Learning and Reflecting Upon Ethical Frameworks Through Narrative Game Design

INTRODUCTION
 This paper partly envisages the research results of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) project (see Acknowledgements). The task is to create an innovative digital game in the cross-cutting genres of art game and educational game. The game presents the specific aspects of digital art games and their historical background. Work on the new game will be carried out in a collaboration of the researcher, Dr.art. Ieva Gintere (Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences, Latvia) and the game artist, Mag.art. Kristaps Biters (Latvia). The game is being created in the framework of a Post-doctoral project led by Ieva Gintere during 2018-2021.
 MATERIALS AND METHODS
 Unity3d for game design. Blender 3d object design. Audacity and Abletone music generation and editing. Photoshop, illustrator for game texture, art design.
 RESULTS
 The study presents an insight into contemporary digital game theory and a new threefold method of game creation named RKTR (research / knowledge transfer / research). In this model, the game is created on the basis of research and knowledge transfer: knowledge gained in the research process is transferred to the players. The game also functions as a platform of new knowledge construction as the secondary task of the game is to collect the results of the players in order to analyse the new creative tendencies and to foresee the art trends of tomorrow.
 The proposed method focused on the aspect of knowledge transfer is constructed as a three-level spiral:
 - research-based game creation (the game is based on the results of research),- knowledge transfer (the game transfers the research results to the player),- use of the gameplay results in research (the game creators collect the data of the gameplay for new research).
 The existing game designers and theoreticians carry out research in action where the game design is united with the game research. In the discourse of digital gaming, this is a widespread method. However, there is a missing part in this model. Knowledge gained in this type of research does not flow beyond the circle of the game’s creators and researchers. This knowledge stays within the society of the game’s designers and researchers, and functions as a tool for their future work. Knowledge is an instrument for experts, and it is not transferred to the regular player. The existing model of a research-based game helps to obtain formal and professional knowledge: it is a know-how, it tells a designer how to build a game, but it is not meant for the player. The aim of the new digital game that is being created in this project, is to connect the research results with the player so that the knowledge acquired in the research process is effectively transferred to the general public.
 DISCUSSION
 Taking into account that art today is largely interactive, the new art game will let its user play with trends of digital art such as noise, generative art and others, and to create new ones. The aim of this project is to raise the interest of a wide-ranging public for contemporary art and to point out the newest creative tendencies in art. The game would develop the creative skills of players and teach them the current trends in digital art. At the same time the game would project the inheritance of art from the age of modernism into the digital world by teaching the player to recognize it (for instance, generative art is a successor to the Fluxus movement in modernism). The new art game is intended to educate the player and to stimulate his/her creative forces.
 The Design Science Research method is being used in this study in order to cross-cut such remote fields as the general public, the arthouse world, codes of modern art and the tastes of the general public. The Design Science Research method helps boost efficiency and interest towards contemporary art games. It intends to integrate seemingly distant disciplines and seeks parallels in different areas in order to gain new knowledge and adapt fresh approaches. By finding common aspects in different areas, Design Science Research fuses areas and invites new trends into a research field.
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
 This study has been supported by a grant from the European Regional Development Fund research “Leveraging ICT product innovations by enhancing codes of modern art” No. 1.1.1.2/VIAA/1/16/106 within the Activity 1.1.1.2 “Post-doctoral Research Aid” of the Specific Aid Objective 1.1.1 “To increase the research and innovative capacity of scientific institutions in Latvia and the ability to attract external financing, investing in human resources and infrastructure” of the Operational Program “Growth and Employment”. Homepage of the research: http://va.lv/en/research/research/leveraging-ict-product-innovations-enhancing-codes-modern-art

Recently, digital games are used as a form of new media with massive potential for learning the English Language. To understand the typology of user experiences with digital games, the Presence-Involvement-Flow Framework (PIFF) was utilized. A series of semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten tertiary students in Northern Malaysia. Participants were asked to download and familiarize five digital language games (Duolingo, Memrise, Word Connect, Word Domination and Word Tower Puzzles) before the interviews. Thematic analysis technique was used to analyze the responses. The study’s thematic network comprises four global themes (Game Structure, Feelings, Skills Gained and Prerequisites) and seven organizing themes (Instruction, Game Design, Positive Emotional Outcome, Negative Emotional Outcome, Soft Skills, Technical Skills and Skills Required). The result is expected to be a good guideline or research framework for practitioners and researchers in exploring further the concept of user experience with English language digital games.

