Serious Gaming Sites
| Name | Description | Link |
|---|---|---|
| Games for Change | “Games For Change curates digital and non-digital games that engage contemporary social issues in a meaningful way. The list below contains over 175 games” | http://www.gamesforchange.org/games/ |
| Tilt Factor | “We design games that use psychological principles to promote learning, attitude change, and behavior change.” | https://tiltfactor.org/ |
| Icivic Games | “Educational games and lesson plans to promote civics education and encourage students to become active citizens.” | https://www.icivics.org/games |
| iThrive Games | iThrive Games Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that works with and for teens to support their thriving through games and social and emotional learning. | https://ithrivegames.org/ |
| Breakaway Games | Communicate, teach, learn, using entertainment game technology to create virtual experiences for solving real-world problems. | https://www.breakawaygames.com/ |
| play2prevent | Social emotional learning to develop games and digital interventions for risk reduction, and prevention in young adults and youth, implementing scientific methods | https://www.play2prevent.org/ |
| Game Learn | Serious Games site where it provides corporate training, and resources for designing games | https://www.game-learn.com/serious-games-resources/ |
| MIT Game Lab | Created by a lab in MIT, for research purposes, with a variety of games ranging from 5-15 minutes | http://gamelab.mit.edu/games/ |
| Serious Games Showcase | An annual international competition and exhibition for serious games. | Serious Games Showcase and Challenge |
List of Serious Games For Well-being and Social Change
| Creation Date | Name | Main goal | Learning objectives | Short description | Theme/ focus | Link to a video | Scholarly Article |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Food Force | Education tool to help solve hunger through self-empowered learning | Aim to help solve the issues of poverty in famine affected countries | Players take on mission to distribute food in a famine affected country, and recover and learn to be self-sufficient again | Social change | n/a | Article |
| 2006 | Darfur Is Dying | Aims to spread awareness of the genocide taking place in Darfur. | Serve as a call to action, empower college students to help stop the killings, Engage users in the refugee experience | Created in the MTVu Darfur Digital Activist competition narration based simulation where users learn more about the crisis in Darfur, Western Sudan | Social change | Trailer | Cognitive Load and Serious Games (efficacy) |
| 2006 | Ayiti: The Cost of Life | Promote global awareness of poverty and citizenship, human rights education and Haiti as a case study | Develop problem solving, critical thinking and life skills like resource management budgeting and planning for the future, learn about ways to advocate for action and confront poverty and increase access to education in Haiti | Socially conscious game where players manage a poor Haitian family of five over four years, depicting obstacles like poverty in achieving education. | Social change | Preview | Teachers Guide |
| 2010 | World Peace Game | Hands on political simulation, to address international relations | Social learning Encouragement of complex problem solving and genuine empathy Promote ability to hold and maintain multiple perspectives around issue simulations while withholding judgement | Players solve a variety of conflict resolution challenges to peace building | Social change | Ted Talk | Blog article |
| 2011 | Spent | Tackle poverty and the challenges that is bring to each person | Players understand problems with managing game budgets, learn the change in employment, and medical cost and housing have devastating consequences | Address poverty and homelessness, whereby each decision affects the players balance in their account | Social change | Walk through | McKinney |
| 2015 | Our City | Empowers Youth to become engaged citizens In Jordan | Talk to citizens, decisions, publish approval, developing conscious understanding of group happiness | Civic engagement features in virtual Jordanian city | Social change | n/a | Article |
| 2015 | Aftershock | Learn the challenges of humanitarian assistance and disaster relief | Germany national competency based learning objectives – including medical training to convey basic knowledge, skills, and have comprehensive health care for the population | Address urgent humanitarian need so the local population, and train humanitarian personelle to response to the simulation of fictional county Carana | Social change | Game Review | Crisis on the Game Board |
| 2015 | Aislados | Help teachers confront teenager’s emotional development in class | Uses theoretical approaches from the Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) Students can develop their own emotional strategies to solve game tasks | Role playing games where players are in a ship wreak age, and the players must interact with other survivors | Social change | Program Intervention | |
| 2017 | Tracking Ida | Reality in a game that shows the player the history and impact of 1980s race relations | Players learn first-hand how empowerment and actions, accessibility and personal connection matter in the context of ethnographic research. | Uses augmented reality game to show the story of black resistance in the 1980s, being the player, and perspective of Ida B. Wells, aims to promote black activism | Social change | How they made it | Blog |
