Exploration of the Serious Games Taxonomy

Welcome to WatersEdges Versus The cost of life

In this post I am going to review 2 games that are built with flash and available online. Both of the games have Public Health as the main focus. Welcome to WatersEdges is a game that puts the player in the shoes of an intern student at the department of health and let the player experience what happens when there is a disease outbreak, and which people are involved. The other game “the cost of life” gives the player the opportunity to manage a family of 5 in the rural Haiti. The player needs to keep the family healthy, happy and wealthy. During the game the player is suppose to give the family instruction what to do during the seasons. The choices are where the player can choose is for example working on the family farm, what doesn’t make much money at first but when a harvest is successful its profitable. There are also other jobs available, they bring more money in some require a diploma, some make much money but are very unhealthy. The player gets many choices to keep this family happy.

Welcome to WatersEdge!

This game was developed by the Midwest Center for Life-Long-Learning in Public Health (MCLPH). The game is developed to make students aware and interested in the field of public health.  By simulating an outbreak in a small town the player gets introduced to various professions that are available within the field of the public health. Together the player needs to find the source of this outbreak and stop the bacteria that make the people sick. The game is a simple point and click game what is easy to maneuver in. By use of conversations reading leaflets, papers, watching video the player gets a lot of information. For example during a conversation, if colleague tells the player about another outbreak where they used the same research techniques, they reference the outbreak were they were speaking of. That way the player get information what isn’t really helping to finish the game, but still get useful information.

The objective of the game is ultimately to get students interested and aware of the opportunities public health has to offer. The player gets introduces to people that work in the public health field. Each person that player has to work with has a small biography and job description. What the game also teaches is the basic principles in gathering information, methods of investigating, data interpretation and point source contamination.

I think the game is very clear and does what it supposes to do. My only concern would be that it isn’t much fun to play and very straight forward. The dialogs aren’t very interesting and the gathering of the information isn’t very difficult. I think the game would be more fun to play if the player actually gets challenged. Implementing puzzles, or for example more creative ways to gather information.

What worked pretty well in the game was the awareness of the problem. The first thing what pops up is a ‘illness counter’ that counts the people that got ill and during the game the more time the player takes the more people get added to the ‘illness’ counter. The game doesn’t take long to finish, and I think that is a good thing, because it gets repetitive and boring very quick.

Evaluation

Score 18/36

Gameplay video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zey-bG3Es_U

Link to play the game

http://www.mclph.umn.edu/watersedge/play.html

Ayiti: The cost of life

The game Ayiti: The Cost of Life is a game developed in 2005 by the Global Kids and the New York based Gamelab. The global kids program is a non-profit organization that has the mission to educate and inspire urban youth to become successful student. The game is developed to make children aware of the situation some people are forced in and how difficult it is to get a decent living in certain places in the world. The game is made in a child friendly art-style with an easy to use interface. The player has to manage the “guinard” family in the given 4 years. The four years are divided in 16 seasons. In the beginning of the season the player is able to choose the roles that the family members have to perform during the season. This includes work, school, or volunteering. Each member is assigned to a set of statistics; Wellness, Happiness, and Education. There is also an overall statistic and that is the money meter. It will show how much money the family possesses. Without money the family cannot go to school or eat.

The main objective is to make people aware of situation some people have to face every day. It shows by simple game mechanics that living life as a family in a poor country isn’t anything alike a family in a rich country. Even though the game seems very easy to play it is very difficult to keep the family alive and healthy. I haven’t been able to get through the 4 years without wiping out my whole family. This strengthens the point the developers trying to make. Because of the seriousness of the subject it shouldn’t be too easy and simple to complete the game.

I really liked the way the developers designed this game. The content is very clear. The game is easy to play, it is challenging and also very important, it is fun to play. Because it is so difficult to get a successful game it almost seems impossible. I think that eventually stop motivating the player to play the game.

What I liked about the game is the simple gameplay but still there were lots of options and strategies to consider. What also appealed to me is the way they integrated charity in the game.

Gameplay video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfhWV7kQQdM&feature=player_embedded

Link to play the game

http://www.unicef.org/voy/explore/rights/explore_3142.html

Evaluation

Score 27/36

Comparision

Both games take a completely different approach to reach the target group. Where Welcome to the WatersEdges is very serious and dull, the “The cost of life” game is very serious to but more spend much more time in the playability of the game. Result first game is dull and for the player not fun to play a second time. But the game isn’t designed for that. The goal is to get students interested in Public Health. Playing that game once is sufficient and informative enough to get a student interested. The second game is designed to play more than once, it stay fun after a few plays. It isn’t difficult to learn but very challenging. In contrast of the first game that isn’t challenging at all.

Conclusion

Both games were well designed, and did what they were made for. The second game was definitely more fun and challenging. It is a pity that the developers of the first game didn’t put much effort in making the game fun to play. It would probably appeal more for students to play a fun game and catch their interest, then to play a dull game that doesn’t really challenge. In that way the first failed and the second prevailed.