The introduction of serious games into civic education presents a new and transformative approach to engaging citizens in understanding complex societal issues. By leveraging the interactive and immersive nature of games, educators and developers are crafting experiences that not only entertain but also deeply educate individuals on the nuances of civic responsibility, sustainability, and social justice. This innovative educational tool bridges the gap between traditional learning methods and the dynamic, interactive demands of modern learners, fostering a more informed, engaged, and proactive civic engagement.

The (After) Fantasy social simulation is an example of educational approach, where real-world challenges are presented using a captivating fantasy universe. Participants gain the opportunity to look at the issues at hand from a different perspective. They face challenges, such as limited human and financial resources, internal conflicts, personal ambitions and uncertainty.

This not only makes the experience feel real, but also deepens the educational impact, making complex civic issues more relatable and engaging for players.

The simulation was created by the Centre for Systems Solutions, in collaboration with partners from Poland – Krytyka Polityczna Foundation and Common Thing Foundation, and Norway – Phronesis SA. The partners worked together on the serious game in a project called “Education for Citizenship”, with the goal to develop and promote tools for civic education for adults. While the Centre for Systems Solutions handled the design and testing aspects, project partners enriched the development process with their insights and expertise. To learn more about (After)Fantasy, Przemek Jankowski had the pleasure to talk to Michalina Kułakowska from the Centre for Systems Solutions – who was the main designer of the game.

Michalina, could you share why you chose a fantasy world as the setting for your serious game?

Choosing a fantasy world as the setting for a serious game goes beyond the immersive aspects of simulation. It taps into the universal appeal and timeless nature of storytelling found in fairy tales, legends, and parables. These narratives, while fantastical, are deeply rooted in human experience and are imbued with lessons, moral dilemmas, and complex character interactions that mirror real-life challenges. By using a fantasy setting, the game can employ metaphors and allegorical elements that resonate with players, making the experience more engaging and relatable.

I think it is also worth mentioning here that in serious games, it’s crucial to enter a “magic circle” for players to immerse themselves in a simulated environment. This fantasy setting allows players to safely explore and test behaviors, observe group dynamics, and interact with others. It offers a safe space for experimentation and reflection, providing players with the distance needed to critically assess their actions and the outcomes within a controlled, imagined context.

How far removed is the world of (After)Fantasy from our real world?

In the game’s setting – the city of Motus, a diverse community faces a looming peril, the Threat. It leads to a scenario where, much like in reality, the official response is lacking, prompting a bottom-up community mobilization. This environment necessitates forging new, sometimes unexpected alliances with a diversity of actors- this mirrors real-life dynamics of cooperation amidst adversity. The game also captures the essence of activism and community organizing, emphasizing the need for communication, engagement, knowledge, and resources, in parallel to the real challenges activists and organizers face, but in a fantastical context.

Are elves and dwarfs essential for the game? It looks like a gimmick element for a fantastical world.

And trolls, don’t forget them! The diversity of characters like elves, dwarves, and trolls is not just for show. It is central to the gameplay, reflecting real-world issues of prejudice and stereotypes based on people’s ethnicity, appearance, or background. These elements serve as metaphors for various societal biases, allowing players to engage with these concepts in a nuanced way. For example, an unemployed elf in the game is inherently respected due to the societal norms within the game’s world – this challenges  players to reflect on real-world prejudices and their impacts on our perception and decision-making. But it also adds depth to the game, encouraging players to reconsider their own biases and how they interact with others.

Are players informed about it at the beginning? Should they avoid stereotypical thinking?

The concept of prejudices is intentionally addressed during the debriefing session rather than before the game starts, to avoid spoiling the experience. For me as a game designer, it is important to make sure that the players are engaged and explore diverse worldviews, rather than fall into the trap of thinking of what is the “right” thing to do. 

The moderator’s guide book provides detailed instructions and game scenarios, with optional steps to enhance gameplay. Initially, players receive enough information to immerse themselves in the world of Motus without revealing everything upfront. This approach allows them to discover the game’s mechanics and encourages players to think critically about their actions within the game and how they relate them to real-world behaviors. If a player is prejudiced, the moderator should not say “that’s wrong”. Instead, there should be a question about prejudice in the real world, how players see it, will they try to avoid it in the future and whether it’s possible to avoid it completely.

Who did you design the game for?

This tool is for activists, community organizers, youth, adults, and seniors, but it’s not limited only to them. It aims to provide a safe space for reflection and sharing – almost a therapy session focuses on the problems plaguing NGOs or activist collectives. It is a lesson about complex systems, but also about group psychology and one’s own ways of acting. Some people participating in the tests were skeptical about the game – the fantasy world did not appeal to them, but they felt comfortable in their roles and actively countered the Threat. The game allows you to become an elf or a troll, but also to take on the role of a group leader or someone rich in resources or skills. This facilitates greater empathy and puts forth  questions: “what if I were poorer?”, “What if she, the leader of our organization, left us for another group?” or “What if my environment didn’t tell me what they know?” Basically, (After)Fantasy allows you to take a walk in someone else’s shoes or stay in your own. The decision is up to the players.

Okay, so how can one participate in a workshop of (After)Fantasy? Or what does someone need to do to run the game? How much does it cost?

(After)Fantasy is made available for free on our website. You just need to download the materials, familiarize yourself with the moderator’s manual, and then print the materials according to the instructions. It’s a good idea to ask someone for help with printing and cutting out the cards, as well as setting up the tables and board. I recommend playing at least 3 rounds, which takes about 3.5 hours. It’s worth having a timer or a watch on hand to precisely control the time.

(After)Fantasy is one of many examples of the transformative power of serious games in the realm of civic education, blending fantasy with social activism and engagement. Having had a chance to experience it, I can say that the game’s strategic placement in the mythical world of Motus serves not only as a backdrop for adventure but as a reflective mirror to our own world, challenging players to tackle societal issues with empathy, strategic insight, and collective action. This fantasy framework, as discussed earlier, employs the universal language of myths and legends to foster a deeper connection with players, making complex themes more approachable and engaging through allegory and metaphor.

Moreover, the game’s diverse cast of characters and scenarios enriches this immersive journey, inviting players to confront and reconsider their preconceptions in a context that is both fantastical and profoundly relevant. Because the game is easily available on the (After)Fantasy website its educational potential is not confined to a select few but is extended to all those willing to use it.

By revisiting the core elements outlined at the outset – the safe experimental space provided by the fantasy setting and its capacity to universalize and delve into critical issues through storytelling – (After)Fantasy embodies a cohesive and powerful educational experience.

An essential product of the project is a handbook on “Civic Education in Action”. The serious game was created as part of the “Education for Citizenship” project, which received funding of EUR 171,017.00 from Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway under the EEA Grants.

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This applies both to regular individuals and corporate executives. The difference is that the latter are more powerful and their actions have greater consequences for the world.

Think about the Exxon scandal. Despite its knowledge about the negative effects of their business on the climate, this oil and gas corporation concealed it for the sake of short-term profit. Or about the super-rich bankers who plan to abandon the rest of humanity when climate change hits the hardest. Or the bulk of small companies that dump toxic waste into the environment.
There are positive examples, too. Ørsted, a Danish energy company, has shifted away from coal to renewable energy sources, reducing their carbon emissions by 83%. In the US, IT company Cisco Systems runs its hardware on 99% green energy. And over in Japan, plastics manufacturer Sekisui Chemicals builds environmentally-friendly housing.

As optimistic as they are, these stories are still too far and between. We need fewer ostriches and foxes, and many more lions.

But how do we turn ones into the others? How do we convince those who devoted their entire lives to the pursuit of money that they should be saving the planet instead?

In the present day, it’s not a false opposition. The actions of corporate stakeholders are governed by the short cycle of financial reporting. Anything that needs more time is a lost cause because it’s not designed as profitable. Yet it takes years, and more likely decades, to achieve and maintain sustainability. That’s why it is incompatible with profit in the current economic set-up, where we reward short-term gains and penalize long-term investments.

However, money and economic systems are merely a matter of social contracts. They may have better alternatives. In fact, some currencies have the potential to incentivize far-sighted behavior.

For example, Wellness Tokens were developed to promote chronic disease prevention in health care; Ecocoins are intended to encourage sustainability; and some other alternative currencies in development, such as ScotsPound and BerkShares, aim to improve local economies. These currencies work like conventional money but are regulated to fit specific purposes. You can earn Wellness Tokens through healthy or environmentally-friendly activities, and spend them on certified eco-products; Ecocoins do not bear any interest, are earned by investing against climate change, and can only be used by corporations.

In general, such alternative currencies are thought to be able to affect human behavior in desired ways through a combination of two factors. First, they function like money, which makes them attractive to use. Second, they are governed by a set of rules and limitations meant to favor some actions or disfavor others.

