flanagan
Daniel C Howe
Helen Nissenbaum

INTRODUCTION: The idea that values may be embodied in technical systems and devices (artifacts) has taken root in a variety of disciplinary approaches to the study of technology, society, and humanity (Winner 1986; Latour 1992; Hughes 2004; MacKenzie and Wajcman 1985). A pragmatic turn from this largely descriptive posture sets forth values as a design aspiration, exhorting designers and producers to include values, purposively, in the set of criteria by which the excellence of technologies is judged. If an ideal world is one in which technologies promote not only instrumental values such as functional efficiency, safety, reliability, and ease of use, but also the substantive social, moral, and political values to which societies and their peoples subscribe, then those who design systems have a responsibility to take these latter values as well as the former into consideration as they work. (See, for example, Friedman and Nissenbaum 1996, Mitcham 1995, and Nissenbaum 1998.) In technologically advanced, liberal democracies, this set of such values may include liberty, justice, enlightenment, privacy, security, friendship, comfort, trust, autonomy, and sustenance. It is one thing to subscribe, generally, to these ideals, even to make a pragmatic commitment to them, but putting them into practice, which can be considered a form of political or moral activism, in the design of technical systems is not straightforward. Experienced designers will recall the not too distant past when interface, usability, and even safety were overlooked features of software system design.

John Kirriemuir
Angela McFarlane

Computer games are today an important part of most children's leisure lives and increasingly an important part of our culture as a whole. We often, as adults, watch in amazement as children dedicate hours to acting as football coaches, designers of empires, controllers of robots, wizards and emperors. In the past, computer games have been dismissed as a distraction from more 'worthy' activities, such as homework or playing outside. Today, however, researchers, teachers and designers of learning resources are beginning to ask how this powerful new medium might be used to support children's learning. Rather than shutting the door of the school against the computer game, there is now increasing interest in asking whether computer games might be offering a powerful new resource to support learning in the information age. This review is intended as a timely introduction to current thinking about the role of computer games in supporting children's learning inside and out of school. It highlights the key areas of research in the field, in particular the increasing interest in pleasurable learning, learning through doing and learning through collaboration, that games seem to offer. At the same time, the review takes a measured tone in acknowledging some of the obstacles and challenges to using games within our current education system and within our current models of learning. It goes on to propose some ways in which designers, researchers and educational policy makers might draw on the growing body of research in the field to create learning resources and environments that go beyond a sugar-coating of 'fun' to the full engagement that computer games seem to offer so many children today.

James Paul Gee

Why do poor and minority students under-perform in school? Do computer games help or hinder learning? What can new research in psychology teach our educational policy-makers?