Project of the month: GREAT
How can we get people to participate in debates that are important for society – on pressing issues such as climate protection? How can citizens' awareness of such debates be raised? And how, in turn, can information be provided to political stakeholders to develop solutions that take into account the wishes and needs of society?
These are the questions being asked by the team of the European research project GREAT, for which the DIPF is coordinating a consortium of institutes, universities and game producers. The researchers, game developers and political decision-makers involved have found a simple answer: with computer games!
GREAT – acronym for “Games Realizing Effective & Affective Transformation (in Societal and cultural domains” – examines how games can be used to promote the social engagement of citizens and facilitate dialog between citizens and political stakeholders.
Around 3.7 billion gamers worldwide
The numbers speak for themselves. There are around 3.7 billion gamers worldwide, that's 40 percent of the world´s population. They all play online games and are on gaming platforms. “Through computer games, we can get more people to participate in a public debate – and particularly in an interesting way,” says Dr. Jane Yau, who works at DIPF in the Educational Technologies department and who is coordinating GREAT alongside Prof. Dr. Hendrik Drachsler. Computer games for a better society, because GREAT has set itself the goal of using games to create a communication channel between citizens and political stakeholders that does not yet exist.
The DIPF-researchers have brought a whole range of international partners on board: the University of Bolton in the UK, Frederick University in Cyprus, the International University of La Rioja in Spain, the Center for Social Innovation (ZSI) in Austria. In addition, there are the game producers Serious Games Interactive, Denmark, and Playmob Limited (aquired by PlanetPlay in 2024), Great Britain. As Associates Beijing Normal University, China, and Noordwes University, South Africa, are also involved. The European Union and UKRI (UK Research and Innovation) are funding the project.
New form of dialog between citizens and political actors
The GREAT project aims to show that games have a positive impact on social engagement – and to create a new form of dialog between citizens and political actors. By exploring the innovative potential of games, citizens can express their preferences and attitudes towards political issues. To find out how this can work the team is conducting a large series of international case studies – to test the new approach, investigate its potential and ultimately generalize the results and make them reusable. “The games are designed using the citizen science approach. We allow citizens to participate in the entire development process, both in the research and analysis processes, and in the design process of the games,” explains Yau.
In the project, the scientists are testing two different game approaches: On the one hand, they are testing simply designed, short quiz games on smartphones and tablets, which can be used to generate particularly high user numbers and thus data volumes. The quiz questions can cover different topics – from energy to nutrition, environmental protection and ecology. The surveys are presented to users in popular and already established games such as Angry Birds or Pokémon. “The surveys present themselves as part of the game, which further motivates the users,” says Yau. The Play2Act initiative by PlanetPlay and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), as part of GREAT, is involved in the implementation and wants to find out how these embedded surveys can contribute to overcoming the climate and nature crisis. The case studies so far are promising: “ Around 900,000 people have seen the survey and around 200,000 have completed it. That is a good amount of data for us,” says Yau.
The second approach involves more complex games that address social dilemmas and are played by small groups such as school classes. This allows qualitative data to be generated and thus in-depth insights into the opinions and needs of citizens can be gained. For example, about young people's attitudes towards so-called green jobs, i.e. professions that contribute directly or indirectly to improving or protection of the environment. Pupils discuss questions about green jobs together, enter their answers into a specially developed serious game and thus engage in an exchange on a wide range of topics. For example, what the reasons might be for not accepting a green job. “Financial security, work-life balance or the fear of losing a job all play a role here,” Yau says.
This year, the data collected so far will be further evaluated and additional case studies will be carried out together with the UNDP, and potentially with the European Parliament. “We also want to get more gaming software companies on board and focus on specific population groups. “If you want to target women, for example, you need to know which games they particularly like to play.” By choosing the games in which the surveys are embedded, you can also focus on specific countries and groups and thus narrow down and specify the data. “In our last UNDP case study, for example, we had participants from every country in the world except Eritrea and North Korea,” explains Jane Yau. She is convinced by GREAT's novel approach, which brings together expertise in data analysis, game development and policy advice – to promote democracy. “Our strength lies in collaboration,” says Yau.