Save the Future is a game that sets out to test alternative currencies as a method for effecting behavior change toward sustainability. The game’s alternative currency includes mechanisms designed to reward long-term, environmentally-friendly business activities, and to inflict penalties for ones that are short-term and harmful. What’s important, the currency is entirely optional. Participants learn about it at some point, but are under no obligation to introduce it. Therefore, at least in theory, they could achieve sustainability with the use of regular money alone.

We had the pleasure to talk with the developers of the game, Timothy Giger and Bartek Naprawa, about its underlying ideas and how they were forged into a digital product.

Could you briefly explain in what context this game was created?

Tim: The game was created as part of the EIT Climate-KIC Long-Termism Deep Demonstration. The overall aim of the Long-Termism project is to investigate how society values time. It focuses on the transformation of mindsets and the establishment of mechanisms to enable shifting towards long-term thinking, which will facilitate sustainable behaviour and investments into sustainability.

The Deep Demonstration process is co-creative and evidence-based, engaging a large multidisciplinary panel of partners working together and sharing ideas. It is in this context that the idea of creating an online Social Simulation as a platform for creative experimentation around systemic levers came together. The simulation will be used as a collaborative tool for testing alternative policies and institutions that can be later combined into a more sustainable and long-term oriented financial system.

What has been your experience of the Deep Demonstration journey while developing this game?

Tim: Working closely with EIT Climate-KIC and Long-Termism partners during this project has been a great experience and taking part in high level discussions around the notion of long-termism has enabled us to create, in my opinion, a much more meaningful simulation. The simulation focuses around the financial sector and the dilemma of long-term decisions vs. short-term solutions, and therefore a deep understanding of the sector was necessary. At the Centre for Systems Solutions, we’re experts at making engaging simulations that revolve around societal challenges, but we often lack in-house expertise on specific topics. This is where being part of such a project is a great opportunity, because we get to collaborate with experts from all types of sectors.

Could you briefly describe what the game is about?

Bartek: The game is about interlinkages between social, financial and environmental systems. About looking for a way out of seemingly hopeless conflict where population must consume, business must grow, and nature must survive. We focus more on the financial aspect here, and test the mechanism of rewards in alternative currencies, for eco-friendly actions of businesses; we analyze how it influences other elements in a very complex system of the simulation.

How did you get the idea of creating the Save the Future?

Bartek: We decided to take parts of our older title (The World’s Future, which had a similar aim and turned out great), and looked for possibilities to further improve on that. We realised what was missing (mainly the aforementioned financial aspects), and which functionalities could be simplified and automatized.

Why did you choose serious games as a medium?

Bartek: Serious games allow us to immediately see the results of our actions, without putting ourselves in positions of risk. They provide a safe environment for experimenting with varying approaches and for taking different paths – as long as the quality of the game warrants replayability and keeps the users engaged. With an adequately designed system, we can experience long-term, global changes in the matter of hours. An integral, extremely important part of every workshop utilizing such a tool, is the debriefing, i.e. space for players to exchange experiences and discuss lessons learned. Of course they also have the possibility of debating their strategies during the game itself.

How did you decide what elements to include in the game?

Bartek: That wasn’t exactly part of my duties; as a graphic designer I usually am less involved in deciding on the content of the game, but rather in putting the content into an appropriate form that will ensure smooth user experience. But I can say that shifting focus of the game towards things like currency exchanges and stock markets was definitely the answer to the needs of the target group.

What was the most important for you when working on the initial design?

Bartek: To be honest, time constraints. The main design decisions were dependent on this. Specifically, deadlines determined how much of the already existing assets we would use. Of course the ideal situation would be to start from scratch every time, but we didn’t have that luxury.

Tell me more about the graphic design.

Bartek: It’s a great challenge to design a game this complicated, to be compatible with mobile screens. Usually mobile games are much more straightforward, and here we have tons of elements to show and describe. That’s why we opted for a very simple style, with solid colors, stripped down icons (readable in very small sizes), and unobtrusive text explanations in the form of tooltips and discreet popups. Still, the game requires the moderator’s introduction to be fully understood in the short duration of a workshop. Another important thing to notice is color coding (elements related to each other have the same colors – e.g. a facility producing food, a project increasing food use efficiency, and the food itself as a resource in storage or on the market). On a more general level, I am obsessed with consistency of sizes, margins, stroke widths etc., so quite a lot of time went into making sure that everything is coherent across different windows and panels.

Do you feel a difference between working on game design in pre-covid times and now? Did the current situation influence the design in any way?

Bartek: In this case, not at all. Our programmer works abroad, so we wouldn’t talk face to face anyway. I still use the same hardware and software. The only difference is the room I’m sitting in while working, and the fact that I can play my favourite music out loud without driving the rest of the team crazy.

Who is the game for?

Bartek: Mostly for businesspeople, financiers, and government officials on every level. But everybody benefits from understanding the system’s complexities, and there is never enough awareness-rising out there, so I would say that everyone should play. However, the game is definitely not for kids, due to its high complexity.

Where did the title come from?

Bartek: We live in difficult times and the future is a scary prospect – climate disaster being the main factor responsible. It has (or soon will have) negative impact on every aspect of our lives. We must act now to „save” the future for generations to come. The title is a call to action. In fact, I would add an exclamation mark when I’m thinking about it now. If „saving the future” means fulfilling the populations’ needs while protecting nature and sustaining economic growth, then the game is exactly about that. It throws many challenges at a player, but proves that there is no situation unsolvable, as long as people act together and put the common good before particularistic interests and short-term benefits.

Are there any skills needed to play the game?

Bartek: Just basic familiarity with a tablet, smartphone, or mouse and keyboard. Of course, a person with a strong talent for negotiations or a knack for economic strategy games will surely have higher chances for better personal results, but remember – this is a multiplayer game and no one will save the global future alone. Even a group of the most skilled, smart players wouldn’t keep the system in a sustainable state for long, without willing to cooperate and agree for compromises along the way.

What do you want the players to take from the game?

Bartek: We want them to realize the importance of open communication, of working together as a team, as opposed to pursuing individual goals. I can imagine that in a perfect scenario, players would have a chance to learn from their mistakes and on their second try they’ll achieve a better end-state of the game’s world, even if the first attempt was a complete disaster.

What psychological and social processes may occur in and between players?

Bartek: This is hard to predict, because there are always different people in different groups, and no two sessions will be the same. A sensitive person may experience a strong feeling of loss when his/her long and carefully developed assets are destroyed by natural disasters. Someone would feel empowered after successfully pitching his/her idea to other players, while at the same time other participants can experience frustration because their voices didn’t break through. Feeling lost in a complex, fast-changing system is another common symptom of taking part in our simulations. Hopefully it is caused more by how accurately a given game represents today’s reality, and not by user interface flaws.

What do you think are advantages of game-based learning?

Bartek: Game-based learning is experiential, that’s the main difference from passively listening to a lecture or reading a book. There is clear action and reaction, cause-and-effect relationships become more pronounced. Kids in school always prefer practical exercises over theory, whether it’s making smoke in chemical experiments or growing plants for biology lessons. This applies to adults, too: the more engaged we are in a process, the more we will remember the knowledge gained. Good games can make us forget about the world outside and be 100% „in the moment”. This precious state of flow should be used more often for the good purpose of challenging worldviews, re-shaping mental models, facilitating internal reflections… And less often for inventing new ways of killing zombies (although it’s always fun to kill a few).

Do you think we have to think differently about the future of education now? How does it affect serious gaming?

Bartek: Covid is a temporary thing, but it will have certain lasting effects on gaming as a whole, not only the “serious” variety. I can imagine that nowadays more people than ever are interested in games simply because this is one of the better ways to kill the time when you are locked in at home. The whole industry experiences historical growths. Regarding education: in CRS we don’t make face to face workshops with dozens of attendees anymore, we were forced to focus on online experiences that are way harder from the moderator’s (or educator’s) standpoint. It’s difficult to manage a group when you can’t see people’s facial expressions and when they can’t interact with physical objects like cards and tokens, or with each other. You have to be supportive, but asking „is everything clear, do you need any help?” every 2 minutes can be annoying. The temperature of discussion is definitely lower online, I have the impression that participants in Skype/Zoom environments feel somehow more intimidated. It’s a great challenge to reduce this intimidation and make sure that everyone feels equally welcome, involved, and appreciated.

Can serious games promote sustainability? If yes, how?

Bartek: Yes, they can and they do. Mostly by showing the opposite: the results of unsustainable policies or behaviours. Even if a game doesn’t clearly specify any conditions of winning and losing, it can surely make an unsustainably-acting player’s life much more difficult. Thanks to the compression of time, players can experience the long-term results of their reckless behaviours in the matter of hours – and these results can hit really hard.

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Board games can be used to create the space for such discussions. The ideal speech scenario which can be created in a game environment allows different views to be expressed and heard. As such, games may help disaster risk reduction governance to take a democratic turn.