Digital games can be used as educational tools for tackling structural inequalities and promoting social justice. Designing games with these purposes is often a complex task that requires a myriad of combined expertise, including games’ mechanics, software development, educational game design, pedagogy, and knowledge of the educational topic (which can target very specific social issues). Democratising the design of educational games is used to increase the agency and participation of diverse and novice groups throughout design processes - and can be used to improve the efficiency of such games as it directly leads to the inclusion of broad voices, knowledge, experiences and perspectives. This research adopted a Design-Based Research methodology to create, evaluate and validate 13 design principles to democratise the design of educational games for social change. Three research phases were implemented in turn: a preliminary research, prototyping and evaluation phase. The preliminary research phase was based on creating these principles by grounding them on fundamentals of Critical Pedagogy, a theory of education which presents pedagogical techniques to accelerate learning, engagement and social change. The prototyping phase was based on conducting semi-structured interviews to assess and improve these principles with educational and game design experts. During the evaluation phase, these principles were applied and evaluated during two weekend-long game design events, which were mostly attended by diverse groups who had never designed a digital game before. This research presents theoretical and practical contributions related to how to democratise educational game design for social change. It evidenced the relevance of facilitating design principles that addresses what could be done to trigger learning in games by presenting design principles; why this learning could be facilitated, from both educational and gaming perspectives; and how to implement these principles into an educational game.

Assessment of student learning in complex areas is challenging, particularly when there is interest in students’ deeper understanding and connectivity of concepts. Assessment of ethics learning has been limited by lack of consensus regarding what is effective and an overfocus on quantification at the expense of clinical or ethical relevance. Cognitive maps provide one means to evaluate depth and personal meaning of students’ ethics knowledge. A pre-/post-test design using cognitive maps and the structure of observed learning outcome (SOLO) taxonomy was used to assess student learning on completion of a six-week intensive ethics course. Thirty-seven students completed the research. Student learning was supported by significant changes in component (content, labelling, relationships and structure/visual message), and total pre- and post-test cognitive map scores, and significant change in pre- and post-test SOLO scores. A strong relationship was found between cognitive map improvement and SOLO improvement. Student written commentaries describing their post-test cognitive map provided a richer, more elaborated account of their understanding that qualitatively enhanced their cognitive maps. Cognitive maps offer an alternative to traditional ethics assessment strategies.

Designing, programming, and using digital games are highly engaging activities and can be effective instructional approaches for supporting student learning. Often, students are users of the games rather than taking on the role of designers and developers, the latter of which requires computational and design thinking skills. This chapter presents a background on digital game design, the rationale for teaching and learning using digital game design, design tools, and examples of students as designers of digital games with links to curriculum outcomes. Drawing on research, the benefits, topics for inclusion, and pedagogical considerations involved in digital game design are investigated. In investigating this area, three vignettes of students as designers of digital games are provided. The main insights of the chapter focus on the multifaceted benefits of involving students as creators of digital games rather than mere consumers. It underscores that designing games helps develop critical twenty-first century skills—creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, and communication (the 4Cs). The chapter illustrates how students can enhance their digital literacy, technical competencies, and computational and design thinking skills by engaging in game design. The process fosters creativity through storytelling, problem-solving, and artistic expression, while also promoting critical thinking by requiring students to evaluate and iterate on their designs.

Bas-basan Sepur is a traditional board game, commonly played by teenagers that challenge the strategy skills of two players. Like the other traditional games, the existence of bas-basan Sepur is forgotten due to disconnection of cultural inheritance from parents to their children and also the loss of children’s playground and play time. Children nowadays are more interested in modern digital games such as video games and mobile games. Accordingly, the effort to reintroduce bas-basan Sepur into a digital game design is quite effective to attract children. The game design includes the process of data collecting, data analyzing, and game designing. With ATUMICS methode (Artefact, Technology, Utility, Material, Icon, Concept, Shape), data on bas-basan Sepur were analyzed to obtain the components of traditional culture, which can be transformed into a digital game. In the process of designing digital games, bas-basan Sepur will be combined with historical narrative, Amukti Palapa - the events of Nusantara unification under the influence of the Majapahit kingdom - to provide the motivation of playing which is more attractive to players. Data on Amukti Palapa were analyzed based on chronological events, places, and characters as the basic level design and visualization of the characters and the game environment assets. As a result, an adventure-board digital game of bas-basan Sepur that brought the chronological story of Amukti Palapa.

