Engage

Introduction

Eye of the Storm is a narrative game prototype about a mayor who must make political and collective decisions in preparation for and in response to a disastrous storm. I developed the game as part of the final project for the Innovation and Technology course, where I explored Twine as a form of education technology, and the viability of narrative games as a learning tool.

The topic was inspired by the Educause online article written by Abi Johnson, Using Empathy Games in the Social Sciences. In the article, Johnson argues that “(v)ideo games combined with pedagogy offer unique opportunities to help students understand perspectives for which they may have no lived experience.” While I have not served as a mayor of any city, I chose the topic and character because I have the lived experience of typhoons and other natural disasters, having grown up in the Philippines. Moreover, I worked on disaster recovery for a year following the destruction of Typhoon Haiyan in the country, and am thus familiar with the inner workings of disaster preparation and rehabilitation.

Gameplay

In this first iteration of the game (submitted as HTML file via Canvas), the player assumes the role of a mayor who governs a city perennially exposed to typhoons. This character choice was largely driven by the format of the game and affordances of the technology, whereby a player makes choices by clicking on the links to drive the narrative forward. In the context of a natural disaster, a mayor makes decisions for his or her constituents on informing them of risks and safety precautions, emergency response and recovery, and the politics that surrounds disaster management.

As a narrative, the plot is driven by the weather system (i.e., storm) and involves a rival politician who is the antagonist. The storm is characterized by unpredictability, making decisions and preparation difficult. It also presents a sense of urgency – the mayor must make personal and political decisions both before and after the storm reaches the community. Meanwhile, the mayor’s rival has resources (e.g., a helicopter) that will be vital for emergency response. This defines the gameplay – the mayor must be politically savvy in the decisions he or she must make to save people’s lives and at the same time to secure a reelection.

Twine as game platform and form of education technology

I chose Twine as the game platform for its ease of use and appropriateness for creating a game-like reader experience. The open source platform is easy to learn which makes it accessible to people who are new or want to try text-based games. It allows the player/reader to select what happens to the story based on choices the player makes through the main character, similar to the book series Choose Your Own Adventure. For these reasons Twine is popular among text-driven independent online game creators.

Twine harnesses the feature of HyperText Markup Language (HTML) to use hyperlinks to go from one page to another, allowing the creator and player to pursue a story with multiple narrative threads more seamlessly with the click of a button. This interactivity, a basic form of media navigation, can facilitate knowledge construction (Mayer and Moreno, 2007), that is, the dilemma a leader faces in the midst of a crisis.

According to Johnson, empathy games can supplement course materials by introducing interactivity on more traditional learning methods of readings and discussions on topics such as gender identity (dys4ia), illness (Depression Quest, That Dragon, Cancer), abuse (e.g., Papa and Yo), or violent conflict (This War of Mine). Yet with the development of Twine, barriers to entry to this specific type of game creation are lower, democratizing the medium to cover topics that portray situations that are otherwise impossible or difficult to universally experience such as depression (Depression Quest) or dealing with a natural disaster.

Johnson warns of people playing empathy games as mere “pity tourism” or a jaunt to an unfamiliar and marginalized reality where empathy ends as soon as the activity stops. To prevent this, she recommends embedding the game in the context of an academic curriculum instead of as a separate and stand-alone activity. To achieve this, the instructor should provide learning goals and assigned readings to frame the learning activity.

Similar to Johnson’s learning objectives, the following criteria should be met to warrant playing an empathy game:

1. The game should sustain their interest in the topic while resulting to comparable learning outcomes in comparison to assigning and discussing readings.
2. The game should expose them to a new experience, such as preparing for and responding to a disaster. 

The course materials should be consistent with the learning outcomes of the course. In developing the game, I had in mind students who are taking courses in international development and/or disaster management, and have limited or no experience in working on the ground prior to or right after a disaster. Selected readings can come from sociology, urban planning, economics, and political science and other related disciplines on the topics of disaster risk reduction and management, perceptions of disaster risks, politics of humanitarian aid, among others.