From technical fixes to societal choices

Disasters are not merely conceived as natural events, but as products of societal and natural processes with a high degree of uncertainty. The management of these processes which are leading to exposure and vulnerability, can therefore not be left to bureaucrats and engineers alone. This has been widely acknowledged in the last decades. And yet, awareness raising campaigns on disaster risk reduction still mostly focus on transferring knowledge on hazards and on quick responses, rather than on providing the stakeholders with the tools and skills to discuss underlying causes, confront views and define priorities in disaster risk reduction.

New tools for transferring knowledge and skills for a democratic approach to disaster risk reduction are therefore needed. Board games prove to be a promising tool for this.

Board games allow confrontations and discussions

Board games can be conceived as a way to bring people together from different background around the topic of disaster risk reduction. Disasters are staged in predefined conditions and scenarios, whereby unequal power relations and affective experiences related to situations of injustice are made tangible within the game. This provides the starting point for discussions. The presence of factious disasters creates a space which is safe enough for participants to express their opinions and voice real-life concerns.

DisCoord is such a serious game.

DisCoord – A Disaster Coordination game that does not eschew discord

DisCoord is a 5-player board game which aims at making local leaders aware of the interrelation of population, land use, policy measures and disaster. The rationale is that the choice about which policy measure to take is a political choice. This means that it is subjected to contestation, is limited by budget constraints and depends on trading off different values and interests within a community.The final choice depends on the worldviews of the players and their persuasive power, and will likely not satisfy everyone. Participants in the game should experience that decision making in a context of (sometimes) conflicting interests and rampant corruption is challenging and affects the potential for sustainable environmental planning. As such, the game depicts a realistic image of disaster risk reduction, thereby effectively preparing participants to address real-life challenges in DRR.

Disaster risk reduction in Western Uganda

DisCoord has been played for more than 10 times with academics, policy makers and stakeholders in the Rwenzori region in Uganda (5 players for each game session). Game sessions lasted for 2 hours, followed by a lunch break and a debriefing session. They have been recorded (audio and video) and are currently being analysed to estimate the learning outcomes. The purpose is to evaluate the potential of the game as a tool for the co-creation of awareness and for a democratic governance of disaster risk.

The development of the game was inspired by the research findings of a project on landslide risk reduction in the Rwenzori mountains in Western Uganda. Its focus on landslides and floods is therefore related to the problems that were observed in Uganda. Part of the strength of the game as an awareness raising tool derives from the fact that players can relate what is happening in the game to what they regularly experience in their real life. If the game is to be used in different contexts, it should therefore be adapted to some extent. This seems quite feasible for similar contexts in the Global South. Adaptations of the game to different contexts and other disasters can be discussed with the author.

The dynamics that are staged in the game, relating to political decision making in a context of limited budgets, uncertainty and conflicting views, are sufficiently universal to make the game relevant for any mountainous region with landslides and floods. It is the combination of hazards and vulnerable people in the absence of policies for environmental protection, sustainable economic opportunities and effective disaster risk reduction which leads to disaster risk. The game makes this tangible and confronts the players with the need to discuss conflicting views on disaster risk reduction.

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Incorporate the Nordic Way

Nordic countries believe in the “joy of learning”. Schools in the North have placed emphasis on creativity, collaboration, and communication. They incorporate joint problem-solving activities and collaborative group assignments into the curriculum. These are key to making learning fun and allow students to explore their natural talents. These can be incorporated into play-based learning – allowing children to have fun and be creative while expanding their knowledge.

The Nordic Way helps support their curiosity, encouraging them to take control of their own learning. If a student finds joy in learning, it will no longer be a chore, but something they look forward to doing.

Designing a Personalised Game

Teachers can design educational games based on their learners’ knowledge level. It is also important that students can discuss their learning with their teachers. This way, a unique and personalized game will be created that will, make the learning process fun and exciting!

This enhances student participation and active learning. Students are intrinsically motivated to play games that are designed around their knowledge and learning style. This motivation makes learning easier and more appealing.

Introducing Existing Games

There are many educational games out there that you could introduce into classroom activities! Different games target different needs and will help boost social and emotional learning in an exciting way.

Here I will list some examples. The “Social Adventures App” can provide you with a range of activities that will help students gain important social skills. It helps them understand how to act appropriately in social situations. One of the activities explains the importance of saying someone’s name to gain their attention before talking to them. Students are then asked to role-play similar scenarios to practice. These are particularly helpful to those who have trouble with relationships.

“Middle School Confidential” is a digital graphic novel accompanied by quizzes, written by an anti-bullying activist, Annie Fox. With a focus on relatable situations such as friendships, changing family situations, the game provides quizzes, tips, and tools to help players learn to navigate difficult situations. This teaches self-appreciation to those who deal with low self-confidence and helps teenagers feel good about themselves as it allows players to relate to characters that have similar lives to them.

“Classcraft” is an educational role-playing game in which students go on quests that can be linked with lessons. Students work together with their team of classmates to overcome challenges. Students are able to support each other in their learning by collaborating with one another to reach their goal. It helps drive engagement in the classroom and increases schoolwide collaboration.

Why not introduce games that your students may already know? Minecraft Education Edition promotes creativity, collaboration and problem-solving. It combines the fun elements of the original version with an immersive learning experience.

Operation: REACH, Boys & Girls Club of America is great for developing resiliency skills. In this interactive, educational video game, players work with the Captain of the ship to rescue crewmates. Players have to find tools to help manage stress and anxiety, which helps players learn about coping with stress and anxiety in real-life.

Active Play

Incorporating games into the classroom culture can be a powerful learning tool for children as it allows students to be engaged in the learning progress. Games are a collaborative and interactive experience. They will guide learners’ social and emotional development.

The rise of high-speed internet has made the virtual world more popular than ever. But active play also has an important role in the development of a child. Take a break from the digital tools and encourage your students to be physically active. Engagement in a team sport may help children build social skills. They will be able to practice teamwork and leadership skills in a natural, playful environment. Interaction with their peers and cooperation for the common goal will additionally strengthen social bonds and improve group dynamics.

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“You are never too small to make a difference.”

These are the words of Greta Thunberg, the 16-years-old Swedish climate activist who started to go on school strike in August 2018 as a means of protest against the inaction of international decision-makers with regard to the climate crisis which is ahead of us. With her school strikes, she inspired hundreds of thousands of people around the world to raise their voices and come out into the streets every Friday, demanding more radical and consequent climate policies. The climaxes of the yet young Fridays for Future movement was reached on March 15 and May 24, 2019, when 1.6 and 1.5 million people, respectively, on all seven continents and in more than 125 countries followed the example of Greta, sending a powerful message about the significance and urgency of acknowledging and acting in accordance with scientific findings about climate change.

The Fridays for Future movement consists mainly of young people, school children and students, who are deciding not to attend classes and instead take part in demonstrations, demanding action to prevent further global warming and climate change. The main point of criticism towards the movement is the scheduling of the protest on Friday mornings – during school time – when children are required to attend school. However, with the advancing climate destruction, they point out that the purpose of going to school begins to lose its sense, and ask: Why study for a future, which may not be there? Why spend a lot of effort to become educated, when our governments are not listening to those educated? In fact, the first and foremost demand put forward by Fridays for Future is to implement climate policies which have already been proposed by the educated, namely thousands of climate scientists and researchers. This includes fast and broad measures in accordance with the 1.5°C goal and global climate justice, as aspired in the Paris Agreement, which was adopted in 2015 at the Conference of the Parties (COP) 21 by 196 countries worldwide. The COP is an annual conference serving as the decision-making body in charge of monitoring and reviewing the implementation of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Despite the milestone proved by COP21 in Paris, experts and scientists, now supported by the voices of youth, criticize the lack of effectiveness and missing binding enforcement mechanisms in the agreement, asking for a more specific definition of the Paris climate target.

But how are international negotiations on climate policies and measures for limiting global warming actually working? What are the considerations and challenges for individual countries in taking climate action, facilitating or inhibiting joint progress? To give young people a better understanding of climate action and policies, the international network CliMates co-designed and prepared a workshop, called COP in my school, which gives students the chance to take over the roles of decision makers. In the workshop, after a short introduction to the topic, a UN climate conference is simulated, with a subsequent discussion of the results and possibilities for action. We had the chance to interview Katharina Doppelbauer, a member of the Austrian CliMates group, and ask her about the specifics of the workshop.

Katharina, what and who is CliMates?

CliMates is an international network concerned with climate change. We are students and young professionals who want to take on the challenge to change the climate by developing new and innovative ideas, helping people be change-makers and by influencing decision makers.

What are the main activities and objectives of the network?

Our main activities can be divided into two branches which are advocacy and empowerment. Advocacy is concerned with politics; there are different projects that analyze the outcomes of international climate negotiations or send young people to climate negotiations to give the youth a voice to represent themselves. And those are just two examples, there is so much more to discover…

Empowerment, on the other hand, focuses on teaching those who do not know how politics on climate change work yet, how important action is in this domain and how climate change is affecting us all. We try to spread the word because knowledge is the first step to change.