The Iranian digital game industry flourished in 2002 as a result of a cultural war with Western game productions. Since then, the Iran–Iraq war (1980–88) has been one of the most significant themes of gaming and game design. These games are used as a visual medium to entertain, educate, and communicate the cultural and ideological values of the war to Iranian youth, who constitute the majority of these games’ enthusiasts. Most war games in Iran were modeled after successful Iranian military operations. They were primarily intended to replace Western war games (e.g., Call of Duty and Battlefield) and to impart a distinct Iranian-Islamic wartime culture. The following discussion revolves around a narratological analysis of four Iranian-made digital games on the Iran–Iraq war. This examines the way in which the design of the various elements—such as event, character, and setting—corresponds to the official discourse on the war.1 The games were selected based mainly on their popularity in society as claimed by the game’s official Web site. These elements play a crucial role in articulating the Iranian-Islamic national identity, which is inextricably bound to Islamic, and particularly Shi‘i, teachings.

In the spring of 2005, the author designed and taught a graduate‐level course on digital game‐based learning primarily for teachers. Teachers cannot be expected to embrace digital games as a tool for learning unless they have a sound understanding of the potential as well as the limitations, and are confident in their ability to use games effectively to enhance learning. The course was designed as an introduction to digital games and gaming for instruction and learning. In it, students explored the theories, the possibilities, considerations and constraints related to the design of instructional games, and the use of learning and commercial entertainment games in classroom and out‐of‐class settings. The design of the course, along with the rationales, will be outlined and participant reaction will be profiled. Suggestions for future course designs are described, as well as key elements crucial for teacher preparation. Ultimately, the success of digital games as a medium for learning depends to a large extent on the abilities of new and practicing teachers to take full advantage of this medium.

Learning digital games can influence both older adults' health condition and their capacity to carry on activities in their actual environment. The goal of the current study was to explore and define the user requirements for developing digital learning games for older Europeans, focusing on types of learning games, motivational and social aspects, and preferences on game controllers. For this initial stage, a qualitative focus group study was performed in three participating countries (Spain, The Netherlands, and Greece) where both games existing in the market and others developed in other European Commission projects like HERMES were presented to them, both on video presentations and also with the possibility to actually test some of them. Challenge, socialization, fun, providing learning opportunities, and escape from daily routine were extracted as the main keys why older people would be interested in playing digital games. Users described themselves as active and participating in many leisure activities, and this level of activity appeared to be related with the contents proposed for digital games, such as physical activity, culture, arts, and other human sciences (history, geography, traveling, foreign languages, music), and daily life skills (cooking, computer use, first aid). The knowledge gathered from the focus groups will be used as input for the design of a learning game that will be largely compatible with the needs and abilities of a wide range of older Europeans.

Objectives. This article investigates how generative artificial intelligence (AI) systems, as implemented in the digital game AI Dungeon, negotiate genre conventions and algorithmic bias within interactive, player-driven storytelling. By focusing on AI Dungeon as both a game and a narrative engine, the study aims to reveal how generative AI shapes narrative logic, aesthetic adaptation, and cultural representation in digital game environments.Methodology. The research draws on a systematically coded dataset of AI Dungeon play sessions across multiple genres. Integrating theoretical perspectives from game studies, narratology, and algorithmic bias research, the study employs a mixed-methods approach. Quantitative coding captures genre, bias, narrative drift, and player intervention, while qualitative thematic analysis explores aesthetic adaptation and the negotiation of meaning between player and AI.Findings. Results demonstrate that genre conventions in digital games serve as both scaffolds and filters for AI-generated storytelling. While genre prompts can guide the AI toward coherent and engaging narratives, they also interact with and sometimes amplify underlying algorithmic biases. Instances of stereotype reinforcement, narrative drift, and the need for player intervention are shaped by both genre and the ludic structure of the game. Value. By empirically mapping the interplay between genre, bias, and interactive narrative logic in a digital game context, this study advances understanding of generative AI’s creative and ethical challenges in contemporary storytelling. The findings offer actionable insights for both game designers and AI narrative system developers.

