Learning social competencies in a non-serious game
It’s a couple of weeks now since my wife and I have played eRepublik. It is a MMOG game, “a mirror world where players, referred to as citizens, join in local and national politics, set economic policy, start businesses and wage wars with other countries.”
This game proves that there is not need of complex visual graphics to engage players. Today, there are more than 350.000 citizens! The game has a clear goal of entertainment and the creators have clear profit goals. However, it seems to me that the game have a powerful potential of learning social competencies. Reading some articles and discussing with my wife we found core mechanics that strongly review and reinforce social competencies.
One is described by Alexis Bonte, one of the cofounders in the game, in an Spanish newspaper interview. He described that some time ago the president of France reduced taxes to zero and the companies collapsed. Then players migrated. Bonte says that players auto regulate themselves, which is a relevant social competence.
Besides, talking with my wife, she concluded that essential social values such as recognition of others’ differences and citizen identity are reinforced. She for example compared political invitations between political parties in USA and Colombia and understood cultural differences in how people invite and promote membership. We also have done metacognitive analysis of our social potentials wondering whether or not we are able to participate in certain career paths like army, politics or business. Although the game offers you an option to try with low risks, you make decisions from your capabilities and how you better can support the community.
I wonder if the game has more potential for adult learning because children and youths might not be interested in a text-based game. Anyway, the growing alternatives that non-serious game industries offer can fit serious game needs in the future. Serious games aims could be achieved more effectively with instructional/interaction design than with game design and development.
