Larnaca 14-16 May, 2012

The value of experiential learning and role reversals for adults and children in the digital world

Yiannis Laouris

CyberEthics Cyprus Neuroscience & Technology Institute

Cyprus

Why a game?

• “Serious Games”

• Why people play games? – Hard Fun (emotions such as frustration and ‘Fiero’)

– Easy Fun (curiosity, sensation of wonder, and mystery)

– Altered States (games as therapy, excitement and relief)

– The people Factor (player competition, cooperation, performance and spectacle)

• Game Playing Theory and Role Playing

• Conceptual Design of the game

Purpose of the Game: to create a simulated environment of today’s complex,

dynamically changing and many-to-many virtual environments where

internet risks can be presented and experienced by young players in a

controlled way.

The approach is scientifically grounded on the thesis that children do not

learn about dangers they do not experience.

Within this controlled environment, a number of internet related dangers will

be simulated and presented to young players in ways that challenge them

make decisions and take actions. Their decisions and actions will be related

to various scoring systems that define winning strategies, necessary

knowledge and skills and ultimately create a winner.

The Game is designed to be flexible, multi-player, asynchronous (for a single

player), dynamic and expandable.

The Game “connects” to real world organizations and their materials in ways

that allow Players to find information, learn materials and acquire skills.

Game Design

Register for a specific Game and be teleported to the respective Game area.

These spaces will be denoted with the Names of the specific Game types.

Knowledge Center; This is a building with a large space that features lots of

sub spaces (or maybe even an area that resembles a campus). Each sub

space will correspond to a different type of resource. For example, we should

have study rooms where a group can arrange to meet in order to study an

issue. Sub spaces can also include an EC sub space where one can find more

information about the Safer internet Plus program, about relevant European

funded projects and about pan-European organizations such as Insafe and

Inhope. We can also have booths or sub-spaces dedicated to specific Nodes.

Areas for other activities and pleasure. These may include: V-Jacuzzi, Parks

Hall of Fame: This is where one can go and see his/her ranking and listen to

winners and their strategies.

Game Environment

A minimum of 5 Players enter into the world at the same time and go from

Game area to Game area competing on the same problems. While competing

to maximize their score, they are also encouraged to collaborate

School competition: Five players from each school play as a Group. The

Game includes mechanisms for players to interact with players from other

schools. The winning Player is the one that not only performs well in the

Problems posed and in the collaboration with his peers but also the one is

sociable and succeeds in making new friends and cultivating those friendships

Children with their parents: Young players explore and play together with

their parents. They are the ones “teaching” their parents about safety and

about gaming.

Completely free and continuous Game: This is the ultimate Game because it

allows Players to enter at any time.

Many ways to play

[Disturbances]

Disturbances are situations created by the Game system engine targeting

specific Players each time in order to provoke them take actions. Disturbances

are like invisible “Daemons” or “teachers” from the worlds of Metaphysics who

are experiences as “bad” people but they are actually inherently destined to

challenge one to distinguish what is right and what is wrong (in many cases by

making a mikstake and paying for it!).

Registering to play

Players are expected to register when they first enter the Game environment.

This registration should be analogous to a SNS. In very analogous way they will

re rewarded or punished and also categorized depending on the choices they

make.

Privacy settings

If one reveals too much personal information such as Address, mobile phone etc

(we need to decide how we simulate these) will be categorized as candidate for

bullying or for stealing his/her identity

Define Study Room

This is a space or a room which contains some furniture like a conference facility

and is equipped with some technology such as beamer, desk with a computer, a

Z-Communicator etc. These tools can be used in specific ways:

Beamer: The group can choose only a limited number of presentations (maybe

even just one) that they can attend. Once selected, the PPT presentation will be

beamed on the V-screen accompanied with an Agent talking (pre-recordings)

Internet Computer: This is a simulation of a computer from where a Player can

search within-the-world for information. This where they should locate the

resource that they will call on the beamer

Z-Communicator: This offers the possibility to call and teleport another person

to join this team.