There is growing interest in the incorporation of digital games as part of the suite of offerings in museum education in heritage environments. Digital games are seen as ways of recreating historic worlds, affording empathetic and affective engagement, and increasing interest in and understanding of historical periods or processes, working in complementarity with material exhibitions and artefacts on display. Stakeholders engaged in the development of digital games, however, may have different views of what constitutes significant knowledge and priorities. This paper reports on findings from a pilot study that investigated key concerns for three groups involved in designing a game – museum educators, maritime archaeologists and games designers – that foregrounded the construction of history, history as constructed and processes of historical research. The paper explores the differing values and priorities underlying the perspectives of each group, and the implications of these for museum education, and the design of the game.

Literature on the digital games industry and gaming history has for the most part focused on the global production centres of North America, Western Europe, Japan, and, lately, China. However, in recent years, a call to research the diverse and less dominant national contexts within which digital games are produced has been addressed. In this article, we shed light on early digital game development in Greece, covering the years between 1982 and 2002. This particular region has been highly neglected by both domestic and international researchers. We approach Greek digital game development from both historical and cultural perspectives, through an investigation of how local game developers interact with a wide range of contextual facets in a complex interrelation between global and national conditions. This article argues that, in order to highlight the characteristics of early national game production cultures and digital games design, one must examine them as well under the broader cultural production ecosystem, along with the economic and institutional contexts and transformations within which digital game production takes shape.

The digital gaming business has changed in the last years. Digital games are no longer just products. They developed into services. People play games not only on a stationary device, but on mobile devices, too. The change of gaming devices also had an impact on game design. Competition between mobile digital games mostly takes place at a download price of zero. Today the Freemium monetization method is the dominant monetization method. Players of digital games often have to go through a core loop by repeating the same tasks inside the game. The stability of the virtual economy inside the game affects the game’s core loop. This paper discusses the role of instability in virtual economies in the context of core loops. A small instability inside a virtual economy can increase revenue of a digital game. Players tend to stay in a game because of sunk cost fallacy. If instability inside a virtual economy happens for a too long time players will quit playing and revenue will decrease.

This study reviews existing literature on how video games are being used to convey contemporary political discourse. Digital games, as meaningful cultural artifacts, have become a communication medium in their own right. They can serve as social mirrors, framing contemporary reality through metaphors that represent and recreate transcendent events or social facts through immersive experiences. Likewise, video games have played a significant role in shaping our current politics and culture. This article seeks to answer the research question: How has contemporary political discourse been explored through digital games in academic literature? To do so, we conducted a systematic literature review following the SALSA (search, appraisal, synthesis, and analysis) framework. We identified <em>N</em> = 25 journal articles written in English and Spanish, published between January 2013 and September 2023. We found that first-person shooter games were the most frequently discussed game genre in the academic literature, followed by newsgames. We propose a new method for categorizing political messages in digital games, which we have called the PRICE dimensions model (participation, representation, ideology, conflict, and education). The studied papers were classified into five main thematic groups: (a) video games as a tool for digital propaganda; (b) video games aiming to raise awareness of political issues; (c) games and gamification elements for radicalization; (d) game design that justifies, minimizes, or downplays violence; and (e) players’ role in conveying political messages.

Aim/Purpose The paper aims to identify opportunities within the Bachelor of Business (BBus) degree of RMIT for learners to gain sustainable and ethical knowledge. Background The paper explores how students are offered sustainable and ethical courses related to the BBus programme, particularly the courses in social impact. The paper seamlessly integrates the knowledge graph with the theory of planned behaviour to graphically present the relationships between learners’ attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control, and sustainability education choices. Methodology The paper adopts illustrative and case study approaches to describe the opportunities provided to learners to gain sustainable and ethical knowledge through the Social Impact major of the BBus degree. It shows a descriptive analysis of the list of courses offered for the award of the BBus of RMIT. The data used in this paper are collected from existing students’ records of RMIT and presented in tables and chart format. Contribution The paper steps beyond the traditional survey-based Theory of Planned Behaviour studies by incorporating structured and unstructured data sources for more robust analysis. The paper provides a framework that can be adapted to various educational contexts and sustainability domains, contributing to broader research on educational behavior modeling. Findings Bachelor of Business graduates of RMIT are identified to offer at least one Social Impact unit to enhance their sustainable and ethical knowledge. Attitudes influenced the willingness of students to acquire sustainability knowledge. Future Research The next part of this research will address the second and third research questions and integrate the knowledge graph with the theory of planned behaviour to offer dynamic models to predict learners’ willingness. This approach would provide actionable insights for targeted interventions.