Could you briefly describe what COP in my school is about?

COP in my school is a simulation in which we can experience how politics work when focusing on climate change. Divided into groups, the participants can represent different countries that take part in international climate negotiations. While pursuing their individual priorities, they are, at the same time, trying to find a solution to succeed in obtaining the 1.5°C goal of the Paris Agreement.

How did you get the idea of offering a workshop about the Paris Agreement and climate politics?

We wanted to build a bridge between the UN Climate Change Conference and the youth and help them understand how democracy works. The Conference of the Parties is a very good way to do so because it is a topic that concerns all of us and young people can actually have a say, as COPs do allow representatives of the youth to speak on their behalf. Climate change often makes people feel helpless and we want to help them gain consciousness and find their voice.

Why did you choose a social simulation as a medium to talk about these aspects?

We chose this medium because usually when talking about climate change, we only learn what it is and not how it is dealt with. Many people don’t even know that international climate negotiations exist. Simulations also provide a certain reality which really helps the participants to grasp the problems we are facing.

Who is the main target of the workshop? Is it targeted at specific age groups? If yes, why?

We usually recommend the workshop for children at the age of 15 or 16, because by that time they have already learned about climate change and our impact on it in school, which is very helpful in our workshop. However, it can be applied to any older age groups as well.

Are there any skills needed to participate in the workshop? If yes, which?

There are no skills needed, however, it would be preferable if the participants already knew about climate change, as that is the foundation for negotiating about the political possibilities in this domain.

What are the most important lessons that can be learned from playing COP in my school?

The participants gain a lot of general knowledge on how politics work regarding climate change, but what’s maybe even more important, is that they learn how difficult it can be to come to an agreement – even if everybody is working towards the same goal. It also makes the participants see where we are currently at, how much there is to be done and how each and everyone plays a part on our way to a healthy environment.

Do you think the workshop could be also conducted to develop new skills in players?

Of course! As every group has to work on their results and choose a representative who has to negotiate with the other participants, it provides a safe space to test oneself and get a feeling of how to act in a discussion and how to produce an argument to make a point.
Considering that not everyone already has this sense of accountability for their own actions, we feel that this workshop helps to reflect on this and recognize your role in protecting the climate.

What sustainability and educational goals can be achieved by doing the workshop?

The participants get a better understanding of how politics work because they are the ones who act. Such first-hand experience is alway a great learning opportunity. They also get an overview of what has happened in politics ever since we understood that protecting the climate is important. Last but not least, they start understanding how much of a difference just one person can actually make.

What psychological and social processes may happen in and between players while participating in COP in my school?

We have noticed a very strong sense of social cohesion in the different groups representing a country. Due to the fact that we only address the representatives with the name of their country – just as they do at the real Conference of the Parties – the participants suddenly feel like they are part of this country. Thus, they view its beliefs and priorities as their own and strongly represent them even if they are in no way their actual personal opinion. Generally, there is a shift in the behavior of everyone taking part, and as soon as the negotiating begins, they act like they are in a public setting and start mimicking politicians in their speech or body language. In the end, we, therefore, give them a bit of time to slip out of their roles as politicians to be themselves again and try to reflect on it.

In which settings has the workshop been conducted? What results did you observe?

We usually conduct the workshop in schools where we work with very different students. Most of them did know about climate change but did not know how much of a difference just one change in their own lives could make. So, we do see how the class goes from “mostly not that interested” to a stage where almost everyone wants to do and change something, which is incredibly beautiful to witness.
We have also conducted COP in my school at a Local Conference of Youth in Vienna, where lots of students from schools and universities came together to learn more about the topic and meet like-minded people to exchange experiences and ideas.

Did your work with COP in my school change your perspective on climate politics and related topics? If yes, how?

It completely changed my mind: At first, I didn’t know a lot about political action on climate change and it made me see where we are on this journey, what I can do and how I want to do more. I always knew that climate change is an important matter, but I have only grasped the urgency of it when working on COP in my school – I am glad that I did! This is a matter that’s very close to my heart and I’m really happy that I finally found a way for me to act and I hope to help many more to find theirs.

Are you interested in COP in my school? Contact hello@climatesaustria.org!

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As a big fan of the show, I even liked the peripheral characters, like Lily Aldrin’s dad, a hapless board game inventor of terrible games like “Tijuana Slumlord” and “Diseases”. Was it the topics that made the games bad? The game flow? Whatever it was, it played for a good joke.

I laughed then, but I sympathize now. Game design turns out to be harder than I expected.

Serious games and social simulations

I joined the Centre for Systems Solutions last year as a policy expert whose tasks included supporting game design. When I read about the organization, they emphasized that they create serious games, i.e. games with a serious goal. Among their creations are Lords of the Valley, Energy Transition Game, and The World’s Future.

I have since learned that it’s more accurate to call these games social simulations, as there are no winners or losers. Despite this, there is competition. Participants become immersed in the scenario and engaged in taking action, making it all feel very real.

For me, it sounded perfect! My friends and I have always preferred playing party games like Cranium or Trivial Pursuit to watching movies. Even as an English as a Foreign Language teacher, I used simple games with easy-to-understand mechanisms to reinforce language concepts. Adapting Chutes and Ladders for reviewing grammar or You’ve Been Sentenced for syntax made it easier and more fun to learn. Having played a lot of different types of games, I naively thought I was well-prepared to do game design.

My first project was related to the RURITAGE project, which is invested in restoring the natural and cultural heritage of rural regions and using it in their sustainable growth and development. I was fascinated by the project goals, but wondered how we were supposed to design a game around it.

RURITAGE game development

When I joined the team, we already had a target audience and some game play ideas. Players were generally activists and policymakers from a set of rural regions spread across Europe, from Norway to Slovenia to Turkey. Since each area had different goals, like digitizing a pilgrimage path or integrating migrants, our goal was to make the game applicable to all of them while keeping the mechanism and game play consistent.

To model the real world, we wanted to have a wide range of projects and solutions available which would have varying costs and outcomes. This way, each rural area could choose projects which they found relevant to them. We also wanted to encourage them to think about resilience and sustainability. Most rural areas did not focus on these topics in their development plans, although it was a goal of the main project.

Game development using design thinking

Our first iteration was based on collaboration. We decided not to assign roles – players would imagine themselves as activists and policymakers from an invented region. First, they would assess their region’s development. Then, this would be translated into a budget, which they would use to make investments in their region. Investments included the ideas above about digitization and migrants, but also supporting farmers, renovating buildings, and investing in disaster resilience activities.

For a project to move forward, players needed the support of at least two people. They would see the results of their chosen projects on a radar chart and receive a budget for the next round based on the scores.

When we tested it, however, there were too many unanswered questions about why certain projects were included and why investing in each project would yield the identified impacts. We came away believing players wanted more agency to develop projects (not only choose them) and more realistic connections between the projects and the results.

The second iteration tried to address these issues. We still wouldn’t assign roles, but we would divide the players into special advisory groups, e.g., focused on rural food or pilgrimage. Instead of designating a set of projects as above, we would let people come up with their own projects and determine the expected results on their regions. Rather than a budget, they’d vote for projects they liked. This would make the game more personalized and engaging, as the participants could use the direct results of the game in their strategic planning.

This time, the projects were indeed better – more thoughtful and directed at specific problems. However, each advisory group became personally invested in their own projects, and used their votes to support their own. Instead of creating a space for discussion about strategy for revitalization, we had inadvertently created tribes. We still weren’t addressing resilience.

Iteration and innovation in game development

Through these iterations, I began to understand Mickey Aldrin’s struggle of creating positive tension in game play. To design a good serious game, you need to inspire curiosity, but translate it into action; you need agency, not randomness; you need to have competition, but it can’t be arbitrary. Players need to come away feeling as though they’ve had fun, not that they were doing work.

We went back to the drawing board again. We explored the idea of using not only money as a mechanism, but in-kind donations and volunteer time. We thought about adding an option to promote your projects. We looked at having town meetings. We considered rolling dice for project results. We played out different mechanisms for action and collaboration. We went back to the initial project demands and analyzed whether we had addressed them.

Our current version is much different than the first. The game board features 32 locations which players can develop, from a nature reserve to a monastery, from a hotel to a farm. Each player is assigned to a different stakeholder group, e.g. a local business and farmers association or a cultural heritage NGO. Using a set of predetermined projects, the players can focus on developing tourism in their area, building a local brand for products, and/or building resilience to natural and manmade disasters. We set no goals and players can guide the world as they please, based on their own priorities. However, the number of actions which can take place in each round are limited, potentially spurring conflict or collaboration. Occasionally, disaster strikes and the region must cope.

