Gaming

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Gaming Documentaries True love or forced
marriage?
PhD Simon Egenfeldt-Nielsen CEO Serious Games
Interactive 27. September 2008, Malmö
develop games which contain advanced content,
operate according to sound pedagogical
principles, enable classroom customisation, and
create real excitement within the core game
market - Henry Jenkins
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Our company
Background and team
SGI was founded in 2006 in Copenhagen,
Denmark The company focuses on developing
serious games for educational institutions We
develop high-quality games that contain an
inseparable combination of playing, learning
and story-telling. This is done by a unique
cross-disciplinary team with strong roots in
research SGI has been steadily growing and
employs 14 people today (CEO, Commercial
Director, Producer, Game Director, Lead
Programmer, Programmer, Lead 3D animator, 3D
artist, Character artist, testers etc.)
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Our company
Background and team
Commercial titles Global Conflicts Palestine
(complete) Global Conflicts Latin America
(complete) Client projects Bolivia Brænder
(complete) Mayas Eventyr (complete) Babus Hold
(complete) Time Machine Darwin (complete)
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Our company
Press
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Games Documentary - Why do it?
The basic format
Dilemma Immersion Perspective Player
choice Consequences Constant feedback
Documentary (viewer)
Game (player)
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Games Documentary - Why do it?
The potential gains
Never only one truth Hearing, seeing doing
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Games Documentary - Why do it?
Problems barriers

• Format
• Games are NOT real
• Playing means doing!
• Scenarios rather than reality
• Credible choices in a realistic setting
• Evidence, documentation recording
• Commerical market
• Budgets are challenging
• Distribution are challenging

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Examples of documentary games
Numerous doc games
World without Oil KumaWar Waco Resurrection Paris
Riots JFK Reloaded Escape from Woomera Under the
Ash Under The Siege
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Checkpoint!
Trailer Palestine
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I learned more history from this game in one
day than I have learned from the teaching the
last 6 months
Oliver Hansen, Student, 16 years
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What is the product
Primary target group
Global Conflicts Palestine target students of
13-19 years
Subjects

• Primary Citizensship History
• Secondary Media, religion, ethics, geography
  communication

Danish 8th graders using the game early 2006.
(Small TV2 movie)
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What is the product
Seconday target group
Global Conflicts Palestine target mature people
with an interest and engagement in current issues

• Watch documentaries debate programs
• Consider themselves knowledgable
• Often females above 30 years
• Have an above average education
• Have an above average income
• Use IT but not necessarily gamers

Serious gamers taking on the challenge.
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f
Welcome to the reality
Material from Global Conflicts Palestine online
learning resource.
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Welcome to Global Conflicts Palestine
In-game shots from the game Global Conflicts
Palestine
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Build trust by understanding and exploring
different perspectives to get peoples personal
story
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Feel and understand the tense atmosphere and
problems of the conflict of Palestine
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Students explore and learn from detailed and
scary environment - they see the inside of the
conflict
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What is Global Conflicts Palestine
Gameplay
Freelance journalist Get the best article Find
informants Gain their trust Get their story Dig
out best quotes Put together article Highest
journalist level
You Goal Means Winning
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What is Global Conflicts Palestine
Contents
Israeli-Palestinian conflict (Content)
Experience everyday life in the conflict through
real personal accounts on the conflicts core
issues. Human rights, terrorism medias role
(Themes) In the game there will be regular
references to human rights, terrorism, and the
media. Source criticism writing article
(Skills/Methods) Students have to be aware of
the right angle, the agenda of sources, and
article writing. Perspective-taking, critical
thinking bias awareness (Competences) A
variety of perspectives on the same events and
issues, which force students to shift between
perspectives while thinking critically of bias.
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Closing

• You can keep your demon-lords, your sinister
  schoolgirls, and your tentacled Cthulhoid
  abominations. None of them are half as chilling
  as a 15-year-old Palestinian lad with an
  unhealthy interest in martyr cards ("They are
  like your Pokemon trading cards"), Paradise, and
  Israeli café culture.
• Buy the game www.globalconflicts.eu

www.seriousgames.dk sen_at_seriousgames.dk
Trailer GCLA