| 2007 | Stop Disasters | Learn of the Risks posed by natural hazards and mange resources created by the United Nationals Office for Disaster Risk Reduction | Tackle real issues of mitigating the impact of natural disasters Teaching people to build safe villages and cities | Interactive tool where players experience 5 natural disasters, and learn of the risks, posed by natural hazards and mange resources. | Climate | Walk through | Website |
| 2008 | Age of Ecology | Increase capabilities of users for agent- based modeling of ecosystem - based management | Complexity of ecosystems, teach players about sustainability and mitigation of natural hazards | Players are able to buy land and invest in productive capacities while mitigating natural hazards | Climate | n/a | Serious Games in USGS |
| 2017 | Cards Against Calamity | Teaches coastal community and stakeholders how to manage environmental law | Create partnerships with eh stakeholder, understand the consequences of the environment, coastal community and economies, socio-political decisions | Players must work together to make decisions and role play situation about fish, services, tourism that will strength the border community | Economics | Trailer | Website |
| 2019 | The Fiscal Ship | Teaches people about the federal budget | Learn how to make budgets and pick policy goals, influence decisions with administration and realise examples | Players have different decisions on what to do about the policy and budgets | Economics | Trailer | Teaching tool |
| 2006 | Bully | Identify and Intervene in Bullying | Teacher’s ability to identify four significant characteristics (intent, physical and / or emotional harm, imbalance of power, and repetition) React in situational bullying, identify, intervene, talk to victim, bully, bystander) | Use as a tool for pre- service teachers to learn about bullying prevention and intervention in school context | Bullying | Trailer | Laferriere |
| 2012 | What It Is | A game challenging sexual violence against youth | Learn about sexual volume alcohol, risk, and responsibility, and reaching youth | the “What It Is” game has the potential to identify factors that contribute to and influence sexual and gender-based violence | Bystander Intervention in Sexual Assaults | Focus group | Report |
| 2012 | Lucidity | Explores social, emotional effects of sexual violent | Survivor centric approach to get people to know and learn about the after affects, tackle firsthand accounts | Players see through a single story of photography, comic, website and other media | Bystander Intervention in Sexual Assaults | Video essay | Portfolio |
| 2014 | MindFlock | Impactful trivia to teach college and university students to recognize and intervene in situations | Complete the trivia to gain point and also learn about appropriate measures for addressing and reacting to sexual assault on college campus | Players are encouraged to gather their flock of fiends to compete with each other, and learn from the trivia | Bystander Intervention in Sexual Assaults | Trailer | Efficacy of Videogames |
| 2015 | Decisions that Matter | Address through simulations to help solve sexual harassment | Teaching people about prevention and bystander education though learning stimulations and situations. | Use of situations, and story of their person form their point of view, story board pathways | Bystander Intervention in Sexual Assaults | Game Link | Review |
| 2015 | Campus Craft | A game prototype that focuses, on sexual assault prevention. | students learn several core concepts related to sexual consent and rape culture through gameplay. | Developed through a participatory design process; students, educators, and subject matter experts helped design and develop scenarios, game mechanics, and learning objectives. | Bystander Intervention in Sexual Assaults | n/a | Campus Craft |
| 2017 | Bystander | Address sexual through simulations to help solve sexual harassment | Use of situations which allow players to try, fail, and try again the sections, and the potential impact to inform and empower community | Players go about different situations and how they would react | Bystander Intervention in Sexual Assaults | n/a | Exploring Bystander |
| 2012 | Moraba | End violence against women and girls, and identify GBV | Game to tackle gender based violence | Two player strategy board | GBSV | n/a | Article |
| 2017 | Easycare | Addressing gender inequalities in the context of rural regions in Ethiopia | Game to teach about maternal and child mortality through nutrition in rural regions | Designed for illiterate users to instill good practices for health care and nutrition | GBSV | n/a | Report |
| 2018 | My Jorley | Implement multiple game paly to address issues and give context to place like in Ghana | Change the negative attitudes | Interventions to help challenge Ghanaian male negative attitude to sexual and reproductive health and rights | GBSV | n/a | Website |
| 2019 | Mela | Training tool for ATVETs instructors | Aim to make a self-education tool for institutions, in address SGBV in tertiary education in Ethiopia | Simulation of real life situations, to help people know how to address gender based sexual violence in ATVET colleges. | GBSV | n.a | Guide |
| 2010 | Elude | Elude’s metaphorical model for depression serves to bring awareness to depression by creating empathy with those who live with depression every day | Use of core metaphors with psychological meaning, users interact with these mechanisms to simulate mood states Purposeful up movement, via the outcome of passion which provides short terms goals to happiness | The core game play happens in a forest, filled with other objects and players must growth their trees for passion, and powerups to “happiness” | Mental Health | Trailer | Elude |