Just as Mickey Aldrin found the right formula for his games, it seems we have finally found the flow – enough healthy competition, enough fun, and enough spontaneity for players to get truly engaged. We call it Ruritania, and for our early participants, it has been a success. The only question remains whether we will be able to make it truly legendary.

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Celebrated on March 22 every year, World Water Day is about focusing our attention on the importance of water.

This year’s theme is ‘‘Leaving no one behind’. While Sustainable Development Goal 6 focuses on the task to “ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all”, the 2018’s The Sustainable Development Goals Report proves that around 183 million of the global population lacks basic drinking water services. The most vulnerable groups are at the same time often overlooked by society. Each day, around 800 women die from poor sanitation-related complications in pregnancy and childbirth. Hundreds of refugees from war-stricken regions, people with disabilities,, indigenous peoples and many more are in danger because of the lack of safe water.

Though it is impossible to solve every water-related social issue this year, it is a good opportunity to raise awareness and help develop empathy towards the discriminated.

Water Games for WWD 2019

Like every year, we invite you to enjoy Water Games – a joint initiative of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) and the Centre for Systems Solutions to celebrate World Water Day and the Sustainable Development Goal no 6 – Clean Water and Sanitation.

Year after year, we’ve been collecting and describing games which address different water challenges, related to the marginalization of basic needs of vulnerable groups. Join us, play one of the serious games presented on the Water Games website and let us know what you think about them! Don’t forget to leave comments here and on our social media!

We’ve also rounded up all our water-related posts for you to learn how games can change people’s perception of many water-related issues.

To get a better understanding of what “green” infrastructure and nature-based solutions are and how they relate to other Sustainable Development Goals, we encourage you to visit the WWD’s official website and the Fact Sheet.

And remember – “Whoever you are, wherever you are, water is your human right”.

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In 2018, the United Nations Higher Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) reported that we were “[…] witnessing the highest levels of displacement on record”: 68,5 million people worldwide have been forced from home. Among them are nearly 25.4 million refugees, 6.3 million alone from Syria. Many of them seek asylum in countries in their region, such as Turkey or Lebanon. Others try to reach Europe, in particular Germany, which is the main European destination for refugees. Their migration stories are all similar, only details are different. One inspirational story was taken up and integrated into a game to put players in the shoes of a refugee: Bury me, my Love. We had a chance to talk with the creative directors and designers of the game: French video games production studio The Pixel Hunt, founded in 2009 by the former journalist Florent Maurin. The studio team imagines and creates reality-inspired games. They work for clients such as public broadcasters or TV production companies, but also have independent projects. Bury me, my Love was the first full-scale independent game of the studio, co-produced with Figs and ARTE France. Designed for mobile phones, it became immediately popular and was nominated for more than 20 awards, including the Game Awards, the GDC Awards, the BAFTA Game Awards, and the IndieCade Europe. In 2017, the game won the Google Play Indie Games Contest, making it the best European game in the store for the year. The Pixel Hunt’s founder Florent Maurin told us about the background ideas, development and learnings of the reality-inspired interactive fiction.

Florent, could you briefly describe what the game is about?

Bury me, my Love tells the story of a Syrian couple, Nour and Majd. They are separated, as Nour decides to leave her country and tries to reach Europe for a safer life, but Majd has to remain and take care of older relatives. The only way they can communicate is through a chat application on their smartphones. As a player, you witness those conversations and try to help Majd provide Nour with the best possible advice and support.

How did you get inspired to create a game about refugees and their migration?

As a former journalist, I’m used to paying a lot of attention to the news. In 2015, I read an article on French newspaper Le Monde that struck me. It was called “The Journey of a Syrian migrant as told by her WhatsApp conversations“, and it was a series of discussions between a girl named Dana, who tries to reach Europe, and her family both in Damascus and Germany. This was such a strong piece that I contacted the journalist, and through her, I got in touch with Dana. Both women agreed to become our editorial consultants and help us make a game inspired by these stories – and thousands of others. That’s how BmmL was born!

Why and how, in your opinion, can a mobile game serve as a medium to talk about these topics?

In our particular case, the use of the mobile phone is part of the game’s message, as it mimics the way migrants, in real life, use their smartphones. Most migrants nowadays have a phone, and for them, it’s not a luxury; it’s the only way they have to keep in touch with their friends and families and to get crucial information during their dangerous journey.

How did you come up with the characters in the game?

Nour is vastly inspired by Dana, a very brave woman. Majed is more of free creation, for the sake of having a second character that would work well with Nour.

How did you get involved in the Google Play Indie Games Contest? What did winning the contest mean to you?

I had seen on social networks that there was such a contest one year before entering with Bury me, my Love. It was, of course, a great honor to be selected among so many great games, and a joy to see that a committee of seasoned professionals thought that Bury me, my Love was an interesting enough to be celebrated as a winner.

Who is the main target of the game? Is it targeted at specific age groups? If yes, why?

It isn’t, really – or at least we did not think about it that way. We were moved by Dana’s story and lots of other articles and documentaries, and we thought it could be interesting to tell them in the form of a video game. But from the testimonies we gathered, from comments on social media, and through game ratings, we know that we are reaching quite a wide audience, from people who are strong human rights supporters to people who are rather hostile to migrants but experience the game as a good way to learn more about a situation they, in fact, know next to nothing about.

What can be learned from playing Bury Me, My Love? What would you like players to learn from it or experience through it?

You’ll have to ask the players! We are not an NGO, we did not create this game with an agenda in mind or with the will to change players. Don’t get me wrong: if that happens, fine. But I believe people only change by themselves, through life experiences and exposure to different cultures than their own. You can’t make someone change their mind, especially on such a topic as international migrations. So our main objective was to tell stories we were moved by and to use video games and fiction as forms to convey those stories.

Do you think the game could be also used to develop new skills in players?

Mmm… Not sure? I would say BmmL probably is an exercise in empathy, but I’m not sure empathy is something you can learn, really. So if by “develop” you mean “grow”, then sure, but if you mean “acquire”, then I’d probably be more skeptical.

What could happen in players while playing Bury Me, My Love, psychologically speaking?

Lots of players reported that they felt the stress of not having news from someone they cared about, and they waited anxiously for their phone to beep with a new notification. There’s also a couple ends that are pretty grim for Nour, and those made a lot of players cry. But I hope they also laughed, and hoped, and felt proud and brave because BmmL first and foremost is a story about love and human relationships – and those feelings are all part of it.

Did your work on the game influence or even change your perspective on refugees and migration? If yes, how?

Well, it’s more the other way around. When I read the article on Le Monde, I was surprised to realize that, contrary to what I thought, Dana was talking to her relatives pretty much in the same way I was talking to mine. Without me realizing it, I had been influenced by the general media coverage of the situation into believing that migrants were different from me. Realizing that hit me hard – it made me feel that I was being xenophobic without even being conscious of it. And I thought that making a game on this specific topic might help other people come up with a similar epiphany.

When creating a game, what elements are most important to include for you?

In my specific case, it’s inspiration from reality, real-life events, psychology, characters… I think the reality is a huge source of inspiration, that has been completely underrepresented in games up until now.

What challenges do you face when designing games? What was the main challenge in designing Bury Me, My Love?

Well, for us, the main challenge was to stay as truthful to the actual experience and believable as possible – especially because we did not experience it first hand. So we took extra care gathering a lot of documentation and asking Dana for a lot of feedback. But even with that, it’s a tight line to walk, and you can’t afford to screw up on this.

If you had to choose one game to take on a lonely island, which would it be?

Wow, it’s a tough one! I’d say Grim Fandango, as it’s my favorite game ever, but in this specific situation, I’m concerned by its low replay value. So I’ll go with my second or third loves, Football Manager and Civilization.

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Many reports state the importance of education for employment and growth in general, for example, its impact on Gross Domestic Product growth or on private returns (individual wages/income). So why not combine both goals in a playful experience for students to learn about economic aspects? The experimental kit with business games Ökonopoly does exactly that. It was developed by the German association ALWIS Saarland (ArbeitLebenWirtschaftSchule – WorkLifeEconomySchool), which was founded in 2003 to foster the interconnection between schools and the economy. It supports students in choosing a career by organizing job information days, Girls’ and Boys’ Days, summer camps with workshops and games, and many more. We had the unique opportunity to interview Sabine Lauer, the Managing Chairman at ALWIS, and talk with her about Ökonopoly and how it can be used in educational settings.

Sabine, could you briefly describe what Ökonopoly is and how it works?

Ökonopoly is a game box available in German. The collection offers five economic experiments or games which can be ca   rried out in class with students: Firstly, there is the Market Experiment, which is about price setting with regard to supply and demand. Next, we have an experiment called “Team Player or Free Rider,” which looks at the usability of public goods. The third experiment in the box deals with the exchange in an economy, based on the division of labor, and the fourth is about matching processes in job seeking. Lastly, there is an experiment about the trade between two nations. The Ökonopoly game box contains the necessary materials, the instructions for the experiments, and ideas for combining interesting learning topics. There are different variants and tasks for students of intermediate (middle school and high school), which can be selected depending on the application.

