D4.3: Findings on games as vehicles for social change - Dataset

D4.3: Findings on games as vehicles for social change examines the potential of narrative-driven and immersive video games to influence players’ attitudes towards social issues, human rights, and historical topics depicted in their narratives. Three empirical studies were conducted: one investigated how players’ pre-existing attitudes toward minorities shape their engagement with and evaluation of games depicting minorities, while two studies focused on video games developed within the project, examining how different formats, technologies, and game design approaches to cultural heritage representation affect players’ attitudes. The datasets for the studies are included here.

The first study tested whether players’ initial attitudes towards minorities influence their engagement and evaluation of narrative games, using LGBT representation in video games as the case study. The second study examined We Grew Up in War, a narrative digital heritage mobile game inspired by the curatorial practice of the War Childhood Museum. The third study piloted Those From Below, a narrative virtual reality (VR) game developed by Causa Creations with Le Bois du Cazier museum, testing whether immersive storytelling can foster attitude change.

Overall, these studies provide empirical evidence on how narrative design patterns and different game formats can promote positive societal change through games incorporating curated museum narratives and cultural heritage representations. Notably, the first case study suggests that initial attitudes need not be a barrier to engagement, yet the evaluation might be affected by implicit attitudes, while the other two studies show that narrative authenticity and immersive formats can foster explicit attitude change. Together, these findings highlight the potential of video games to support museum educational missions beyond physical borders and raise awareness of complex social and historical issues.  

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Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the Research Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.