Invitation to meet somebody

Somebody can send an invitation to the player to teleport and meet. There must

be many occasions in which this situation is encountered. There must be

reasons for players to move around the environment through teleporting (by

invitation of others) such as:

A player owns (has earned) a gadget known as [MobilePhone] and is in a Game

situation in which s/he wants to use the [RightToCallSomeoneForHelp]. S/he

calls and invites someone to be teleported to his/her locations so that s/he can

ask the question. The Receiver of the invitation doesn’t know what the other

person wants when s/he receives the invitation. S/he may also not even know

the other person very well.

Invitation to meet somebody

A player has to decide whether to accept the invitation to be teleported based on

the following criteria:

Don’t go if there is only one single person at the destination. This can be

checked by consulting the MiniMap

Take another friend with him/her if s/he thinks that the invitation is for some get

together, some fun or simply to get to know each other. The person

accompanying the one being invited must also earn points by doing this.

However, the same SI rules apply for that person as well.

Before one accepts an invitation by a person s/he doesn’t know very well to be

teleported somewhere, the person receiving the invitation must open the Profile

of the other person and see whether the information there makes sense and is

consistent with what that person communicated already

One should check the MiniMap also for more reasons. For example, if one

invites someone for Help but that person is not a Game area but in discotheque,

then this is an inconsistency. Deciding to go anyway entails a risk that must be

punished by a score reduction.

Invitation to the Jacuzzi

A player may decide to spend some time in the Jacuzzi because it is relaxing,

because there are friends there but moreover because this is an energizing

activity. At the same time this is a place one shouldn’t be with strangers!

Invitation to a Discotheque

A player may decide to spend some time in the Disco because this is a place

where you can meet new people and it is also a place where you relax; it is an

energizing activity. But, again this is a place not to be alone with strangers!

Bullying

A persona completely unknown to the player (simulated by the system and

having different names every time so that there is no memory that such and

such person is a known bully) send disturbing messages to a player. There

are two possibilities here: One is that this bully has first requested to become

friend with the player. Second option is that the bully hacks the system and

appears as a friend even though the Player has never accepted or invited

him/her. The second situation can happen only if a Player exhibits risky

behavior (we can base this on the relevant literature).

The Bully manages to “steal” the identity of a person that is already in the list

of friends. Similar as above, this can happen whenever a player reveals too

much personal information.

A programmable agent avatar is a “known” (to those who have encounter

him/her) bully who always hangs around in specific locations. We have a few

such “bad” guys in the streets, in the park, in the Discothèque, in the Jacuzzi,

even in the Knowledge Center.

Reporting to Hotline

Players are expected to report to the Hotline whenever they encounter any of the

following problems or issues:

They are being bullied; Someone or a “place” on the island promotes

pornographic material or makes them feel uncomfortable

Making a report is accompanied with score increase. Reporting that is not

complete results to no score.

Reporting to Hotline

There should be clear rules of how one makes a Report.. A Talking Agent can

“talk” a few issues based on a simple menu. For example, the Agent can answer

to the following questions;

Who are you?

What are you doing here

How can I make a Report?

Will you arrest or punish the criminal?

Reporting to Hotline

A Report is considered as complete if it includes the following information:

Name of person or object creating the disturbance or the bullying

Place where the disturbing material or experience was encountered

Exact evidence, eg should copy paste the exact text “sent” by a bully to the

player

A Report should be made within a reasonable time frame following the negative

experience. The chances for the Hotline to identify the “criminal” disappear are

time passes. Therefore, a Report must be made within a time window equal to

[OptimalReportingTime] to benefit from the full [ReportingAward]. The award

should fall exponentially as time passes

Someone encouraging another person to file a Report must be awarded some

points equal to [EncourageAward]

