Players Acceptance of a Critical War Game
PAPER by Kristýna Hněvsová and Vít Šisler (CUP) at WARGAME Workshop 4: Player Perspectives

Abstract

The paper will briefly introduce a critical war game, Attentat 1942, which we developed in 2017 at Charles University and the Czech Academy of Sciences. This serious game on contemporary history tells the story of Nazi occupation from the perspective of those who experienced it firsthand. It is built on dialogues written by professional historians, interactive comics, and authentic historical footage. The game was released in two different versions. The educational version, available in Czech language only, is distributed freely to Czech high schools and accompanied by a detailed methodology for teachers on how to use the game in the classroom. The commercial version, released in Czech and English language on Steam, contains more game-like elements and has a modified gameplay. This paper critically investigates the perception and acceptance of the educational version of the game by Czech teachers and students, and then compares this acceptance with the ways the commercial version of the game is reviewed and evaluated by users on Steam. Essentially, the paper demonstrates how different contexts shape and form the perception and evaluation of serious video games. Overall, the paper might be of interest to serious game designers who aim to implement their games in different contexts and to scholars of game and cultural studies.


Back to Workshop 4

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License