Games can be more than fun! They can also assist in understanding situations, experiences and challenges which may not be happening to them personally. Before this assignment, I had not considered games as something that people play for fun, but these five experiences helped me to see that games can communicate important social issues, and make people look at the world in different ways. 

The first experience was the in-class privilege activity. The two pieces of paper each person was handed were related to his or her real identity or background in no way. Our professor read statements concerning various situations such as political, financial conditions, gender, age, education, etc. Every time there was something to say about the papers we had, we had to move one step forward. At the end, everyone was at a different distance, making it a visual representation of how some individuals may have more opportunities and advantages as compared to others. I really liked the ease of the activity, and its clear message. How inequality is not just discussed but how different circumstances give different starting positions is something that we could actually see. But I did not like the fact that this activity reduced complex experiences into a couple of steps. It’s possible that real people’s lives can’t always be captured in a small number of sentences. I learned that success doesn’t necessarily depend on effort, as different people may have different opportunities and resources from the start. I believe the activity could be enhanced by following up with a discussion so that participants can consider what they learned about how the activity made them feel and why they were placed in different positions.

Darfur is DyingLinks to an external site.

Another experience was Darfur Is Dying, which was about the lives of people impacted by the conflict in Darfur. The game places the players in the role of a refugee and challenges them to undertake basic survival tasks such as collecting water, without risk of being caught. I enjoyed the way it brought a distant or unknown issue into my personal realm. The thought of having to get water for myself made me realize how challenging life in times of displacement and conflict can be. But I didn’t like that it was a bit of a survival game and pretty much didn’t give me much more information about the people or what each person was doing. I was taught that refugee status has far more to it than simply losing one’s home. It can also involve losing SAFETY, education, food, water, and stability. The game could benefit from incorporating more personal narratives and engaging interactions illustrating the diverse situations in which families find themselves before, during and after displacement.

LiylaLinks to an external site.

Likewise, Liyla deals with the impact of war – but from the perspective of a child and their family. What I enjoyed the most was the emotional involvement in the game. This experience of war was more personal when viewed through the eyes of the ordinary family, as children are sensitive to war’s outcomes, which are not of their making and which they cannot control. While Darfur Is Dying is about displacement and survival, Liyla is about fear, uncertainty, and loss in a family’s life caused by conflict. But it was an emotional experience for me, and I believe the game could have offered more context of the family’s life prior to the conflict. This would make it possible for the players to gain insight into the loss of the family, as well as their life and dreams before the war. I learned that war can impact not only the soldiers or political leaders, it can impact regular people who just want to live safely with their families.

Virtue RealityLinks to an external site.

In Islamic Relief’s Virtue Reality, a different point of view is offered. Instead of on just those in need, this experience brings in the view point of the humanitarian worker and the difficulties faced when giving humanitarian assistance. It was good to see that it emphasises the value of humanitarian work, and made me realise that if wishes are not enough, you really have to want to help people in difficult situations. It includes planning, resources and decisions on how support is to be given. I would have preferred more opportunities to have interacted with the experience and made my own decisions. Allowing players to choose the allocation of limited resources between clean water, shelter and education for instance may make this more engaging. I learned that helping communities rebuild and improve their living conditions goes hand-in-hand with providing humanitarian assistance. This was a different experience from the last two as the focus went from an understanding of the impact of a crisis, to an understanding of what can be done about it.

Depression QuestLinks to an external site.

Lastly, Depression Quest is about a more unique kind of battle – one over mental health. Unlike other games that are primarily about external experiences like war, displacement and poverty, the game is about an internal experience that may not be apparent to others. I liked that it illustrated how every day life choice can be challenging for a person who has depression. Depending on the character’s mental condition, some selections are unavailable, illustrating the impact of depression on motivation, relationships and job duties. But I didn’t like the emotional stuff of it, and I believe that it’s important to realize depression isn’t the same thing for everyone. It is not possible to represent all situations with one character. The game could be expanded to have interactions with friends or family members so that people could learn how they could support the other person and how their actions may make them feel worse. I learned that depression is not just sadness or a bad mood. It can impact on a lot of people’s lives – even when others don’t see what they are dealing with.

When looking at all five of them as one experience I realized that they all had the same message but they were delivered in very different ways. The privilege activity highlights the visibility of inequality, by demonstrating different starting points for people. Both games, Darfur Is Dying and Liyla, discuss the repercussions of war, but in different ways. The first is more of the issue of displacement and access to basic needs, the second is more on the emotional affect of war on children and families. Virtue Reality takes another look at the situation with the perspective of those who deliver humanitarian aid. In the meantime, Depression Quest is about a hidden battle that might not be apparent to those around the person going through it. All five experiences show that people’s lives, choices and opportunities are shaped by their circumstances. They also helped me to understand how quick it is to make a judgement on someone without knowing what they may be going through.

All of this experience also gave me ideas on what kind of game I should make. I would call it “Different Shoes”. The game would give the players an opportunity to take on a character with a different financial, educational, and family background. Players would be faced with a variety of situations in education, employment, relationships, and finances that would happen to them every day. For instance, two students may have identical intellectual abilities and be equally motivated but, one of them might be able to attend an elite school for which his/her family is financially able to pay while the other has to work to support his/her family and is unable to afford to attend a university. Players could swap between the two characters and see how the exact same situation can result in drastically different choices based on a player’s situation. I would also add options that impact the characters future opportunities and how some bad things can make more of a problem. I would not claim that the circumstances control the people; rather, I would show that circumstances and people are not synonymous with everyone’s successes or failures. I would like players to challenge their own beliefs and grow in understanding of the lives of others.

In total, these five experiences have inspired me to the idea that games are a powerful educational medium since they can be used to engage a person in an issue, rather than just reading about or hearing about it. They helped me to see beyond myself and understand that others have varying situations that impact their life. Most of all I learned that the decisions that people make or the situation that they are in, before judging them, we need to take into consideration the challenges and opportunities that they may have had.