Serious games are quite a different category of video games than arcade games and represent a good response to people claiming video games lack content.
Darfur is dying is a famous example that brings awareness to the situation in that part of the world:
The user plays the role of a Darfurian refugee whose first goal is to forage for water to bring back to his/her camp without being attacked by the militia.
The events in the camp are the most interesting as the user needs to participate in the life of the camp by using the water to grow plants and build shelters when it is attacked by the militia, while staying alive.
Figure: A refugee camp in Darfur
Although it cannot make us appreciate the true atrocities in Darfur, this game helps understand refugees' personal situations, life conditions and struggle to survive (4 days in my case) through:
textual content
“direct” experience (I find the sounds quite important in achieving this).
The emotional impact carried by the latter makes it likely for users to remember the content of the game.
It encourages them to take real-world actions, which, on an educational level, is interesting in underscoring the link between that kind of game and the reality.
Obviously, the game is limited in scope but it explicitly acknowledges the complexities of the situation: personally, it made me want to learn more about the reasons of the conflict through more traditional media such as websites. I believe this is the main strength of this kind of games.
I see this as especially helpful in the classroom as well where learners may be much more willing to undertake traditional learning activities once they have tried the game: it can provide motivation and act as an anchoring point for future learning.
The other game I tried and found quite convincing is Oiligarchy. It puts the user in the shoes of “the bad”: a protagonist of the petroleum area drilling in all places of the globe, corrupting politicians (so they prevent locals from demonstrating, etc.).
Again, as a critical tool, it's quite effective in helping the user understand all the various interests at stake and the problems of this worldwide industry.
References:
Darfur Is Dying (2008). Serious game. mtvU.
http://www.darfurisdying.com/
Oiligarchy (2008). Serious game. Molle Industria.
http://www.molleindustria.org/en/oiligarchy
Keywords: e-learning, IDGBL2009, video_game, virtual_world
Comments
Considering the categories proposed by Caillois (2001), we can say that both games (and probably all serious games), are instances or mimicry. Following Frasca's redifinition of the distinction between paidea and ludus (in Newman 2004), they can be said to be ludus since they have a pre-defined objective: in Darfur is Dying, the player must survive 7 days in order to succeed.
Caillois, R. (2001). The classification of games. In Man, play and games. Urbana, Ill., University of Illinois Press; Wantage: University Presses Marketing.
Newman, J. (2004). What is a video game? Rules, puzzles and simulations. Videogames. London, Routledge.