Recommendations on Prevent Bullying Games

[Suzanna Samstag]

Hi there, I am Suzanna Oh from the Games for Change chapter in Seoul.
 
In conjunction with the [Korean] Ministry of Justice, we're looking to building games on the prevention of bullying for kids
ages 5 to 17. 
 
Any ideas or suggestions of good anti-bullying games would be much appreciated. 
 
Best, Suzanna

[Monica Valentinelli]

That depends upon what you mean by "prevent bullying." If you mean that you are looking for a way to spread the message of anti-bullying itself, then I don't have a recommendation.

However, many games are based on a style of play that's cooperative rather than "us versus them." In co-op games, opponents don't "gang up on" one player at the table. They have to fight together to either defeat a common enemy or solve a puzzle. The board game Pandemic is an excellent example of that. Players are a team that runs around the world to stop a virus outbreak.

Another game that turns the "us versus them" concept on its head is Gloom. In that game, you win by doing mean things to your fictitious family and take nice actions to help everyone else.

- M

[Sujin Youn]

Hi, it's good to hear that there would be efforts from the government to make games for school violence prevention.

 

I'm a graduate student studying serious games in Korea and my undergraduate major is English education. 

I have a special interest in educational game design, so I might be able to share some of my ideas relevant to your topic.

 

* Before getting into the main point,

I'm pretty concerned if the government wants only one game which suits for kids 5-17, which seems to be a too risky approach. Different age groups have different needs and interests. Also, giving games to a 5-years-old kid might have a detrimental effect on the kid's development. What I've written here is therefore about the games for kids older than 9 or 10.

  

-

 

My opinion about the school bullies in Korea is that they lack, sort of, empathy for others.

 

Though I don't agree with the idea that games are a major cause for crimes (FYI, games-usually MMOs- have been an easy scapegoat to explain social problems including violent crimes in Korea), children's early exposure to games with monsters(or other players) to kill might have caused the children to become insensible to others' suffering. 

 

An example for this is Maple Story, a popular MMORPG among Korean kids. It has cute monsters which look cute even when they're attacked; there is no chance for the kids to feel sorry for the monsters and possibly no chance to figure out the real consequences of the aggressive actions in real life.

 

What I'd like to point out here is that kids need to know what happens around them when they do wrong (e.g. bullying) and reflect upon their behavior. They should be aware of the things happen not only to themselves but also to the bullied kids and other people, and realize how it hurts.

  

Based on this point of view, I suggest a few points to consider.(some of the ideas may not be applicable to kids living in other areas)

 

Genre:

I think simulation games can be a good choice to allow kids make their own choice and learn from their experiences.

Also, first person point of view might be helpful. In a game, there might be a case when the player is bullied by other NPCs, and first person point of view could be easier to deliver the feelings of the bullied.

About Co-op style games, kids(and adults!) can still pick on their team members only because they lost the game. I'd recommend single-play style. 

 

Mechanics:

Whatever mechanic you use, you should keep in mind that the mechanic must represent the things that kids should learn.

An RPG game with monsters which tells you that 'the game will over if you kill monsters' won't work at all.

It merely says: don't hurt others. It doesn't provide any reason why hurting others is bad.

A well designed mechanic should say, for example: if you hurt others, you don't feel good about it because you know they will suffer.

Cause and effect should be arranged elaborately throughout the game so that players are provided with valid reasons for every action they take. Again, 'if you do bad things, the game will over(you will be punished)' will not work.

Kids need chances to think about their action and its consequences on their own. 

 

Narrative:

I think a well-written narrative should play an important role in the game, since the game mechanic may not be that attractive to kids as other MMOs do. Also, narrative has a great potential in emotional appeal which can help kids to identify with game characters. Writing a narrative based on fact+fiction about bullying can be a choice.

 

Aesthetics:

Cool graphics and sound effects to create realistic experiences. 

Kids are quite familiar to games that have high-quality 3D graphics, so there should be considerations for this.

Even if a game has armed with great mechanics and narratives, kids might turn away because of poor quality graphics.

If you develop games running on smartphone this becomes less problematic, but especially for games running on PC, kids are more likely to complain.

 

-

 

I hope this can be of help:) 

 

What I'd like you to remember is you should let the kids realize by themselves that violence is not the right way to solve problems.

Please do not make them think they are being controlled again with boring games. 