How did your team get the idea of creating a game to teach students about economic topics?

Our association ALWIS aims to provide schools with additional materials, projects, and events about business knowledge, career orientation and furthering the interest for STEM subjects. As practical exercises are particularly important to us, we use games and experiments to offer playful learning.

What do you think are advantages of game-based learning?

Games are fun. And learning with fun is easier. Plus, the students can experience concrete examples and try out how the economy works. Games have a stronger impact than verbal and frontal teaching.

What was the main challenge in designing Ökonopoly?

There were quite a few challenges to overcome: The content of the experiments was developed at universities and had to be adapted to the students’ levels. The compilation of documents and presentations for a simple and modern implementation in class was essential. And last but not least, the wooden box had to be produced and equipped.

Are there any specific skills required to play the games?

No, there are no special requirements. In each game, even simple economic terms are suitably explained for the age group.

What are the most important lessons that can be learned from participating in the experiments?

It is not possible to put the importance of one learning content against another. They include questions from pure economic content, environmental issues, and social aspects to ethical values. Perhaps the most important lesson is to realize that there is a connection between all of that in economic processes.

How flexible is Ökonopoly regarding its application in different settings? Can others apply the games in their educational work, too?

Yes, because of their diverse content-related key aspects, the experiments can also be used in other subjects apart from economics. Particularly in politics and geography, but also in ethics and philosophy, and partly in mathematics.

Did your work on Ökonopoly influence your knowledge about economic topics?

Of course, it did. We always learn when we work on something extensively. For example, it still fascinates me to see how, after several rounds of playing, an equilibrium price is settling in the Market Experiment, or how much a single person can change the result of “Team Player or Free Rider”.

If you had to choose one favorite experiment out of the five to recommend, which would it be?

Within the Ökonopoly game box, I particularly like the Market Experiment. It is very simple and illustrates well how a completely chaotic market gets organized by itself. Additionally, the experiment allows for learning content ranging from the diversity of people operating in the market with different preferences to the profitability curve.

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So, how are the values of creativity, collaboration and communication realized in the north?

First of all, Nordic schools welcome everyone. The founder and CEO of Scandinavian Education, Hans Renman, points out that social inclusion, democracy, and equality are taken very seriously in the north, thus the education system outlaws school selection and is publicly funded (also at the university level). In one classroom, there are children from all social backgrounds, which not only ensures equal rights to everyone but also teaches kids that respect, communication and openness are key to a healthy and functional society.

Secondly, creativity and collaboration are valued more than rivalry. Finland, for example, has almost no national tests whatsoever. Education as a competitive race is a non-existent concept. Joint problem-solving activities, collaborative group assignments, self-assessment or peer reviews are used to support and verify students’ progress, and no one, either within or outside the school, demands that it’s done according to a pre-defined schedule.

Foremost, however, the Nordics believe in the “joy of learning.” For example, central to early years education in Finland is fun and free exploration: “We believe children under seven (…) need time to play and be physically active. It’s a time for creativity,” says Tiina Marjoniemi, the head of the Franzenia daycare centre in Finland.

The power of play and active engagement is also appreciated at later stages of education, where blended learning, flipped classroom techniques, gaming and peer-to-peer learning are often introduced to support kids’ natural curiosity and encourage them to be responsible for their own learning.

How can other countries follow the Nordic way and immerse students in playful learning?

To answer this question, I decided to interview the developers of a serious Internet game, New Shores. The game, which has already been mentioned a couple of times on the blog (see here or here), has been developed for a similar purpose: to match the needs of a new, more digitized and more participatory school. How does it fulfil its mission? Is it working? And how can it be accessed and applied by teachers?

Meet Zsuzsa Vastag from the Rogers Foundation for Person-Centred Education (Hungary) and Mária Borvák from TANDEM n.o. (Slovakia) who co-worked with the Centre for Systems Solutions on New Shores – a Game for Democracy.

Tell us something about yourselves – what is your professional background? What do you do?

Zsuzsa: I am a psychologist, and I work now in an NGO called Rogers Foundation for Person-Centred Education, as a trainer and a project manager. We are conducting mostly teacher trainings in Hungary. Our main topics are emotional education and free play and games in schools.

Mária: Currently, I work as a professional leader and senior trainer of TANDEM n.o. We are focused on developing competencies in different areas of people’s lives through experiential learning.

The New Shores game has been developed as part of the Erasmus+ project. Where did the idea for a joint initiative come from?

Mária: All three organizations that are involved in the project, that is, the Centre for Systems Solutions from Poland, TANDEM n.o. from Slovakia and the Rogers Foundation from Hungary, are highly interested in developing new and innovative ways of dealing with topics that are important for our society. So in my mind, there was no question that we should join forces and work on the topic of democracy and active citizenship in a new way.

Who is the main target group(s) of this project? Why did you choose to address the project to them?

Zsuzsa: The primary target group of the project are educators who work with young people (between the ages of 13-30) in youth settings (camps, youth groups, schools, etc.). The secondary target group are the young people themselves – whom we have planned to reach indirectly, through the educators. This way, we hope to create a larger impact in terms of young people becoming more active in their community.

Mária: Just like Zsuzsa said.The overarching goal of the project is to reach young people. To do it, we turn to their leaders – teachers, trainers, tutors. We want to help them understand that in the era of digitization and more participatory educational approaches, their role as a teacher may be different. It may mean moving away from being a mentor or expert to becoming a partner and facilitator, who encourages independent thinking and discussion. Thus we offer free trainings to teachers during which they learn to use the game and the methodology.
What does the subtitle “game for democracy” mean? Why did you decide to raise this topic? And why did you decide to do it by the means of a game?

Mária: We consider the topic of democracy to be utterly important as only active and involved people can form their own path, the path of the society they live in. We believe in participatory functioning, which is the base of a democratic community. We also believe that developing anybody’s competencies can only happen effectively through experiential learning, which is highly enjoyable and offers not only information but an enjoyable way of learning skills and developing attitudes.

Zsuzsa: It is a game for democracy, as we are developing an online simulation game with a serious aim: letting young people experience what democracy means personally, what it takes to reach common decisions, to let yourself be heard, to take care of others’ needs and opinions while representing your own needs and opinions. We decided to use a game, as we believe that experiences can be the most effective tools to reach real change in attitude, and a game can serve as a fun and, at the same time, meaningful experience.

What is so special about the game-based approach?

Mária: A game is a great way to immerse the youth in doing, not only thinking about a concept.

Zsuzsa: We think using games in education is a great way to connect with young people (and adults as well…), as it is engaging, and people can have real, meaningful experiences through a fun activity. It is way more effective than a lecture about democracy – a game and their own experience makes it personal and therefore a personally more important issue for participants.

How can this tool be used at school, at work?

Zsuzsa: The game itself takes about one and a half hours to play, together with the necessary debriefing afterwards. This is a timeframe that can be relatively easily integrated in traditional schools, as it is the time of a double lesson. But if teachers/educators have more time in their hands, on a project day, at a summer camp, etc., then there are nearly endless opportunities to create a workshop or a series of workshops according to the pedagogical aims of the educator (whether it’s mathematical competence development or attitude shaping towards democracy), by choosing the appropriate follow-up activities.

Mária: What makes it very easy to use is that fact that you only need a good Internet connection and a PC or laptop to access the game; you don’t even have to be in the same location. It is very easy to set the game up, and there are many tools to help make the game not only enjoyable but very easy to learn from.

You mentioned that it is enough to have a good Internet connection to play the game. So how can I access it? Is it free?

Zsuzsa: Yes, access to the game and all additional materials for teachers and players (such as the workshop scenario, a moderator video tutorial or player introductions) are free. To learn how to use them, all you have to do is register to the Edmodo platform, which is a very quick process; you only need an email address, and you are in.

There are four language classes there – English, Polish, Slovak and Hungarian. When you follow the appropriate link, you will find instructions on how to join one or all of them and read, watch or download all materials and become ready to conduct a game with your students. They are neatly divided in 9 different chapters that you can browse through one by one or select only the topic that interests you the most.

The platform is mainly addressed to those educators who are interested in using the game in their work and therefore want to learn about the methodology behind the game, the technical necessities, and the way to build up workshops around the game. It is also a way for them to exchange their experiences, ask questions from each other, create a community. And finally, it is a place to share their students’ achievements as well: If during a workshop they have produced something, the teachers can share it here.

Have you noticed any interesting reactions of players during the games? What are the most important lessons learned?

Zsuzsa: What I like the most is when I see that people are becoming really engaged: They do care a lot about the state of the island in the game, even though they entered the situation as “professional adults” – but within the game, they can be just humans being engaged. Of course, “being engaged” in this sense can also mean negative emotions, possible conflicts – which are good, in terms of real and adequate emotional responses to a situation. The important thing is that we do work with these emotions afterwards. Its is also great to see how insightful people are usually after the game: They do see the connection to real life, and many time, I have seen a “light-bulb” moment, when people connect the way they were behaving in the game to how they behave in real-life situations, or how humanity works in the real world.

