Serious games for government: tools for citizen engagement
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Play and politics are not concepts classically associated with one another. However, gamification, and more specifically serious games, may be a key tool through which governments can engage with citizens, both in today’s, and tomorrow’s worlds.
Serious or applied games are games serving a serious purpose. They are not created purely for entertainment. Their design typically centres around training, skill acquisition, and the communication of ideas. The history of serious games can be argued to go back thousands of years, though the term was only coined in 1970, and their modern application looks far different today for advances in technology. For governments, they can be used as training exercises internally, recruitment tools to identify talent, and perhaps most innovatively, as a method for engaging the public in the political process.
A new medium for governance
Modern serious games mimic a lot of the features that make video games popular. They’re online, interactive, and when implemented thoughtfully, highly immersive experiences. Think about how many hours a gamer might spend playing a video game, then imagine being able to tap into even a fraction of that motivation to compete, explore, and progress. This is why well designed serious games are effective. It’s through immersion and engaging simulation that serious games work. Be they designed for training, data collection, or decision making, it’s through interactive content consumption that the serious purpose of the game is achieved.
So how might a branch of government look to use serious games to engage with their citizens? In this article we’ll consider the various ways serious games offer a more engaging, more effective solution than traditional government methods, with some examples to consider as starting points for your own serious games.
Serious game examples for governments engaging citizens
Something to bear in mind before looking at specific examples is the modern day accessibility and repeatability of serious games for both small and medium sized businesses, as well as branches of governments. Because of serious game creation platforms like Drimify, existing successful game engines are available to be customised to your requirements without what used to be the huge upfront cost of developing your own serious game.
Now, not only can you customise serious games to your precise needs, but you have tried and tested game engines with agency experts to advise you on the best decisions when designing your experiences.
Encouraging participation in the political process
There are many barriers stopping the public engaging with the political process. Voter apathy is often a starting point, but so is a lack of understanding about how government works, particularly at a more local level. It’s often not clear which channels are the most appropriate through which to raise grievances or concerns, with a lot of people leaning so heavily on social media and communication echo chambers. This is where serious games, which work on quick feedback cycles, like games and social platforms, and offer interactivity through easy sharing and site integration, can pay huge dividends.
Utilising a playable online learning pathway, like Drimify’s Dynamic path™, allows governments to customise a multi-level experience that could be used to engage citizens in a number of aspects of the political process. As part of a communications campaign in the build up to a particular event, such as the launch of a new policy or a local project requiring a lot of public input, a serious game could be launched that creates an interactive experience that educates and engages members of the public on the relevant issues. A series of quizzes, video and textual content, and thematically-relevant challenges could be used to immerse players in the subject. The purpose could be singular or multifaceted, either to encourage players to continue their participation outside of the game, or to collect relevant feedback – both of which qualify as the public engaging with the government.
These types of serious games offer a playful and effective way for citizens to interact with their government and experience issues which affect the political process. Consider an example like Budget Hero – a US “news game” that was designed to give citizens a simplified yet overarching view of balancing the US federal budget through play. Participation in the game offered immediate feedback to players, informing them of the consequences of them spending tax dollars in one place over another. Serious online games offer governments a modern and engaging approach to interacting with a large number of citizens, while involving and informing them about political processes.
Building better digital services and research
Another great use of serious games for governments is to help improve their digital services. It’s an area of local government that can, in busier cities and towns, be easily misunderstood or overrun. Without the personal touch of a staff member, online portals and helplines can be unengaging, and frankly confusing communication channels.
This is where classic game formats like the Survey on Drimify can be easily customised to get feedback on how new systems are being received. They can include targeted questions to identify weak spots and disconnects in how services are being delivered. A Survey could even be customised to appear as a level within a Dynamic path™ experience so that a longer, more educational serious game can also serve a secondary purpose.
Encouraging good habits and preparing the public
One of the most effective forms of serious games when it comes to passing on knowledge, or transferring the framework through which to handle a specific situation, is through a simulation. Not necessarily a full-blown virtual reality-type experience, but through content and engaging visuals which can get players into the headspace of a specific scenario. Interactive gameplay facilitates them making decisions which can positively or negatively affect how well they perform in said scenario, with an underlying educational purpose. Regardless of how well they perform in the simulation, if the game works, they will be better equipped to handle the scenario if it comes to pass in reality than before they played.
This concept has proved repeatable in corporate training and project management training. The simulation of the game gives learners a low-stakes sandpit environment in which to make mistakes, experiment with approaches, and learn from them. However, instead of a business, make the game designer the government, and instead of simulating a corporate challenge, make it something that could affect the general public in a small town or county.
Imagine if your area was anticipating a coming fuel or food shortage, or a specific type of ecological pest. If there’s a blueprint to overcome a known and expected challenge that requires actions and measures en masse from the general public, approaching it with an educational serious game could be a great way to prepare citizens.
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