I've been following the increasing role of video gaming, online simulation games, and massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) to do more than entertain. Taking on serious subjects such as genocide in Darfur, Middle Eastern conflict and the impact of global hunger, these games are now categorized as "Serious Games."
Using role-playing simulations is certainly not new to Tufts. The Fletcher School's International Security Studies Program (ISSP) sponsors an annual crisis management exercise http://fletcher.tufts.edu/simulex/index.html called SIMULEX that is held over a two-day period. The exercise focuses on "a highly realistic scenario involving the United States and other world actors." The simulation is supported with web-based tools provided through the ICONS project.
However, the national trend in creating serious games or decision-based simulations is certainly picking up momentum. In the recent EDUCAUSE publication Simulations, Games, and Learning, Diana G. Oblinger points out that "...today's games are complex, require collaboration and strenuous time commitments, and involve developing values, insights, and new knowledge. They are immersive virtual worlds often augmented by complex communities of practice. In many ways, games have become complex learning systems."
Following are some examples of some of the newest serious games:
* Peacemaker http://www.peacemakergame.com is a game created at Carnegie Mellon that gives players the task of brokering a lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians
* Darfur is Dying http://www.darfurisdying.com is a game posted on MTV's site for college students that has attracted some 700,000 players in one month.
*A Force More Powerful http://www.aforcemorepowerful.org/game/index.php focuses on developing non-violent strategies for human rights issues and conflicts.
*Pax Warrior http://www.paxwarrior.com/home/index.php has the UN mission to Rwanda as its narrative.
Four years ago, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars coined the term "serious games" to "encourage the development of games that address policy and management issues."
Now there is a Serious Games Initiative site http://www.seriousgames.org/index2.html
that is "focused on uses for games in exploring management and leadership challenges facing the public sector."
The Games for Change and Games for Health conferences as well as the upcoming Serious Games Summit are examples of how rapidly games and simulations are addressing the kinds of issues and concerns first broached in 2002 by the Center.
One example from the Games for Health conference is Immune Attack, "a new generation video game that engages students and teaches complex biology and immunology topics in a manner different from the traditional classroom approach " that was jointly developed by the Federation of American Scientists, Brown University, and the University of Southern California and is targeted to high school students.
The United Nations World Food Programme has a new educational video game developed specifcally to help children learn about the issue of world hunger - Food Force, http://www.food-force.com/. According to the site, it has been downloaded by about four million people.
The University of Illinois Chicago through its Center for the Advancement of Distance Education (CADE) http://www.publichealthgames.com/ has been creating video games that simulate biological, chemical, radiological and natural disasters in a major metropolitan area. The hope is that these games will be used to "prepare public health workers and emergency responders for real life emergencies."
Some simulation role-playing games blend online learning with a face-to-face component. Mekong e-Sim was recently featured as a case study at the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative site. Developed in 2001 by the engineering schools of the University of Adelaide and the University of Technology, Sydney, the game centers on international natural resource management issues. Each learning scenario is set in motion by a particular incident and students are grouped in teams of two to four. The teams spend two weeks researching their issues and roles and then spend two weeks in online interaction and debate. Finally a period of structured reflection and synthesis takes place in the classroom.
Following are more articles of interest on this trend:
The Next Generation of Educational Engagement
http://jime.open.ac.uk/2004/8/">http://jime.open.ac.uk/2004/8/">http://jime.open.ac.uk/2004/8/
Darfur activism meets video gaming
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/5153694.stm?ls
In 'Darfur Is Dying,' The Game That's Anything But
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/30/AR2006043001060.html
Can Social-Change Video Games Tackle Divorce, Poverty, Genocide?
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1535474/20060629/index.jhtml?headlines=true
Games Get Serious
http://www.thebulletin.org/article.php?art_ofn=ja06schollmeyer_100
Serious Games: Improving Public Policy through Game-Based
Learning and Simulation
http://wwics.si.edu/subsites/game/index.htm
Mekong e-Sim: A Cross-Disciplinary Online Role-Play Simulation
http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI5014.pdf#search=%22Mekong%20e-Sim%22
