Feedback collection form
Feeling of reward through learning
Authors tried to identify to what extend the enjoyment can be present in such a challenging game. As participants were reflecting, the enjoyment and engagement came from feeling rewarded that they learned something new.
Additionally, playing the characters and imitating someone for the first time can be an engaging and fun.
Main considerations:
- Enjoyment came from the reward of gaining new knowledge, rather than traditional “fun.”
- Participants valued the satisfaction of learning in a challenging context.
- However, across multiple playthroughs, the atmosphere sometimes remained fun and even entertaining, while still allowing space for reflection on deep and difficult topics.
Illustrations
Creating bespoke visuals elevated a new experience.
In the scenario “Place to Sleep” with a 20 y.o. character who needs to decide whether she should take the offer to stay in a spare apartment from an older guy who has a romantic interest in her — trust issues depend on the way we present the character.
We had an understanding that the age, outfit, and even skin colour would matter for the character in the decision-making process.
Zero days living as me — references, in coordination with the respondent from the story. Since the story is about a trans person, we were discussing that it’s important to remain the feminine perception of the character and not move it to the masculine part, as the character is just before coming out and everyone perceives them as a girl.
Findings:
Glossary: Why not a refugee, but people with refugee experience
During the gameplay and the description of the game, we met a challenge of using in short word refugee; however, within playing as characters and building a connection to them, it feld uncomfortable to keep using the shortain version. Additionally, there are concerns behind using world “refugee” directly naming the character or people we interviewed.
There are three main factors to consider.
- Stigma
The word refugee carries stigma and negative connotations; we use the formulation “people with refugee experience” which is slightly softer. Those people did not choose it and want to be perceived through lens of their achievements during the live, including status, possessions, and social capital. All of it is typically can be taking away and cause deep cognitive dissonance, and only remaining with intelligence, education and achieved skillset.
- Human-first approach, acknowledges past trauma, but doesn’t define people by it.
It’s important to center human before circumstance and acknowledges that being a refugee is an experience, not an identity. Additionaly, many people might move fact to the further stages with moving on with work and studies and remaining under label “refugee” might create the victimasing perception of them, rather supporting their force to move forward.
- Legal status.
It’s important to acknowledge that “a refugee” is also is a legal immigration status.
Under international and European law, Ukrainian nationals fleeing the 2022 invasion are not admitted en masse as “refugees” under the 1951 Convention, nor do they receive something called “Special Protection.” Instead, they benefit from a form of temporary protection and tailored national schemes.
Ukrainians, however, in a legal sense are not assigned to this status in Europe and the UK. European Union offers temporary protection under Directive 2001/55/EC which is not individual refugee status. Similarly, the UK grants humanitarian leave to remain under Ukrainian Sponsorship and Family scheme, which are referred to the guests and not a refugee status neither and which is it totally different from asylum seeker status.
Links:
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/en/document/EPRS_BRI%282024%29762373
https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/briefings/ukrainian-migration-to-the-uk/