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14 Video Games That Tackle Important Social Issues
by TeachThought Staff

While they have the connotation of children's toys and time-wasting 'interactions,' video games and simulations provide useful and compelling platforms for narratives (think Uncharted 4), problem-solving (think Portal 2), experiential learning (think The Sims), simulations (read more on learning simulations), 'tinker-learning' possibilities (think Minecraft), and more.

Below, we've gathered 14 video games that tackle social issues, from mental health and environmentalism to bullying, war, cancer, and more. Serious stuff. Not all will likely find a place in your classroom-many are too violent (Watch Dogs and Deus Ex, for example), and some may require PlayStation 4s or Xbox Ones that can't readily be accessed in your classroom.

The point of this list, however, is to illustrate what video games can be-what they're capable of as a medium, and what potential they may have big picture in the learning experiences of your students.

For related reading, see Exactly How To Teach With Video Games In The Classroom.
14 Video Games That Tackle Important Social Issues 1. That Dragon, Cancer
Platform: PC

Related Social Issues: Cancer
2. Whisper of a Rose
Platform: PC

Related Social Issues: Bullying

"Melrose is trapped in a life of hardship. Her parents are mean to her and she gets bullied at school. She can find no one who understands her. To cope with her sorrow, Melrose turns to her imagination. She dreams up a world of unimaginable beauty and happiness, but sadly - like all dreams - it ends, and Melrose must return to real life."
3. Papers, Please
Related Social Issues: War, Migration-Refugee Exodus
4. This War of Mine
Related Social Issues: War

Note: Rated M for Mature

"This War Of Mine provides an experience of war seen from an entirely new angle. For the very first time you do not play as an elite soldier, rather a group of civilians trying to survive in a besieged city. During the day snipers outside stop you from leaving your refuge, so you need to focus on maintaining your hideout. At night you get a chance to scavenge nearby locations for items that will help you stay alive.

Make life-and-death decisions driven by your conscience. Try to protect everybody from your shelter or sacrifice some of them to endure the hardships. During war, there are no good or bad decisions; there is only survival. The sooner you realize that, the better."
5. Deus Ex
Platform: PS4, Xbox One, PC (more info)

Related Social Issues: Terrorism, Bio-modification (not a big deal today, but will be in the next 10+ years)
Note: Rated M for Mature (18+ only) 6. Flower
Platform: PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4

Related Social Issues: Environmentalism
7. Elude
Platform: Browser-based

Related Social Issues: Mental Health

"Elude aims to raise awareness for depression and to inform about this dangerous illness. It is specifically intended to be used in a clinical context as part of a psycho-education package to enhance friends' and relatives' understanding of people suffering from depression about what their loved ones are going through.

Modeling what depression feels like by contrasting it with other mood states (normal and happy), Elude portrays depression metaphorically. The various parts of the game-world represent emotional landscapes that correspond to different moods with the gameplay changing according to mood changes. The core gameplay (i.e. "normal mood") happens in a forest filled with "passion" objects that resonate and act as power ups when one calls out to them. Only when infused with passion is it possible to overcome the obstacles on the way to the tree tops, where one reaches "happiness."
8. Watch Dogs
Platform: PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PC

Related Social Issues: Privacy, Big Data, Government Overwatch
Note: Rated M for Mature (18+ only) 9. Unravel
Platform: PS4, Xbox One, PC

Related Social Issues: Interdependence/Friendship

"Yarny's mission is to mend broken bonds and the yarn represents the love and connection between people. "
10. The Last of Us: Left Behind
Platform: PS4

Related Social Issues: Homosexuality

The Last of Us: Left Behind is an add-on to the original, post-apocalyptic, zombie-fueled game-but rather than Ellie (the protagonist) and her father-figure traversing the deadly terrain together, this tale explores Ellie and her best friend doing the same-and discovering love in the process.
Note: Rated M for Mature (18+ only) 11. Papo y Yo
Platform: PS3, PC

Related Social Issues: Child Abuse
12. Depression Quest
Platform: PC

Related Social Issues: Mental Health

Note: The video below is a full playthrough of Depression Quest-very useful to see what the game's like before deciding whether or not to play it yourself.

