Cover Games can be used to raise awareness about social issues and disease prevention (Photo: Getty Images)
Games can be used to raise awareness about social issues and disease prevention (Photo: Getty Images)
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By using an engaging format and features such as a scoreboard and rewards, games can help raise awareness of an issue or disease
Gaming has grown up. Players are learning about climate change, hurricane safety, type 1 diabetes and infection control practices during a pandemic. And they are having fun while doing so.
Serious games—so-called because they are designed for purposes beyond pure entertainment—are being used for several purposes.
These include encouraging people to adopt healthy lifestyle changes, develop better social skills, and be persuaded and recruited to various causes and for campaigning in politics.
Read more: How video games are influencing mainstream society
Such games can also teach medical students how to diagnose certain conditions. Many serious games have been developed for diseases such as cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, autism and obesity.
For example, a modified version of the Mario Bros’ computer game helps children learn about type 1 diabetes and how to better control their blood sugar levels. The game challenges players to manage Mario’s blood sugar levels by ensuring he makes healthy dietary choices and gets enough physical activity.
Such games are designed and evaluated by experts. They score over social media platforms as tools to create awareness because social media can spread misinformation. By using an engaging format and features such as a scoreboard, bonuses and other incentives, serious games help raise awareness of an issue or disease.
Catch me if you can
Above A version of ‘Mario Bros’ teaches children about Type 1 diabetes and how to better control their sugar levels. It’s fun, engaging and educational (Photo: Getty Images)
A version of ‘Mario Bros’ teaches children about Type 1 diabetes and how to better control their sugar levels. It’s fun, engaging and educational (Photo: Getty Images)
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During the Covid-19 pandemic, researchers at BML Munjal University designed a smartphone game called Unlock Me to raise awareness about safe hygiene practices during the pandemic.
Unlock Me simulates real-life situations and experiences to help players understand infection control practices such as using hand sanitiser and social distancing, to reduce their risk of contracting Covid.
In the game, the player is a police officer who patrols the streets searching for people violating the lockdown. The challenge is to catch the violators within the given timeframe by creating checkpoints in the game map.
A single-player game, Unlock Me was developed by considering classic gaming parameters such as fantasy, mystery, goals, stimuli, challenge and control.
Read more: How Press Start Studios’s Vince Siu went from playing games to building his own
Busting myths, one level at a time
Above According to a review, 83 per cent of knowledge and skill acquisition games achieved desired learning outcomes (Photo: Getty Images)
According to a review, 83 per cent of knowledge and skill acquisition games achieved desired learning outcomes (Photo: Getty Images)
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Game-based learning has been used in the education and health sectors since the 2000s. An analysis of the use of serious games for lifestyle management suggests serious games positively impact users by increasing the adoption of healthy lifestyle measures such as drinking water, eating vegetables and increasing physical activity.
For example, the mobile game Jetset allows travellers to keep up to date with the current security regulations at international airports.
Players learn about the different security measures at 100 airports worldwide and get virtual souvenirs if they are playing from one of the airport sites.
Serious games can also be designed for more complex goals such as acquiring specific skills. According to a review of 512 games, 83 per cent of the 47 knowledge and skill acquisition games were found to be impactful and provided the desired learning outcomes.
Read more: How Asia’s edtech entrepreneurs are making a difference in learning and teaching
Raising awareness through play
Then there are games that raise community awareness of issues. For instance, the eVision game educates people about environmental threats.
The game uses augmented reality and mobile computing technology to allow users to search for sources of pollution near them with their mobile phones. Impact tests suggest that eVision played an important role in alerting users to sustainability issues and even influenced their behaviour: users’ experience with the game influenced what type of car they went on to buy.
Another game that creates awareness of hurricane safety in Malaysia provides a safety checklist and asks users to perform the tasks according to the list. When the game was tested, 90 per cent of the participants said that they learnt hurricane safety through the game.
Another game called Dr. Ludens’ LSG educates people about two neglected tropical diseases—visceral leishmaniasis and American cutaneous leishmaniasis—by using a rural farm set-up to help users relate to their present environment. The players perform specific actions such as removing infected dogs, cleaning leaves and drying water puddles.
An in-game quiz to gain additional points encourages deeper learning about the disease and improves the player’s ability to retain information over an extended period.
Read more: How to elevate STEM education in Asia, according to Big Bang Academy’s Sarah Tong
Another gamification tool that encourages deeper learning is a myth-busters feature that was used in the Covid game Unlock Me. This was developed to get around a flaw common in many serious games—they lack a mechanism to help players retain information. Unlock Me uses this myth-busters feature to teach players facts from the World Health Organization rebutting some common misconceptions about Covid-19.
The game has ten levels, and as soon as the player reaches a new level, they have to answer a Covid-related question. The questions appear like flashcards on the screen to help users remember the information easily and eventually take the players to the myth-busters feature.
Measuring the impact of serious games
Above Devices can be used for a greater good (Photo: Getty Images)
Devices can be used for a greater good (Photo: Getty Images)
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They have lofty ambitions but it can be difficult to measure how good educational games are at changing attitudes and behaviours.
To do so requires testing gameplay features with players again and again. Data generated this way can then be fed back into game development and can help improve the design significantly.
This was the case with Unlock Me, which was able to prove that the game was particularly successful in helping 17 to 21-year-old users learn about Covid-19. Comparing the average scores of a pre-game questionnaire on Covid-19 awareness with in-game questions showed an increase in learning by 53 per cent. However, the data also showed elderly players faced more challenges in completing all the levels, and hence, learning about Covid-19.
Developing an awareness-based educational game requires a deep analysis of the requirements of the player to create good user experiences.
Accurately assessing player experiences during gameplay can help build more enjoyable games and also help apply the learnings to other fields.
Dr Nishtha Phutela is an Assistant Professor in the School of Engineering & Technology at BML Munjal University in Haryana. She is an expert in Human Computer Interaction (HCI) and has conducted usability studies of multiple mobile, web and game-based applications.
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info.
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