 

 

Regards,  

Sujin Youn

 

 

2012/2/2 Suzanna Samstag <jiyu...@hotmail.com>

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[MSU Carrie Heeter]

Dear G4C List,

 

I am forwarding a response to Suzanna’s request for Recommendations on Prevent Bullying Games from a team of great graduate students from one of my classes.

 

Carrie Heeter

Professor, Telecommunication, Information Studies, and Media

PI, GEL Lab (games for entertainment and learning)

Michigan State University

http://seriousgames.msu.edu/

http://tc.msu.edu/

http://gel.msu.edu/carrie

 

Hello from Team Brigie at Michigan State University!

We have received your request for some games on the topic of bullying, and we wanted to let you know that we may be able to help. Team Brigie has in development a game, “Schools Out” to get children talking about the serious impacts of bullying by letting them role-play as both a bully and a hero in a fun and safe environment. Kids learn about the dynamics of bullying.  Ultimately that it’s harder to win if you are mean…

We developed this board game under the direction of Dr. Carrie Heeter at Michigan State University in MSU’s Serious Game Design MA program (http://seriousgames.msu.edu).

 

You can visit the Schools Out web site at http://www.teambrigie.wordpress.com .

 

We would like to express our interest in partnering to further refine the game and pursue avenues of distribution.

We would be willing to work with Suzanna to create a version that is tailored to kids in Seoul.

So on behalf of my classmates, Bryan Novak and Carrie Cole, I would like to extend a hand and start a dialogue: If what we have been working on is what you are looking for.

 

Thanks for your time.

Sincerely,

Craig M. Tucker

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[Carole Krechman]

Great I will have my producers contact you soon. I would suggest that you review our web-site, we have a series of synopsis under workshops that describes our copy written materials.
Regards,
Carole Sumner Krechman
Peacemaker Corps Association
www.Peacemakercorps.org

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

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From: "MSU Carrie Heeter" <hee...@msu.edu>

Sender: gamesfo...@googlegroups.com

Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2012 07:40:34 -0800

To: <gamesfo...@googlegroups.com>

Cc: 'Suzanna Samstag'<jiyu...@hotmail.com>; 'Craig Tucker'<nerve...@gmail.com>; Carrie Cole<cole.c...@gmail.com>; Bryan Novak<nova...@msu.edu>

Subject: RE: [G4C] Recommendations on Prevent Bullying Games

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[Deirdre Fishel]

Dear G4C List,

Mind's Eye Productions, an award winning documentary and educational film company, is also in development on an anti bullying game as part of BOY CODE, a transmedia project, video and interactive website, dedicated to boys and issues of hyper masculinity.  You can see a link to a not quite final cut of the 15 minute video at http://vimeo.com/34268829  Password boycode2011.  

The interactive website will have at its center the boy code game play where visitors will witness a tense seen of bullying then get to pick their character  bully, target or bystander in a pick your own adventure style game.  They will then go  to four high impact scenes as that character leaving them at a critical decision point, ie bully another kid to assuage the pain of having been bullied or not.   Comic book panels will then take you into the mind of the characters, humorous and exagerated depictions of their fears and fantasies about making one decision or another -- all geared to high light how much all boys are restricted by  hyper masculine codes of toughness.

We'd love to be in communication with anyone interested or working on these issues!

Deirdre

Deirdre Fishel

Assistant Professor

Department of Media Studies and Film

The New School

Filmmaker

Mind's Eye Productions

718-638-0028

        www. mindseyeprods.com

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Deirdre Fishel

Assistant Professor

Department of Media Studies and Film

The New School

Filmmaker

Mind's Eye Productions

718-638-0028

        www. mindseyeprods.com

       Director: STILL DOING IT   stilldoingit.com 

[crageous]

We have developed a first person role-playing game aimed at grades 6-8
and we're at the piloting stage and would love to get feedback. We
believe that the game will work well both as a in-class group activity
facilitated by the teacher or as an individual activity. Please have a
look at the game, Sir Basil Pike Public School at www.zap.ca/pike
All feedback gratefully appreciated.

On Feb 1, 8:05 pm, Suzanna Samstag <jiyuns...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Hi there, I am Suzanna Oh from the Games for Change chapter in Seoul. In conjunction with the [Korean] Ministry of Justice, we're looking to building games on the prevention of bullying for kidsages 5 to 17.   Any ideas or suggestions of good anti-bullying games would be much appreciated.   Best, Suzanna