Platform: PC

Related Social Issues: Environmentalism

Note: There is also a Shelter 2 video game out as well.

Platform: PC

Related Social Issues: Empathy/Perspective

"The Way of Life makes the player relive the same life's experiences from the point of view of three characters of different ages: an adult, an old man and a child."
14 Video Games That Tackle Important Social Issues; These links may be affiliate links-read more here.

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14 Video Games That Tackle Important Social Issues -

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14 Video Games That Tackle Important Social Issues by TeachThought Staff While they have the connotation of children's toys and time-wasting 'interactions,' video games and simulations provide useful and compelling platforms for narratives (think Uncharted 4), problem-solving (think Portal 2), experiential learning (think The Sims), simulations (read more on learning simulations), 'tinker-learning' possibilities (think Minecraft), ...

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How we use digital media is changing our lives

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How we use digital media is changing our lives

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https://goo.gl/RZHwsi

Ever feel helpless and anxious without your mobile? You're in good company: millions of consumers of digital media, entertainment and information have found their lives revolutionized by the power at their fingertips.

Half of us believe that increased use of digital media has improved our lives, according to recent World Economic Forum research. From social networking to how we work, digital media is now integrated in much of what we do, improving our productivity and facilitating how we interact and communicate.

But at what cost? "The age of smartphones has left humans with such a short attention spans, even a goldfish can hold a thought for longer,” writes Leon Watson of The Telegraph. In 2010, another research team at the University of Michigan found a 40% decline among students in every definition of empathy among college students, as compared to their counterparts 20 years previous, with most of this decline coming after the year 2000.

The list of positive and negative repercussions of increased digital media use is long. Are we doing enough, and more importantly, can we do more to foster the great things that come from digital media use while addressing the potential risks?

You can view seven short videos about the societal implications of digital media and the impacts on various aspects of our lives:

How we consume and share
How our decisions are influenced
Our digital presence and privacy
Our personal development, learning, and health
How we interact with one another
Our professional lives
How we engage civically

Find out more in the Forum's report, Digital Media & Society: Implications in a Hyperconnected Era.

Author: Claudio Cocorocchia, Content Lead, Media, Entertainment and Information Industries, and a Global Leadership Fellow

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Open worlds are changing how we play videogames. I've long thought this was a bad thing, but this year I'm beginning to change my mind.

Bethesda's widely hailed Fallout 4 is one of the latest examples of an open-world game, a sprawling epic that can suck you in for hours on end. But it's an older game, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, that's got me rethinking vast game worlds. Seven months after its release, I think about The Witcher far more than other games. I wouldn't say I'm consumed by it, but there is a corner of my brain that is devoted to it. I find myself-on a weekly, if not daily, basis-pondering the strength of its characters, the richness of its world, and the satisfaction of a good monster hunt.

I find myself a bit surprised that it occupies my thoughts so frequently. For one thing, I hadn't played it in months. Moreover, I'm only now inching toward what I think is the end of the game. After hundreds of hours, The Witcher 3 remains an open plain, full of unexplored depths.

I can't say that thought doesn't excite me.

Wide Open Spaces

Open-world games leave players to their own devices, free to explore what amounts to an enormous sandbox with no boundaries and few rules. They date to the 1980s, but 2001's Grand Theft Auto III set the standard, one that has been expanded upon by games ranging from Assassin's Creed to Minecraft. This year, perhaps more than any other, has seen more examples of the genre, which are becoming the norm for big-budget triple-A releases. It isn't hard to see why. Done properly, it's a goldmine. It keeps players from trading in games too quickly; you're more likely to ditch a linear action game that's done in 10 hours than a sprawling epic that can take 100 hours or more. It's easier to tack downloadable content onto an open-world experience, too.

Still, are we ready for a world in which nearly every AAA title follows the same blueprint? Expansive worlds are expensive and difficult to design, and as such tend to be filled with repetitive content: cookie-cutter tasks, collectibles, and encounters designed to fill a game space that might otherwise be nearly empty. Many of these games de-emphasize the storyline.

