Serious Games for Government and Politics

Serious Games for Government & Politics

Governments and political parties around the world are beginning to see games as the new medium for citizen engagement, particularly with the new generation. In this session we look at leading examples from around the world where the use of gaming technology and serious games by, for and in response to governments and public policy have made an impact. Specifically looking at public policy engagement, politically-theme games, games about elections and budgets, and a host of social issues from the environment to human rights and immigration.

The areas which will be explored

• Citizen Engagement

Image from FloodSim

Area example

FloodSim is a serious game with the aims to raise awareness of the vast number of issues surrounding flood policy and Government expenditure and to increase citizen engagement through an accessible simulation.

• Policy Engagement

Image from Serious Policy

Area example

Gordon Brown joins a virtual Paris Hilton, a digital Alistair Darling and a simulated Keira Knightley as 3D characters in the SeriousPolicy Game. The downloadable computer game, developed by serious games and educational simulation specialists PlayGen, sees the player on a mission to win Treasury funding for a new policy.

• Elections & Budget

Image from Budget Hero

Area example

Most government games focus either primarily or exclusively on politics. It’s tempting to speculate why, Budget Hero, a Flash-based game released in 2008, is instead concerned with the effects of policy. In Budget Hero, the player sets policy goals (which are arguably also political goals) and then attempts to achieve them without busting the U.S. federal budget.

• Human Rights and Immigration

Image from ICED

Area example

A new game called ICED (I Can End Deportation) allows you to adopt the role of an immigrant to avoid deportation by the U.S. Immigration office. The point of the game, is to educate people as to just how easy it is to run afoul of the feds under current immigration laws, and what little recourse the accused have.

The above are just a few examples of the type of games we will be covering on the day. We will show dozens of games on the day, covering a broad spectrum of developments on serious games for overnment and politics.

How to get to Serious Games for Government and Politics

Closest Tubes are Old Street (take exit 2, 7 minutes) and Liverpool Street (15min)

Google Map link

Other Events Playgen is Hosting

Part of the Game Based Learning Conference 2010 - March 29th - March 30th

Game Based Learning 2010 takes place over two full days and includes an evening social event to make valuable connections in a relaxed environment. With a main conference programme running during these two days combined with breakout sessions for special interest groups there is something for everyone with an interest in using gaming and social media technology to improve learning, teaching and training.

Playgen

PlayGen develop and promote the use of immersive simulations, serious games and virtual worlds for learning, training, assessment, to inspire, to engage, to measure and to change behaviour. Visit our site for; games, news and events.