Someone accompanying another person to the Reporting facility should benefit

from an [ReportAccompanyAward]

Consulting the Helpline

Players are expected to conduct the Helpline and request support whenever

they encounter any of the following problems or issues:

They are being bullied

They encounter any situation that makes them feel uncomfortable

The Helpline avatar will talk to them and give them basic information such

as:

Explain what is the purpose and the role of the Helpline

Encourage them to make a Report of the case is such that requires reporting

Encourage them to share their feelings with one of the good friends (the

correct

move is to share this with a FriendCategory5

Validating possibly misleading

information

Players encounter throughout the game various situations in which they need

information to proceed. That information might be wrong and will contribute to

negative earnings. They are expected to validate the information by going to the

Knowledge Center and searching and consulting the correct and reliable

references.

Simulating Scoring

Each player receives different kinds of scoring such as: SimScore: Players win or lose points depending on their achievements in the

specific Game areas. The starting SimScore is zero.

EnergyLevel: All Players enter the overall environment with an energy level equal to 1000. They loose energy in the flowing ways: (1) As time passes. (2) As they move too much. (3) As they make wrong choices. This scoring aims to discourage players from staying in the SimSafety™ Game for too long, and acts as an anti-addiction measure.

PowerImpact: The more friends one has the more powerful. The more places one visits the better. The more games one plays, the more points s/he earns (irrespective of game outcome).

SafenetLevel: The value depends on his/her privacy settings. If a Player’s SafenetLevel is low, s/he is a “good” candidate for Bullying, for encountering situations in which his/her identity was stolen etc. The low value functions as a trigger on the Disturbances Engine or the Bullying Engine to “prepare” a “situation” for the particular Player.

Screen shots

Playing the game

“Visiting” countries

Simulating “friendship”

Testing in Schools

60th primary school of Patras

Students: sixth grade including 12 boys and 8 girls (12 years old) - familiar with social networking environments and online games

Head Teacher:The class teacher with relevant experience in teaching, using ICT

Room: lab with five computers, ADSL connection

Testing in Schools

Elementary and Secondary

schools in Cyprus

Students: 8-14 years old) - familiar with social networking environments and online games

Head Teacher:The class teacher with relevant experience in teaching, using ICT

Room: lab with computers, ADSL connection

Implementation

Drawbacks

Difficulties setting up the computer labs

Limited Number of computers available in

primary school labs

Low connectivity

Implementation

Highlights

Great enthusiasm on behalf of pupils (many

more would like to have been involved in the

project.

Great support from teachers

Persistence and patience on behalf of pupils

who also access SimSafety from home

regularly

Some Fieldnotes

6th grade primary school pupils tend to be more focused and perform

better in SimSafety than 5th grade primary school pupils

SimSafety is not an environment that pupils can take full advantage

of without the support of an inspired teacher

Often visits to SimSafety minimises the technical problems and

highlights the positive aspects

Mini games are successful when one of the roles is being played by

an adult making provocative questions and initiating interesting

discussions

Interesting discussions among teacher and pupils occurred during

mini game playing and while answering the quizzes

Some of the pupils have become great funs of SimSafety and import

“gestures” to the system, help us debug it etc.

Pupils liked….

They liked:

the graphics (they thought there were many nice

places to visit)

their avatars

that there were many nice things to do

that they could discuss with each other

that they could discuss with pupils from other

countries

flying

the “Report Centre”

Pupils’ Comments

They didn’t like:

“sinking” into the water or in the ground due to bad internet

connection

the fact that “Kostas whispers” (bullying machine) was calling

them names

They suggest that we implement :

Planes, cars and motorbikes

More action

Superpowers

Some punching and striking

More games

Multiple cities

Speed (make the system quicker)

Teachers’ comments

They liked role playing games (they found

them educationally useful)

They thought it was an asset of SimSafety to

have many pupils online at the same time

discussing and acting together

They thought there is great potential in

SimSafety