At worst, open-world games fail to offer compelling direction, like a vast Netflix queue filled with so many choices that it's paralyzing. I have this problem with the Elder Scrolls games, which offer everything in the world except for a reason to be there. Even more dismaying, a bad open-world game can seem utterly pointless. The setting of Watch_Dogs offers so little in the way of coherency or thoughtful design that it barely justifies its existence. For a long time, I dealt with these issues by avoiding open-world games entirely, or approaching them like a linear game: Sucking the marrow out of the story and leaving the rest behind.

Living With Open Worlds

This year, I've tried something different. Interesting games have come so quickly that I've been unable and unwilling to merely plow through the open-world games that caught my intention. Instead I've been coming back to them, time and again, over extended periods, to explore them. Every few weeks or so I'll return to The Witcher or Metal Gear Solid V to complete a few missions, reacquainting myself with these worlds and getting to know their inhabitants a bit better. It's a slow cartography, maps of imaginary spaces growing in my head, inch by inch.

I feel like this might be the way well crafted open worlds are supposed to be experienced-not as gluttonous binges or narrowly focused rampages, but as long-term occupancies. I've found that these games exist more vividly in my mind as I embrace this style of gameplay. They grow in my imagination as they occupy more and more space in my memory. Instead of rushing through them or viewing them as content generators, I abide in them.

This change in perspective has strong implications for how we conceptualize the design and play of such games. It's a perspective that allows us to move away from an emphasis on filling open worlds with mounds of meaningless stuff, repetitive experiences, and canned encounters. Freed from such constraints, developers can focus on crafting places that reward thoughtful exploration that yields incidental moments of personality and depth. Dark Souls, for instance, fills its small open world with evocative and mysterious details, levels of significance that reward meticulous play with a richer experience.

As players, a focus on abiding with open worlds lets us avoid the pressure of massive backlogs of great games, allowing us to break free of a relentless game release cycle intent on throwing another sprawling experience at us every few months. It also gives players accustomed to linear experiences a blueprint for wending their way into these games. Find a pocket of Fallout 4's Commonwealth that strikes your fancy. Sift through the rubble, admire the view, and find some treasure. When you're ready, move on. If you must leave the world and return days, weeks, or even months later, you have that freedom. Digital worlds have the peculiar virtue of standing the test of time.

Since embracing this style of play, I've found that open-world games are like trusted friends who are there when I need an escape or a jolt of excitement. It's the sort of experience you might have reading George R.R. Martin's novels-less like a discrete experience and more like a series of connected voyages that become part of your routine in such a way that it begins to blur into your life, tied to the memories of that period.

Rather than being a threat to the types of games I've always loved, I'm finding that this can be an opportunity to rethink our relationship to the spaces video games create and become more deliberate in how we choose to relate to them.

I recently upended my entire life. I moved to a new city, moved in with my partner, and started the first in a series of new jobs. During my last night in my old apartment, I decided to do something symbolic to mark the end of my time there. I fired up The Witcher 3. I had been searching for Ciri, the protagonist Geralt's adopted daughter, off and on since April, and I sensed the trail was finally warming up. I thought I might know where she was. So I went after her, traveling to a part of the game world I had never seen before. Another part of Witcher's Continent unfurled in front of me, and Geralt, the protagonist, ventured into the fog. This may sound over-romanticizing, but it felt significant. Metaphorical, even.

It was a powerful way to mark time. Open worlds, I'm discovering, are uniquely suited to that task. No matter where I go or what I do, I know the Continent will be there, waiting, the next time I need it.

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Open-world games are changing the way we play videogames-and that might be a very good thing.

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Open worlds are changing how we play videogames. I've long thought this was a bad thing, but this year I'm beginning to change my mind. Bethesda's widely hailed Fallout 4 is one of the latest examples of an open-world game, a sprawling epic that can suck you in for hours on end.

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Free multi-player business simulation strategy game. Management, marketing, economy, 200 industries.

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Educational Technology and Mobile Learning

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October 18, 2015
A few days ago we reviewed Bibblio which is a search platform that allows you to discover, collect and curate the best free learning materials on the web in any format (videos, podcasts, web links, presentations and many more). It also lets you organize all of your curated materials into one single homepage that you can annotate and personalize before sharing it with your peers and students.

