Video games for critical reflection

Traditionally, video games have been accused of exploiting, frivolizing and commercializing violence and war. This medium has been removed from classrooms, and the video-game experience has been marginalized in work on the development of childhood and adolescence . However, as a game, and as a medium, video games are capable of promoting critical training and reflection .

“Video games have the potential to help us understand the system of rules that surrounds us and governs us, the social fabric in which we are registered and what are the forces that influence the different social and emotional positions of people, it can allow a different approach to certain situations” said Violeta Moldes-Rivas in an  interview with Xarxanet .

It is true, of course, that this capacity is more pronounced in some video games than in others (although with a little effort, pedagogy and reflection can be extracted from anywhere). Below, we list some video games that may be suitable for critical thinking and reflection on current issues. 

Papers, Please

In ' Papers, Please ', in Catalan, 'Papers, si us plau', the player plays the role of an inspector at the border control of a fictional totalitarian state. His task is to review the documentation and passports of all people who request access to the country , and authorize their entry, or not. To carry out his job, the inspector will have at his disposal several tools with which he must check that there are no discrepancies in the analyzed data, and carry out interrogations in order to keep people considered criminals, terrorists, smugglers or spies out of the country. But the game does not end there. The inspector will receive money for each person processed , from whom he may also have received bribes, and at the end of the day he will have to think about how to spend this money on his needs (rent, food, heating...).

The complexity increases when, over time, so do the rules , which will incorporate norms that will face the player with moral dilemmas, such as prohibiting entry to people from certain countries or requiring documentation from people who are already citizens of the country. However, the experience puts the focus on the political and social biases of the border system and the impact that its management can have on the lives of all people.

Gray

This video game was born in  Nomada Studio , an independent Catalan video game producer. What at first seems to be little more than a platform game , gradually becomes a reflection on depression and the internal struggle that overcoming pain entails. A positive approach, however, that allows the player to live the experience of rebuilding the protagonist, Gris,'s own world, leading her through landscapes painted in watercolor to which she returns color and life while collecting bits of light.

Gris takes the player through the protagonist's emotional growth , which takes place as the narrative unfolds, parallel to the achievement of new skills.  

Snow

Also from Nomada Studio, Neva tells the story of Alba and the she-wolf who accompanies her on their journey through a world in the process of decay , where they try to survive and make a home for themselves amidst the dangers that threaten to end their lives and that of the nature that surrounds them. The duo begins their story after a traumatic encounter with dark forces , and their relationship grows as they learn to work together, and the she-wolf, at first a frightened puppy and then a rebellious teenager, gradually becomes a great adult she-wolf, forging her identity alongside Alba.

In an environment that is half dream, half nightmare, with landscapes painted in flat colors, the player will be able to experience and explore the cycle of life in the company of the two protagonists.

This War of Mine

The game ' This War of Mine ' is very different from all the war and battle games on the market. Inspired by the siege of Sarajevo, between 1992 and 1996, this video game focuses on the civilian experience of war . Strategy is paramount, but this time not to fight, but to survive : the player puts themselves in the shoes of a group of people trying to survive in a city devastated by war, hiding in an improvised shelter and looking for resources and materials to keep hunger and fatigue at bay, until the ceasefire, which is declared randomly.

The game will confront the player with the morally questionable decisions that sometimes have to be made in critical survival situations, where acting 'right', and, for example, helping other survivors, can result in deadly consequences, or not. However, 'This Was of Mine' draws attention to the real, but forgotten, victims of war: the civilian population.

Bury me, my Love

'Bury me, my love' is a Syrian expression of affection and love, a farewell phrase that hides the hope of reunion, or, at least, the wish of good luck to the loved one, and it is also the title of a virtual interactive story that starts, precisely, from this same phrase. This is the farewell that Majd dedicates to Nour , his wife, when she leaves Syria behind, fleeing the conflict towards Europe.

From this moment on, the player will follow Nour's journey through the text messages  she sends to her husband, and will accompany the latter while he gives her advice and support  from a distance. The entire narrative unfolds in the form of the couple's conversations, which take place in real time. It is a documented fiction inspired by the true story of Dana, a young Syrian woman who recounts her escape to Germany in an article in Le Monde written by Luce Souiller. Thus, this story allows us to understand very closely the reality experienced by refugees who are forced to abandon their homes and loved ones.  

Before the Green Moon

The video game ' Before the Green Moon ', ' Before the Green Moon ', is a resource management game that departs far from the usual premises of this type of game, usually focused on optimizing the exploitation of the land. In a science fiction framework, and under the appearance of the objective of raising enough money by managing a farm to buy an expensive ticket for an elevator to the supposed paradise of the green moon , there is a title that questions the capitalist logic of overproduction.

And the fact is that during the course of the game, and while managing their farm, the player will be able to establish relationships with the other inhabitants of their settlement and discover the secrets of their surroundings, and while their savings gradually approach the price of the ticket, their bond with the land will also grow, and doubts will arise when making the decision to abandon it.