Mária: The most satisfying reactions are always the ones where you see that people forget where and who they are because they thoroughly enjoy themselves while playing the game. This also means that they are so involved that afterwards there are heated discussions about how all of this work in real life, and mainly how they personally would react in such a situation. These personal reflections allow us to form their attitudes and teach them skills necessary to participate in their own lives.

Can games replace traditional education?

Zsuzsa: Our aim is not to completely replace traditional education, but to offer an alternative to it, a tool that can make education more colourful, aiming for a more diverse impact. I think it is important that educators have a toolbox they can open any time they want and choose a method that fits their aim well. Traditional education can be also useful, but games can add the personal aspects to the theoretical knowledge.

Mária: Every type and form of education can be beneficial, so in my eyes the more we work with a topic, and the more tools we use, the better the outcome. So I would suggest using this game as an equivalent to traditional methods of education, but also keeping the already-used methods. This would mean a higher exposure of young people to the topic from many different aspects.

What are the next steps in the project?

Zsuzsa: We are in the final phase of the project, and our main agenda at the moment is promotion of the game and the e-learning platform. We would like to reach as many educators as we can, so we can have a large impact.

And what are your plans afterwards? In what direction will you go?

Zsuzsa: We will definitely use the game later on, even after the project ends: We plan to offer workshops to schools and other interested groups of educators. We can also use it personally, as it can be a fun activity with friends and colleagues, as well.

Mária: We are introducing the game and methodology into our own democracy project and incorporate it in an even more essential way so as to reach even more people who can make use of the game itself.

Thank you for this fascinating interview and the best of luck with promoting the game among educators!

Zsuzsa and Mária: Thank you!

What about you? What do you think about game-based learning? Do you know any other methodologies that would follow the Nordic way of education? Or are you a traditionalist, believing in the power of textbooks and lectures? Share your opinion in comments!

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The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report released in October 2018 is “…like getting a troubling diagnosis from your doctor. Every possible test has been done and the news is not good”.

So what is the diagnosis? 12 years to a catastrophe. In this time window we have to change our consumption and production habits and slash global greenhouse gas emissions 45% below 2010 levels. Otherwise by 2030 we are going to face a collapse of many ecosystems, devastating weather extremes and their related impacts, such as crop failures, famine, disease, economic losses, and refugee crises.

12 years! That’s not much, taking into account how a massive and unprecedented transition in production, agriculture, energy and transport sectors has to be undertaken globally. To even start it, we need to find a way to communicate and make joint decisions across regions, countries and continents. How difficult it is has been proven by the recent COP24 talks held in Poland. It took two weeks for the world leaders to settle on the contents of the “rulebook” for putting the 2015 Paris agreement into practice. And yet some of the major oil producers – the US, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait – still insist on undermining the IPCC’s findings, refusing to take them into account while pursuing the countries economic plans.

If policy-makers are ready to ignore scientific facts, how to make a general audience understand the urgency of the IPCC report? Is it possible to break a vicious circle of ignorance and denial and make people see the threat?

Let’s not depreciate the power of education

There is no single answer to the questions above, as global transition is not a simple equation with only one correct solution. International contracts and guidelines, like the one agreed on at COP24, is one thing. Individual responsibilities and bottom-up activities is another. For example many production trends depend directly on our choices as consumers. Also our daily habits and trivial decisions concerning transportation, diet or domestic heating options may have an impact. What we need as a global society is a wide-ranging environmental, economic and social education and awareness raising that would assist in dispelling myths and misinformation spread by e.g. climate change deniers.

One of the promising bottom-up initiatives that undertakes the difficult task of promoting awareness of global challenges is The Educators’ Challenge competition. Launched by the Swedish foundation Global Challenge, the competition aims to encourage a creative approach towards the major global risks and enhance international cooperation. It gathers thus the most inspiring projects that engage students and broader audiences in discussions on better frameworks of global collaboration. The applicants had an opportunity to submit their projects till June 2018. In Autumn 2018 the list of 12 finalists was announced, which included games, educational programs, comic books and initiatives focused on, e.g. climate change and marine degradation, sustainability or shaping a proactive attitude among kids. On the list of the potential winners there are also two serious games focused on climate change; You Change It, an interactive card game for high school and college students and New Shores – a Game for Democracy, a fantastic multiplayer internet game that we already wrote about before.

What is so special about them that they caught the jury’s attention?

Well, first of all, they are engaging and offer a way to immerse participants in simulated, yet plausible, scenario of what can happen if we chose to ignore the scientific knowledge on anthropogenic climate change. For example, in You Change It, students use specific cards to show whether they decide to produce pollution or not. Their decisions are entered into a computer system by a teacher and as a result may generate a natural catastrophe, forcing players to reconsider their choices and follow a more sustainable path.

Furthermore, serious “climate change” games can help young people render the IPCC abstract “diagnosis” into something real and more related to their lives. For example, in New Shores, players inhabit a fictional island and are free to manage their resources to satisfy their individual or community needs. What has the potential to become the fulfillment of the American Dream, may quickly turn into a nightmare with players competing over resources and distracting the island’s fragile ecological balance. One wrong move, one snap decision and the fictional world is devastated by a series of hurricanes and floods that wipe out players’ households and leave them penniless and dependant on others. In this way, a disastrous scenario anticipated by climate scientists materializes itself not in 12 years but in an hour-long game session, providing players with a lesson that will certainly be long remembered.

How can you use the games for yourself?

The good news is that both games are easily available, which makes them a perfect choice for educators working with the youth. To get instructed how to access and use the You Change It game, contact its producers, the Climate Cost Project. To access and use the New Shores game all you need to do is create a free account on the Edmodo platform and join the virtual New Shores class. It functions similarly to a Facebook group but additionally it allows you to access an e-learning course and additional materials (e.g. a methodological guide for teachers, a comprehensive game-based workshop scenario or a video tutorial for moderators, from which you will learn what game-based learning is, how to log to the moderator’s panel, create a game and manage its functions as well as facilitate dialogue with your students).

What do you think is the potential of initiatives like The Educators Challenge to accelerate transition towards more green solutions and reduction of global greenhouse gas emissions? Which of the presented projects deserves the award (the results will be announced at the beginning of 2019)? Share your opinion in comments!

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The report also calls for urgent action, as the limit of 1.5°C will be reached as early as 2030, considering the current levels of commitment to mitigating climate change. Limiting global warming levels would require unprecedented changes in all aspects of society, and they would need to be implemented very rapidly and at a large-scale. From 2016 to 2035, the world would need to invest an average of around US$2.4 trillion for the transition of the industrial, energy, agricultural, residential and transport sectors, representing about 2.5% of the global GDP. Valerie Masson-Delmotte, Co-Chair of Working Group I, said on this topic, “The good news is that some of the kinds of actions that would be needed to limit global warming to 1.5°C are already underway around the world, but they would need to accelerate.”

So how can we accelerate the mitigation of climate change and enhance the levels of commitment to participate in the mission to basically save the world? As you can guess, there is no straightforward solution. Approaching this challenge requires an understanding of the complexity and interconnectedness of the various factors related to climate change, including social, technological and economic ones. We had a unique opportunity to interview Claude Garcia, who is a member of an association of researchers and scholars who design, analyze, develop, and promote scientific research and its applications to understand complex systems: ComMod. For this purpose, they use an approach which they call Companion Modelling. It includes methods and tools such as role-playing games, multi-agents modeling, and social simulations.

Claude, what is “Companion Modelling” and how does it connect to sustainable development?

Companion Modelling is a method to support collective decision making for natural resources management. What we “do” at ComMod is helping stakeholders describe the system they work with. They identify the different components of the system they manage; what they know and what they do not know. They incorporate in this description what others know. This description becomes a model of the system – hence modelling – and this model can be used to explore, explain, negotiate and agree. ComMod assists stakeholders through all the steps, from problem framing to implementation and monitoring – hence companion.

What are main objectives of the ComMod network?

The ComMod association was created to promote the method, and also to share experiences and learn from each other. If we incorporate scientific results in the models, and systematically document the processes we are involved with, there is an element of personal skill – how to conduct constructive meetings, how to foster engagement and participation, how to construct models that are effective and elegant, these elements require that we continuously improve. ComMod is a network of people that believe that better decision making rests on the capacity to listen to and to integrate different perspectives in the decision-making process.

In which topics do the models you develop immerse? Could you give some examples?