One of the great features of Bibblio is that you can access and follow content other educators have curated. There are actually several collections out there created by teachers featuring a wealth of educational content. The collection we are sharing with you below is compiled by Best of Slideshare and contains some of the best slides about education. From the 70+ presentations in this collection, we selected what we think are the 8 most pertinent ones. Check them out below.

Click on each title to access the original presentation.

1- Sketchnoting for Learning by Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano

2- The Future of Education by Mattan Griffel

3- 10 tips on writing by David Ogilvy by Prezly

4- Meet Generation Z: Forget Everything You Learned About Millennials by sparks & honey

5- Designing Effective Presentations by Zaid Ali Alsagoff

6- The Art of Storytelling

7- The Educator with a Growth Mindset

8- Emerging Technology Trends for 2015 by David Leeking

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Here Are Some of The Best Presentations on Education

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October 18, 2015 A few days ago we reviewed Bibblio which is a search platform that allows you to discover, collect and curate the best free learning materials on the web in any format (videos, podcasts, web links, presentations and many more).

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Save the Camp! Is a tower defence game where success depends on how well you manage your money. The game features everything players have come to know and love about tower defence , while focussing on how players allocate their resources and save for the future.

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The Katering Show is a hilarious cooking show starring an Australian duo of Kates: Kate McCartney and Kate McLennan. McLennan serves as a foodie chef preparing meals for McCartney, who has a tragically large amount of food intolerances (note the large intestine in their logo). This results in bizarre, disgusting substitutions in recipes-calcium tablets for cheese in a quesadilla, for example-and constant mockery and references to the dangers of McCartney defecating her pants. McLennan and McCartney brilliantly parody the cutesy smugness of foodie culture in each gut-busting episode.

In this episode The Kates explore the cultural phenomenon/plague of food trucks and eating in gutters by creating a food intolerant-friendly Mexican quesadilla, then eating it in a gutter!

As an ex-vegetarian, McCartney wants to be thoughtful about the meat that she eats. And as a wanker, Mclennan wants to use her new pressure cooker. In this episode The Kates prepare a ragu that is food intolerant-friendly AND made from a non-cute animal.

In an attempt to live forever, and become just like their Instagram idol, Sarah Wilson, McCartney and McLennan give up the sweet stuff; sugar. Please Note: This episode is booze, sugar, gluten, fructose, lactose and personality-free.

Australian media personality, journalist, and blogger Sarah Wilson even wrote a blog post in response to "We Quit Sugar," taking it all in good fun.

Behind-the-scenes photos and pre-orders for Katering Show aprons are available on the show's website.

via Boing Boing

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'The Katering Show', A Gut-Bustingly Hilarious Parody Cooking Show

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The Katering Show is a hilarious cooking show starring an Australian duo of Kates: Kate McCartney and Kate McLennan. McLennan serves as a foodie chef preparing meals for McCartney, who has a tragically large amount of food intolerances (note the large intestine in their logo). This results in bizarre, disgusting

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Using games for purposes other than entertainment is nothing new. There are war games, educational games, throne games. But a new class of games has sprung up in recent years, designed to create awareness and raise support for a variety of global issues. Such serious games seek to harness the power of competition and/or novelty to attract players and get the word out for a good cause.

Here are 15 games you can play and be a better person for it.

1. Catalysts for Change: On April 3, 2012, Catalysts for Change went live online for 48 hours. The goal of the game is to inspire people from all over the globe to come together and share ideas about easing the poverty that over 1 billion people live in. The game involves playing cards with words like "momentum" or "adaptation" on them to spark possible poverty solution ideas. When players build on your card (idea), you earn points.

2. Spent: Designed by Urban Ministries of Durham, a faith-based provider of food and shelter for North Carolinians in need, Spent asks players to consider what life would be like as a homeless person. The game puts you in the shoes of someone who has lost their life savings, and has you choose one of three low-paying jobs to see for yourself how quickly your money runs out.

3. World Without Oil: If you've ever wondered what life would look like without crude oil, this game was for you. With the tagline "play it before you live it," WWO simulated the first eight months of a world oil crisis. The game ended on June 1, 2007, after 1,500 players had sent in fictional "personal accounts" of their life during the crisis, which were viewed by 110,000 people. Players also worked together to develop solutions that still provide insight into potential real-life answers for the future.

