Unlocking Games

Chad Haefele and Brandon Carper
Unlocking Games

A show about social impact games and how they provide a new way to explain the things you care about. Every week we cover how a game applies (or misses) the lessons of our work and research in instructional design and user experience. You'll always learn practical tips applicable to your own work. We're both lifelong gamers with a deep love of both classic and modern games - we know what works and what doesn't.

  1. 04/03/2017

    Episode 26: Being Big Brother in Orwell

    First, an important note: This will be our last episode for a while. Brandon and I have both developed outside commitments that keep us from spending the time to do more episodes right. We might be back someday! But please enjoy this and each of our past episodes - we're proud of each one, and I think they'll still be relevant down the line. To anybody who has ever listened to an episode: I sincerely thank you. We're also releasing this episode outside of our normal schedule, because there's a natural connection to an event coming up on this Tuesday, 4/4/17: Over 190 movie theaters will run special screenings of 1984. You should find one! This connection will make sense if you even glance at the PC game Orwell. While not an official tie-in to 1984, it's obviously heavily inspired by that book. You play a government employee who monitors the web and private communications for evidence of terrorism. You have frequent choices about whether or not to report chunks of information. You might wrongly imprison someone, but you might also fail to prevent a bombing. Orwell is fun and compelling to play, mostly avoids getting preachy, and provides a unique way to think about current events. It's $9.99 on Steam, and has a free demo available. Games Mentioned in this Episode Mr. Robot (featured in episode 3) Papers, Please (featured in episodes 7-9) Show Notes & Links Killscreen's coverage of Orwell More info on the upcoming 1984 movie screenings

  2. 02/17/2017

    Episode 24: Getting Punched by Interesting People in This War of Mine

    The game is more than two years old and based on an event from the 90s, but This War of Mine still feels fresh and relevant. This War of Mine drops you in the middle of a city under siege. But you're not a well-equipped well-trained super-soldier packing the latest gadgets. You're a civilian, just trying to make it to the next morning. This is more Survivalist Sims than Call of Duty. Developers 11 Bit Studios set out to re-create the experience of the '92-'96 siege of Sarajevo, but it's just as applicable to today's Syrian civil war. Resources are scarce and violence is sudden and swift. You can steal from or murder others to get by, but that decision has significant mental consequences for your characters. We found lots to appreciate in the message and basic mechanics of This War of Mine. But unfortunately the extreme difficulty, lack of a tutorial, and opaque goals hamper what might otherwise be a successful effort to raise awareness about the consequences of war on civilians and refugees. Games Mentioned in this Episode Call of Duty The Sims Papers, Please Minecraft Show Notes & Links This War of Mine's launch trailer Al Jazeera's recent summary of Syria's Civil War NPR's annotations of Trump's Executive Order on Immigration Survive the horrors of war as a civilian in This War of Mine, PC Gamer A war game that actually feels like being in a war, Polygon A psychologically “embedded” approach to designing games for prosocial causes, by Geoff Kaufman & Mary Flanagan, Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace, 2015

  3. 01/20/2017

    Episode 22: Freezing Rain and Dysentery on the Voter Suppression Trail

    Welcome back to season two! We're slightly shifting focus to social impact games: games that explore social issues like elections, climate change, homelessness, and immigration. Each episode will evaluate the effectiveness of a different game. What was it trying to accomplish? Did it work? Our goal isn’t to take a stance on the issues or evaluate the accuracy of the games, but to examine how effective their design is at achieving their goals. We'll draw on the theories and ideas we talked about in past episodes, plus bring in new perspectives whenever we can. We're also going bi-weekly. Since the 2017 Inauguration is a major event this week, our season premiere is on topic with Voter Suppression Trail. Released shortly before the 2016 Presidential election, this was the New York Times' first stab at a video game editorial. Borrowing liberally from Oregon Trail's design style, Voter Suppression Trail puts you in the shoes of three potential voters: A white programmer from California, a Latina nurse from Texas, and a Black salesman from Wisconsin. Each of them has varying obstacles to overcome as they wait in line to vote. What impact did it have on players? We think it was only partially successful in drawing attention to real electoral issues. Listen to the episode to find out why. Games mentioned in this episode Oregon Trail The GOP Arcade's many other titles Show Notes & Links Test yourself - which of the Four Frames do you see the world through? Gamasutra's The Making of GOP Arcade's Voter Suppression Trail The Effect of a persuasive social impact game on affective learning and attitude, by Dana Ruggiero, Computers in Human Behavior, 2015 The Art of Game Design, by Jesse Schell

  4. 01/06/2017

    Episode 21: Agents and Avatars in Final Fantasy XV

    Many games put you in the role of someone else. It's right in the name of at least one genre: Role-Playing Game. We identify with each of these avatars to varying degrees. It's hard to feel much of a connection with Pac-Man, but Link and Chrono were much easier to map onto ourselves. What did we take away from that mapping? What does current research say about how we relate to our avatars? This week Brandon introduces theories about how we connect with games' avatars, then we look at Final Fantasy XV as an example. What opportunities does it take or miss to link us with Prince Noctis? And what does this all have to do with Clippy, anyway? Show Notes & Links Monster Factory Clark, Ruth Colvin. Building Expertise: Cognitive Methods for Training and Performance Improvement. 3rd ed. San Francisco: Pfeiffer, 2007. Fox, Jesse, and Jeremy N. Bailenson. "Virtual self-modeling: The effects of vicarious reinforcement and identification on exercise behaviors." Media Psychology 12, no. 1 (2009): 1-25. Groom, Victoria, Jeremy N. Bailenson, and Clifford Nass. "The influence of racial embodiment on racial bias in immersive virtual environments." Social Influence 4, no. 3 (2009): 231-248. Ruggiero, Dana. "The effect of a persuasive social impact game on affective learning and attitude." Computers in Human Behavior 45 (2015): 213-221. Doi: 10.1016/j.chb.2014.11.062. Woolfolk, Anita. Educational Psychology. 8th ed. Needham Heights: Allyn and Bacon, 2001. Yee, Nick, and Jeremy N. Bailenson. "Walk a mile in digital shoes: The impact of embodied perspective-taking on the reduction of negative stereotyping in immersive virtual environments." Proceedings of PRESENCE 246 (2006): 147-156. Yee, Nick and Jeremy N. Bailenson. “The Proteus Effect: The Effect of Transformed Self-Representation on Behavior.” Human Communication Research 33 (2007): 271-290. Yee, Nick, Jeremy N. Bailenson, and Nicolas Ducheneaut. “The Proteus Effect: Implications of Transformed Digital Self-Representation on Online and Offline Behavior.” Communication Research 36 (2009): 285-312. Games mentioned in this episode Chrono Trigger Secret of Mana Halo Legend of Zelda Spent Papers, Please Final Fantasy XV Final Fantasy VII Hearthstone Disgaea 4

About

A show about social impact games and how they provide a new way to explain the things you care about. Every week we cover how a game applies (or misses) the lessons of our work and research in instructional design and user experience. You'll always learn practical tips applicable to your own work. We're both lifelong gamers with a deep love of both classic and modern games - we know what works and what doesn't.

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