The founders of the ComMod approach were working on natural resources management in Europe, particularly in France, and in the tropics. The first case studies were on irrigation management in West Africa. More recently, some of us have tried to scale-up the models. With my colleagues, we have described the Oil Palm supply chain in Cameroon, to help stakeholders understand the root causes of the low productivity of the country, and explore alternative strategies. We have created a model to explore the interactions between logging, mining, and development in the Congo Basin, to help negotiate offsetting schemes and management plans that are valid across countries. We have a model that describes the links between what happens in the trading places of Europe and China, the Brazil domestic market, and the deforestation in Amazon and Brazil. There is nothing that ties our approach to a local scale, to a village, to a valley. We are realizing that it is possible to be bottom-up at the larger scales too.

Let’s take a closer look at one of the models: ReHab. Could you briefly describe what the game is about?

ReHab is the best way I know to help people realize problems of natural resource management are actually problems of managing people about the resources, not the other way round. ReHab stands for Resource / Habitat. Nothing to do with drugs. But it hooks you! In a game of ReHab, participants are either villagers that need to secure their livelihood by harvesting biomass from a landscape or park managers that need to ensure a migratory bird successfully reproduces in the same landscape. All have a minimal prior knowledge of the ecology of the system, and they need to figure out how it works and what to do, under time pressure. A game typically lasts one hour, and we generally invite people to play two sessions – with different scenarios. The first game ends generally quite bad for all players, and then the challenge is to do better in the second one. And after the game, we debrief. This is probably the more important part. Without debriefing, ReHab, as any of our models, would just be a game. Funny, engaging, amusing for a while, but ultimately futile. Through the discussion that follows, participants draw insights on what is collective action, why it is difficult, why trust and good communication matter, what the origins of knowledge are, and how to cope with uncertainty and free riders. The combination of the game and the emotions it conveys, and the insights gained afterwards is very powerful. I still remember when I played it for the first time, and that is 11 years now.

What was the idea behind creating the game? Which issue or issues did you and your team want to address with it?

It begins as a classic “Tragedy of the Commons” thing. You have a limited landscape, the resource will grow if you give it space, and there is enough for everybody’s needs but not for anybody’s greed, as the saying goes. So the players can wisen-up, develop a community management scheme and problem solved. Except the designers introduced an additional layer. There is an additional actor, the park manager, with different objectives, different means, and different knowledge. This creates a completely new situation with asymmetries to identify and address. In a prisoner’s dilemma, or the tragedy of the commons, all players are identical, and only their actions differ. Here, there are differences that create the tension but are also the key to creating win-win solutions. The problem is that I could speak for hours of Rehab, and you would still miss the most important thing: it is an experience. You need to play, to experience the confusion, the frustration, the joy, the anger, the satisfaction.

Is that why you and your team chose a role-playing approach to the game?

We all know why we face the problems we face. We know where the source of climate change lies. We know why biodiversity is being lost. We know these things. Yet, that does not move us to change habits. Knowing something is different from being aware of something – and I struggle here to find the right words. What I describe is akin to being conscious of something, and this experience of consciousness is notoriously difficult to explain, and impossible so far to measure. I cannot convey to you what it feels like being a farmer in Cameroon who struggles to feed his family and provide an education to his kids, while migrants settle in his village and request access to land. I can tell you their story. I could shoot a movie I guess. Instead, I invite you to play. It will not be the real thing, but it is the next best thing. Fight to make ends meet at end of the turn, negotiate with your neighbor, argue with the moneylender, see in dismay how your painstakingly created cocoa plantation is overrun by the players from the other village or watch you crop go waste because you could not rent the truck in time to go to the market. After the game, you will understand the farmer and his decisions.

Is there a main target group of the game? If yes, who and why?

It differs with every game. Often we design the games to address a specific issue, and the target is, therefore, the stakeholders affected by this issue. It is possible to distinguish three different target groups.

1. The first ones are the people that know the system, either because they live in it or because they have studied it. They are the ones that build the model with us.
2. The second group is the people that take decisions about that system. It could be the farmers themselves if we are on a local decision level. Or it could be CEO and Ministers in the capital. They are invited to play the game, rather than design it. And through the play, they will understand it better and then design better policies.
3. Finally, the third group is made up of everybody who wants to understand that system better. We can always use the model to then teach others about that particular issue.

We addressed these three groups with our work in the OPAL project, with the CoPalCam game. We designed it with the oil palm producers in Cameroon and then used it with the Interministerial Committee for the Regulation of the Oil Palm Sector in that country. And now, we bring it to the classrooms in French and Swiss high schools to teach high school students what is sustainable development and how to achieve it – with the example of the oil palm production in Cameroon.

ReHab is different because it is more generic. As such, there is no more group 1 or 2. But everybody interested in natural resources management can benefit from it, so group 3 is really all of us, irrespective of our level of education and background.

Are there any specific skills needed to play ReHab?

No. You do not even need to know how to read or write. We have designed versions where you play with your body – physically collecting the resources in the game board. We actually make it a point not to explain everything before we start playing. The impression of feeling blindfolded and the need to discover things by yourself are part of the experience.

What are the most important lessons that players learn from playing the game? Which skills may they develop?

They learn it is not enough to bring people to the table to solve a problem. They learn that a bad negotiation can be worse than no communication at all. This already is an eye-opener. They learn collective action is costly and difficult, but that these costs need to be paid to achieve win-win solutions. They learn about the differences between listening and talking. They learn that knowing everything about a system is not a prerequisite for effective action, and that building trust and agreement with stakeholders is the first step to develop adaptive management. They learn so many things! They see the value of data and information, they see why monitoring matters and why enforcement is a necessity. They learn to share their knowledge and recognize the limits of what they don’t know. But maybe, more importantly, they learn to take responsibility. If they fail, they cannot blame it on anybody else.

Which sustainability goals can be achieved by using ReHab?

In essence, the outcomes of a ReHab session can be read in two dimensions. One is the number of birds that reproduced in the landscape. It is a measure of conservation success. The second one is the amount of biomass harvested. It is a measure of development success. The core of the game resolves about how will the players achieve these two. Will one side win over the other, in a win-lose scenario, or will they manage to find innovative solutions – the mythic win-win outcome. Unless they go down in conflict and end in a lose-lose scenario. And then we analyze the sessions and draw lessons. So, per se, a game session will not achieve anything directly. But the people will have changed through the process and they will see things differently and do things differently afterwards – and that is the goal we seek to achieve. Changing people’s’ mind.

What psychological and social processes may happen in and between players?

I already mentioned the emotions one feels when playing. They are both positive and negative. Joy, triumph, frustration, anger, arousal, confusion, satisfaction, players reports having experienced all of these. The social interactions are also varied. Alliances are formed and broken, trust is created and lost, authority is vested and removed, leadership emerges and dissolves. Peer pressure, collective action, the emergence of tenure rights, trials, and investigations, conflicts, and agreements, free-riding and solidarity, are only some of the processes that can happen in the two hours that the game lasts. I never tire of watching a game unfold.

In which settings has ReHab been played? Which results could be observed?

We have played ReHab in a variety of settings. We bring the game to schools and universities, from different backgrounds. The lessons are of interest for the environmental curriculum, but also for management schools, economists and the humanities. We have used to explain “why games” to colleagues in research projects all over the planet, at workshop and conferences. We have also used it in the field – in Madagascar, Colombia, India – whenever we want people to understand why we invite them to develop a game to resolve their issue. The game is generic enough that a forester will relate it to his forest concession, a hunter will think it is about hunting and the competition with the other hunters, a fisherman that is about fisheries management. And in a sense, they are all right – ReHab is about managing people about a natural resource.

When you ask about the results of the game, I assume you mean what happened after the game once people had returned to their daily life. I cannot answer that question. I only have anecdotal evidence. The idea for the CoPalCam game was laid out on paper by Patrice Levang, the principal scientist doing research on the supply chain in Cameroon, at the airport on the way back from the workshop where he played ReHab for the first time. One year later we were playing it with the government and decision makers in the panel. I can also tell you, for example, I changed the direction of my entire research after the ReHab game session I played 11 years ago. So in a sense, everything I have achieved since is an outcome of the ReHab game. But I do not think reviewers would accept that as a measure of impact, right?

Did your work on the models and games change your perspective on challenges connected to sustainable development? If yes, how?

Yes. Profoundly. I understand people are not irrational. I understand they take decisions based on what they know but also of what they can, or more precisely, what they think they can. I know that policies that do not consider this will not be successful. I have learned we deal with wicked problems, and that trying to tame them, imposing our solutions on others to problems we alone have defined is a dead end. I have learned to recognize complexity and deal with it. I have learned the best-laid plans go waste, and it is best to embrace uncertainty and cope with surprises. Sometimes they are good!

More importantly, I have learned to question my assumptions. How do I know my values are the right ones? How do I know what to do and what entitles me to give recommendations?

And I understand the world through the models. In ComMod we often use multi-agent systems as a model architecture. For me, this is how I analyze a landscape. I seek the components, the resources, the actors and their desires, beliefs, and intentions. The models are the lenses through which I give meaning to the complexity of the world surrounding us.

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