Future considerations

While brainstorming the game, I had assumed that an ordinary or poor resident may not have many choices when dealing with disasters and may not be a good fit for the role of the main character, as opposed to a decision-maker like the mayor. However, a second iteration of the game could explore this type of character. Similar to the game Depression Quest where the player assumes the role of a person who suffers from depression and has limited agency over his or her actions due to an illness, the same can be said true for people living in disaster-stricken areas due to their dire living circumstances.

In general, Twine games are designed for single-player use. It would be interesting to observe the type of discussions and interactions that may arise from playing the game if it were to be played by multiple players in both online and face-to-face courses. Decisions on how to deal with disasters are often a collective effort, and it would be ideal if the game could foster cooperation among students. Playing video games with fellow students has been known to lead to better collaboration (Barr, 2018).

Subsequent versions of the game can also incorporate images and audio for an enhanced immersive experience, making the game more engaging that could potentially lead to increased empathy.

[Play Eye of the Storm]

Introduction

Whola is an interactive game on Zoom and Google Sheets that employs the mechanics of BINGO-type icebreakers. The objective of the game is for students to get acquainted and interact with each other on their first day of synchronous class. Whola combines the word “who” and the Filipino word “hula” (pronounced /hula’/) meaning “guess.”

The game is a customizable icebreaker for participants in a Zoom room to get to know each other. It is similar to its pen-and-paper counterpart, where players go around the room in search of participants who satisfy the description written in the boxes of the BINGO card. To some extent, it can also be played as an initial group activity on a particular topic, where concepts (e.g., answers) come from the participants themselves, as the game requires soliciting contributions from the group prior to the class. Icebreakers have been known to create openness and trust among students, make them feel comfortable, and provide a space for making connections that can promote a positive learning environment and introduce subject content.

Whola game interaction

Why did I create Whola?

My decision to develop the game was inspired by one of the recommendations I identified in my final paper for the class “University as a Design Problem” in Spring 2020, a core course in my graduate program. The paper explored the importance of the first year student experience, and how socialization may look like in Fall 2020 should universities decide to implement online learning and social distancing guidelines amid COVID-19.

Traditional approaches for socialization and community building among first year students relies on their physical presence on campus and inside classrooms. In particular, living learning communities have been known to facilitate student transition, student involvement, interaction with faculty and students, and learning new or different perspectives. Yet amid COVID-19, social distancing poses limitations on living arrangements and face-to-face classroom attendance. Moreover, some universities like Georgetown University are already preparing for a HyFlex scenario, in the event that this mode of learning is the most practical option for Fall 2020.

Pedagogy

Researchers situate the use of an icebreaker in a classroom within Gilly Salmon’s five-stage framework of teaching and learning. The proposed game addresses access and motivation (Stage 1), online socialization (Stage 2), and information exchange (Stage 3). Throughout the duration of the activity or the course, the game should ideally build on knowledge construction (Stage 4) and development (Stage 5).

While the game does not focus on a specific content or topic, it aims to facilitate interaction and discovery of other participants’ ideas, stories, and values, which is often difficult to induce especially for students meeting for the first time in an online setting. Working collaboratively is already challenging in face-to-face environments, and this is further amplified in an online setting. The design of the game also addresses the concept of transactional distance in distance education, particularly between learners. One way to build community and increase participation in an online course is to design icebreakers to encourage connections, maintain interaction throughout the course, and create a space for reflection.

Using Google Sheets and Zoom as the “game engine” models to the class the use of technology as virtual learning environments. Both students and the instructor are exposed to an online version of Think-Pair-Share, and the breakout room function in Zoom which can be used in subsequent online classes. Meanwhile, students can become familiar with online collaborative tools such as Google Sheets.

Zoom and Google Suite applications are ubiquitous education technologies, which I assume make them more accessible, both in terms of availability and platform for game development. Google Sheets also presents options for basic customization such as size, color, and type of text font, cells, and even inserting an image. What sets the game apart from traditional paper BINGO games is the basic interactivity of typing the answer. When the correct answer is typed in, the third cell in the box will show an additional fact, which may include a URL leading to an external website related to the information submitted by the player prior to the game.

Download the Whola design document with the game set up and instructions (opens as a Google Doc).