Despandemia: Serious Game in Alternate Reality for Reading and Rewriting Our Intercultural World during the Covid-19 Pandemic

Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Computer Supported Education ◽

10.5220/0010480804250436 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Marcelo A. de Barros ◽

Valéria Andrade ◽

Antão Moura ◽

Laurent Borgmann ◽

Osmundo Claudino

Keyword(s):

Serious Game ◽

Alternate Reality

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Is the boundary of fun redefined in a mixed-reality serious game?

10.20944/preprints201901.0187.v1 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Antoine Taly

Keyword(s):

Origin Of Life ◽

Serious Games ◽

Mixed Reality ◽

Two Dimensions ◽

Serious Game ◽

Pervasive Games ◽

Broad Definition ◽

Alternate Reality Games ◽

The Origin Of Life ◽

Alternate Reality

Considering Games with the broad definition proposed by Juul (Juul, 2010), consequences outside of the magic circle can be negotiated. This definition opens up the possibility to define serious games, games developed with an utilitarian goal in mind, in addition to fun. The entertaining and utilitarian objectives may however be contradictory, leading serious games to be, more often than not, less than optimal in at least one of the two dimensions. Another way to play with the boundaries of games is to consider pervasive games, which include alternate reality games, and crossmedia games (Montola, 2005). We question here the limit between game, play and toy in the context of a mixed reality serious game. ‘Pangu’ is a game designed for bachelor students, with biochemistry as the utilitarian objective, and the origin of life as a game theme. The students are asked to play the game on their smartphone, which in turn ask them to build molecules with a tangible balls-and-sticks model typically used in chemistry classes. Pictures taken from the models allow users to ‘scan’ these models and progress in the game. The use of the game was observed in four opportunities. An unanticipated observation is that, in addition to expected behaviors, some students used briefly the models like a toy rather than in the context of the game. It is therefore tempting to speculate that the pervasive nature of the game is blurring the game/non game boundary and, in the context of this serious game, opens a door for fun.

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