second order design subverts educational goals
If a game designer can’t exactly define the play experience, does that mean that the learning goal could get lost?
This GDC talk has some good examples. One notable one is the game “Sweatshop”, which is supposed to emphasize how degrading running a sweatshop can be to its employees. One player commented how they left the game with empathy for sweatshop owners, commenting that “dang it’s hard to run a sweatshop” (paraphrased)
Spent Game To Reduce Prejudice Towards The Poor-Roussos similarly shows how SPENT, a game designed to increase empathy for homeless people, actually ended up making people think poverty was personally controllable, and therefore not a problem.
