Digital Narrative Games: A Reflection

We were tasked with playing 6 total digital narrative games. The ones I ended up choosing besides Spent and BBC Syrian Refugees were Factitious, Responsible Partying, Domestic Violence in Egypt, and A Mother's Dilemma.
​

Spent

• How I felt: I started out feeling really anxious. It was nerve-wracking to think that every choice made in the game could have consequences severe enough to make it so that I couldn't last a month. It was also incredibly frustrating to feel that the world had it out for me at every turn - it felt like literal proof of Murphy's Law
• What I learned: There are a lot of expenses to cover and while ideally you shouldn't have to prioritize one need over another, the reality is that it's tough to choose. Even if you make it through the month and "win" the game, the knowledge that some people have to live like this and don't get to just exit out at the end of the month is heavy.
• A suggestion for improvement: 

BBC Syrian Refugees

• How I felt: Worried. Constantly and perpetually. Also guilty a lot of the time because I knew that to make it I had to make choices that prioritized me and my family before others.
• What I learned: When life becomes unbearable, unbearable choices have to be made for everyone's sake. It's a long, difficult process to get to a location to claim asylum - there are so many steps and dangers involved it feels like trying to beat some demented video game (aside from the fact, of course, that there are real people who actually have to go through this without the guarantee that if they lose they can just start again).
• A suggestion for improvement: to have more real life statistics and such with each step like in Spent

Factitious

• How I felt: Irritated, because news sources are supposed to be professional and check their sources before reporting on their networks and the fact that they don't reduces my faith in the media (surprise! It can go lower!)
• What I learned: Just because a news network is big doesn't mean they don't make mistakes or have their own agendas. Such networks are just as open to the "shoot first, edit later" concept as anyone.
• A suggestion for improvement: I feel like a distinction should be made between fake news and satirical articles in the game

Responsible Partying

• How I felt: Surprised that some of the choices would cause indecision. They seemed relatively straight-forward or obvious in most cases
• What I learned: Partying is fun, but there's a lot to consider to make sure you and your friends stay safe. Peer pressure can still definitely be an issue
• A suggestion for improvement: Add a few more choices related to peer pressure because that is the most common cause for incident, I think

Domestic Violence in Egypt

• How I felt: Mad, that people can treat others like this and still come back and say they love them. No. You do not abuse those you love in any way, shape, or form, you piece of combustable garbage 
• What I learned: There are many forms of domestic violence and it is important that one does not forgive easily and lessen themselves in the process. Change won't happen if stands aren't taken. The lack of support from her parents is something that is hard for me to wrap my head around
• A suggestion for improvement: The choices on what to do were a bit too obvious, so maybe diversify them with more options or less extreme ones

A Mother's Dilemma

• How I felt: Equal parts sad for the situation and angry at the initial school response to bullying
• What I learned: Bullying is an issue that spreads outside of school and can ruin a kid's life, and it's really hard from a parent's point of view to figure out what to do without making the issue worse
• A suggestion for improvement: It's better than the previous one, but I'd also recommend adding more options

---

All these games had certain features in common and other features that made them unique, so I think it would be interesting to reflect on them by comparing them in terms of how educational they are vs how efficiently they mess with the player emotionally.

In my opinion, the games that were the most informative were probably Spent and Domestic Violence in Egypt. Each of them had an abundance of facts - after practically every choice made, information was offered to let you know if the action you just committed to was wise or unadvisable. Both games used the choices you made to inform you about the consequences and/or related facts, which really helps if you don't know the specifics of financial struggles or being with an abuser. A Mother's dilemma also did this quite well, and I personally really liked having more information about the possible steps you can take when a kid is getting bullied. Do you intervene at the risk of making it worse for the kid? If you intervene will it be with the school or the bully's parents? These questions are answered with reasons as to why each decision in the options given would be best. Next in terms of educational value would be the Syrian Refugee game and Responsible partying. While both did have facts and statistics in their narratives, I don't think they stood out as strongly as in the other games. And somehow Factitious turns up last. Not that it wasn't entertaining and objectively informative in the headlines it provides, it's just that the information provided regarding identifying fake news was relatively brief.
​
In terms of emotional impact, which I feel is also important to making sure a game "sticks" with you, I think I'll tie Syrian Refugees and A Mother's Dilemma. Like I said before playing the former game was just very upsetting. It makes me sad to think that people have to go through so much in order to live safely and that even those efforts are countered by media narratives against refugees. Truly, it's tragic. A Mother's Dilemma serves to make me similarly upset and angry because it reminds me of how easily harassment and bullying can be overlooked, excused, or dismissed at schools. Being put in the place of the mother was also a swift kick to the heart. Next up would be Spent and the Domestic Violence game. Again, it's the subject matter that gets me here - in both games the frustration with the situation is really played upon. While Spent tests your patience by throwing every conceivable unfavorable situation in your financially-strained face, the other game tries it by showing what people think they can get away with in a relationship. And it's even worse in this setting! Finally, the least emotionally impactful games were Responsible Partying and Factitious. I don't think either intended to have much of an emotional impact, but as a result they were each less memorable for me. The only non-information based criteria they offered was a story and the satisfaction of choosing correctly, but (likely due to the subject matter) they lacked an emotional hook.