| 2010 | Reach Out Central | Engage Young Men to Improve Mental Health and Wellbeing | Keep tract of day to day learning skills, online diary, protective and positive impact are encouraging, and seek to improve wellbeing | Attract gamers to play in situation based stories, characters and plots using real life reflection | Mental Health | Trailer | Report |
| 2011 | Walk in My Shoes | Serious game to help common psychological health challenges by military personnel | Learning is based on the learner’s active exploration, and learning, in stress coping, recognition and management skills | Using a narrative guide and exploration approach for digital story telling | Mental Health | n.a | Chapter |
| 2012 | PlayMancer | A game to treat mental disorders with additional therapy tool for eating disorder and impulse control disorders. | Physiological reactivity and emotional recognition are key components in measuring the way that people will handle the different objectives | Players are on different islands which have different objectives to combat stress, self-control, disappointment etc. | Mental Health | Trailer | Report |
| 2012 | SuperBetter | Empower users to tackle real world challenges and improve their mental health | Improve protective factors (increase optimism, social support [perceived], self-efficacy and higher life satisfaction Reduce obstacles to resilience (less anxiety, fewer depressive symptoms, less homelessness) | Brings together the psychological strength and game play, a method that promote new levels of personal growth from stress and change | Mental Health | Ted Talk | Randomized control Trial |
| 2012 | Sparx | Help to moderate depression, stress or anxiety | Aim to work as a treatment for students with symptoms of depression, and in particular to students in alternative schooling, and not mainstream education | Players are the main character and are put in situations where they need to work with others, and resolve issues on their own etc. | Mental Health | Trailer | Sparx Report |
| 2014 | SmartCAT | Game using health platform for interventions in children with axiety | Coping cat, practical skills, opportunities for repetition, home based exposures | Used for anxiety treatment using mobile health technology | Mental Health | n/a | Report |
| 2015 | Coping Coach | Online game to help children recover, and such post-traumatic stress | for children 8 to 12 years old learning based on evidence and theory about preventing negative emotional reactions after a stressful event | 3 levels to complete, where children decide to avoid or approach a situation | Mental Health | n/a | Report |
| 2015 | Dealing with Others | Aims to train people to act assertively with jobs and colleges | Goal to help improved self-improvement, and self-esteem for people who use the game based on research for psychosocial burn out | Helps to combat burnout, and simulate real work conditions and encounter situations to which people will act assertively | Mental Health | n/a | Report |
| 2016 | Mindlight | Children manages stress and anxiety symptoms | Empirically developed methods for anxiety reduction, and attention bias modification | Players explore a dark old mansion, and player indicate how they are feeling, relaxed etc. through the game through icons | Mental Health | Trailer | Report |
| 2016 | Flowy | Game intended to combat panic attacks | Digitally delivered breathing retraining exercises for anxiety, panic, and hyperventilation symptom management. | Players flow through a river avoiding obstacles, and a cloud simulated slow, calm breathing | Mental Health | Example | Report |
| 2017 | Rage Control | Aim to help in anger management | Learn how to keep calm during times that are not calm such as shooting in a video game. Moreover, the work uses cognitive behavioural therapy | “a therapeutic videogame that requires players to maintain low levels of physiologic arousal while rapidly reacting to incoming stimuli and inhibiting erroneous responses.” | Mental Health | n/a | Report |
| 2017 | Stigma-Stop | Serious game against the stigma toward mental health education | Give tools to help individuals respond to disorders, and identify disorders reinforced in learning environments | Player is given various mental disorders and asked if they feel similar | Mental Health | Trailer | Report |
| 2018 | Rethink | Games to promote psychological resilience among children | Teaching emotion regulation skills for healthy emotional development like rational skills, relaxation etc. | Divided into 7 levels each level does something, in which different goal based on emotional regulation etc. | Mental Health | n/a | Report |
| 2018 | gNats island | Deigned to help mental health professionals deliver CBT | Mental health interventions through technology , and evidence based interaction models for aged 9-17 | Play in the work be a character and interact with real therapist | Mental Health | Na | Website Report |
| 2007 | PIDstop | Help in vocational training | Focus on control applications, pH- control, ratio, behaviour and noise input training guide | “The main goal of the AutoTech project is to develop a set of new, motivating and innovative Internet based vocational training packages for Automation Technicians.” | Vocational | n/a | Report |
| 2016 | Clinispace | Health care training application | Industrial oriented modelling approach and professional training, robust scenarios | Considered a serious game that teaches simulations in the health care systems | Vocational | Simulation | Report |
| 2016 | Pacific | Game about leadership and team management | Discover step by step team building activities, team effectiveness, and solving concflict | a story: while on a humanitarian mission, a team’s plane crashes and they are trapped on an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. | Vocational | n/a | Website |
