Myers, Misha Expanding Minds and Narrowing Divides in India through Gamivism <p><a href="http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/critical-issues/cyber/videogame-cultures-the-future-of-interactive-entertainment/project-archives/conference-programme-abstracts-and-papers-2/"><br></a> This paper was presented at the<i> </i><i>Videogame Cultures 6</i>, Inter-disciplinary.net, Oxford University, 17-19 July 2014.</p><p>The board game Bumper Crop was designed and its social impact tested as part of<br>the Play to Grow project to explore what game design properties and mechanisms<br>are most effective in promoting change-related agendas. Bumper Crop was<br>designed for both physical and digital platforms, to engage young urban adults in<br>complexities of rural development, agricultural practices and issues facing farmers<br>in India. The project involved a partnership with Digital Green, a non-profit and<br>charitable organisation helping small and marginal farmers in both India and lowincome<br>African countries to share best practices with their communities through<br>creating and sharing videos. Combining real life content with serious play, Bumper<br>Crop was designed through a participatory and human-centred design approach<br>with field visits, dialogues and play tests with farmers working with Digital Green<br>in the region of Madhya Pradesh, and with young urban adults in Mumbai.<br>Contrary to expectations, initial evaluation results revealed that the game’s original<br>purpose of generating empathy for farmers was not realised amongst the available<br>pool of samples. Surprisingly, however, it did serve as an effective tool for peer-to-peer<br>learning between farmers themselves, bringing the game back to Digital<br>Green’s core business of creating platforms for sharing of expert knowledge.<br></p><p> </p> Social impact games;digital activism;participatory design;game-based learning;Digital Humanities 2016-03-10
    https://bridges.monash.edu/articles/conference_contribution/Expanding_Minds_and_Narrowing_Divides_in_India_through_Gamivism/3102034
10.4225/03/56E0D0D2D3C03