The Berkeley Beacon

Issue date: 10/23/08 Section: Arts and Entertainment

Media Credit: courtesy of news.cnet.com Re-Mission, a game developed by HopeLab, serves to educate kids with cancer about their condition through interactive gameplay.

When you hear the word “game,” a number of things likely come to mind. “Fun” is probably the first. Then you might think of playing cards, sitting down with the ol’ Xbox, or maybe cheering a homer over Fenway’s Green Monster. It’s a pretty broad term, and means different things to different people.

Most, however, usually don’t associate games with world peace, better public schools, helping kids learn about grammar, or even medical training (e.g. virtual Laparoscopic surgery tools, as described recently in The Boston Globe). However, when it comes to video games, these topics have been pushed more and more in recent years.

This month I presented some research on designing games and their business models to help people with disabilities at the first-ever Conference on Meaningful Play at Michigan State University. There, hundreds of developers, researchers and academics got together to discuss and promote games that are meant to educate or push issues; these are otherwise known as “serious games.”

We all remember Reader Rabbit or Math Blaster from grade school, but—believe it or not—the idea of making games an integral part of learning or enrichment is undergoing a revitalization of sorts in influential areas.

A movement within education, military and other institutions have embraced realistic, narrative-driven games, virtual simulations and popular multiplayer environments alike as a way to teach, train, and even compel a player to take a side on some kind of ethical issue.

The clearest example within the mainstream gaming community is America’s Army, a free game with the sole purpose of recruiting for—you guessed it —our armed forces. It has been downloaded millions of times over the past six years, and seen more than 20 updates. Such projects, in addition to others that train the Navy’s air pilots on proper procedures or even conflict resolution to diplomats, are funded by our tax dollars.

Yes, our government develops video games, and has been doing so since the early ‘80s under the Department of Defense’s main research club, The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (gasp!). It makes sense, then, that our larger society needs to monitor such work in the same way it would any other governmental or institutional efforts.

Whenever I tell people that I make computer games, looks of curiosity are usually coupled with statements like, “Oh, so you must do stuff like Grand Theft Auto!” Imagine the reaction when I tell them I’m more into making educational stuff for kids—the looks inevitably turn askew.

Sadly, the average person does not likely find any of these games fun, since, quite honestly, most just are not very good.
Educational games are a vital and very much needed effort, but many developers and researchers have seemingly forgotten that a game—no matter how serious its subject matter—cannot neglect fun! And not just because games, by definition, need to be fun (in fact, “serious games” seems to be oxymoronic...something the industry cobbled together and will hopefully abandon soon).

As we start to embrace games as something worthy of, for instance, school or workforce curricula, this is a problem, not simply for the folks making the games, but for our future.  Think of a scenario like this: In the same way that a fifth-grade teacher who fails at making math fun loses student interest, a game that neglects the same principle does  more harm than good, likely scaring its players away from the subjects altogether. In essence, the only way an educational video game makes sense is if it’s really compelling. Kids have no patience, or at least much less than adults, for concepts that don’t “click” very quickly.

It is precisely the “fun” that both designers and consumers need to embrace as games pervade classrooms, hospitals and workplaces. It’s a crucial transition: documentaries helped to legitimize the film medium, but perhaps only recently have we come to scrutinize them in the same ways we do other genres.
Following the same vein, I am afraid that although educational types of software are helping the games medium to become more integrated within larger society, we are not evaluating them as we need to be. In a sense, there’s no reason to pigeonhole games into the realm of boring old history filmstrips. They must be treated as art, and as such, part of the social good.



Re-animate, re-educate: Games with a brain

Re-Mission: This game, developed by philanthropically-funded HopeLab, is targeted at kids with cancer and asks players to attack cancerous cells inside a human body as a fictional hero named Roxxi. It also includes information about treatment, therapy and different forms of cancer. More than 126,000 copies have been distributed throughout hospitals and homes in 81 countries. An exhaustive researcher reported this summer that the game has improved treatment adherence and self-monitoring in kids who have spent time with it.

Darfur is Dying: Released in April 2006, the game was designed by a USC student and won mtvU’s “Darfur Digital Activist Contest” competition, and has since been played more than 2.4 million times, making it one of the more popular games on the Web. The player is assigned to guide a member of a Darfuri family on a fetch for water while evading Janjaweed soldiers, then managing a small refugee camp with what is collected. Though the game’s purpose is clear, for some it can be difficult to figure out quickly: critics have had usability issues with how the gameplay is explained and its somewhat shaky controls.

Hurricane Katrina: Tempest in Crescent City: Developed as part of Global Kids’ Playing 4 Keeps Program, which uses and teaches kids how to build games as a way to promote learning, citizenship and social awareness, this Web game has players helping and rescuing neighbors during the Katrina crisis. It does a decent job in both the gameplay and message department, has a great comic-book look and tries to give the player some motivation through a storyline.

CNN: Campaign Rush: Campaign Rush puts you in the role of either a Republican or Democratic volunteer campaign worker who must get a set amount of information out to calling and e-mailing constituents within a certain time period. It has potential, but fails to inform about any national issues and lacks a “hook” to make it fun or addicting. This title represents “serious games” at their worst; it neither inspires nor entertains, and is a great example of games not meeting their prospects for enrichment.

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