4. 3rd World Farmer: This game was originally created by students at the IT-University in Copenhagen in 2005. The player is put in control of an African farm and must struggle to keep family, crops, and livestock alive while conflict and a lack of resources work against them. The designers' hope is that people will play and realize how precarious survival is for many in Africa, and then do what they can to improve the lives of poor people there.

5. Free Rice: The United Nations World Food Program operates this game, which seeks to educate the public while addressing the problem of world hunger by offering rice to hungry people free of charge. Players simply go to the website, pick a subject like world capitals or English grammar, and then start answering questions. For each correct answer, the program donates 10 grains of rice to someone in need.

6. September 12th: A Toy World: The rules are simple: you can choose to shoot rockets at terrorists, or not. But be warned, missing civilians is virtually impossible. The purpose of this newsgame is to visually prove that the U.S. War on Terror is destined to failure, as every civilian killed results in dozens of terrorists created. It has been shown all over the world as a teaching tool against violence.

7. Citizen Science: Back to the Future meets the EPA in this game, where players travel back in time to investigate what led to the local lake's pollution and what they can do to prevent it in the future. Developed by the National Science Foundation in partnership with the University of Wisconsin, the game is meant to illustrate the social factors that contribute to environmental harm.

8. Garbage Dreams: Cairo's Zaballeen people may have the answer to the world's trash problem. They recycle 80% of their trash (Zaballeen means "garbage people" in Arabic). Now you can test your mettle and see if you too can be as enterprising as they are. You have one goat, one factory, and 8 months to build a recycling system for the city. Can you make it happen?

9. WeTopia: Such big names as Mattel, Clorox, and DeGeneres have lent their support to this game that's like Farmville for a cause. Players build communities and accumulate "Joy" as a form of currency, which they can then donate in-game to real-life causes. When those causes reach 100% joy, the game's developer donates real cash to the organization that was earned through player purchases and advertising revenue.

10. Sweatshop: Sweatshop takes things one step further by incorporating humor, albeit black, into its message. The game begins by showing you a factory floor filled with crying or injured children who make high-end sneakers. Then it guides you through a series of choices you must make as the factory manager. As you decide whether to give your workers a safe working environment or focus on your bottom line, hopefully you will begin to wonder what kind of conditions the clothes you're wearing came from.

1. A Closed World: Game designers in Singapore created this game because of the shortage of content concerning LGBT issues. Here you lead a gay character through a forest filled with "demons" who try to stop you and force their beliefs on you. You must use your words and logic to navigate your way to find your beloved.

2. On the Ground Reporter: Darfur: The first in the "On the Ground Reporter" series, this game brings players face to face with the shocking footage of hostilities in Darfur. The in-game objective is to find the truth and the story, but the overall goal is to expose people to the harsh realities of conflicts like that that just ended in Darfur.

3. Fate of the World: The whole world is in your hands. This award-winning game forces you to deal with crises like natural disasters and a growing global population. By playing through the different scenarios, players get a sense of the real challenges the world could face in the next few generations. It is based on the research of an Oxford professor and was made with the help of a veteran game producer.

4. Elude: The team behind "A Closed World" also produced this game that wants to change some of the public's views about depression. The highs and lows of the illness are illustrated as your "mood" rises to the sky and falls to the depths of the earth. The game is only won when the player uses passion to reach happiness at the tree tops.

5. Karma Tycoon: JPMorgan Chase Foundation was the unlikely backer of this game, where players try to move their "karmameter" to 100%. They do this by helping people through homeless shelters, youth centers, and other community help centers. A grant from Chase Bank starts the game off, but players must budget their money and earn more grants to help more people and solve more problems as the game progresses. So kids learn social and fiscal responsibility while playing.

This is a cross-post from content partners at onlineuniversities.com

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15 Games That Will Make You Think Differently About Games

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Using games for purposes other than entertainment is nothing new. There are war games, educational games, throne games. But a new class of games has sprung up in recent years, designed to create awareness and raise support for a variety of global issues.

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Pixiclip's web-based whiteboard makes it easy to create and share sketches online