The document describes the design and testing of a serious game called SimSafety aimed at teaching children about internet safety through experiential learning in a simulated virtual environment, including features like mini-games, role playing scenarios involving bullying and reporting unsafe situations, and testing the game in schools which generated positive feedback from students and teachers.

1. The value of experiential learning and role reversals
for adults and children in the digital world
Yiannis Laouris
CyberEthics
Cyprus Neuroscience & Technology Institute
Cyprus
Larnaca 14-16 May, 2012

2. Why a game?
• “Serious Games”
• Why people play games?
– Hard Fun (emotions such as frustration and ‘Fiero’)
– Easy Fun (curiosity, sensation of wonder, and mystery)
– Altered States (games as therapy, excitement and relief)
– The people Factor (player competition, cooperation,
performance and spectacle)
• Game Playing Theory and Role Playing
• Conceptual Design of the game

3. Game Design
 Purpose of the Game: to create a simulated environment of today’s complex,
dynamically changing and many-to-many virtual environments where
internet risks can be presented and experienced by young players in a
controlled way.
 The approach is scientifically grounded on the thesis that children do not
learn about dangers they do not experience.
 Within this controlled environment, a number of internet related dangers will
be simulated and presented to young players in ways that challenge them
make decisions and take actions. Their decisions and actions will be related
to various scoring systems that define winning strategies, necessary
knowledge and skills and ultimately create a winner.
 The Game is designed to be flexible, multi-player, asynchronous (for a single
player), dynamic and expandable.
 The Game “connects” to real world organizations and their materials in ways
that allow Players to find information, learn materials and acquire skills.

4. Game Environment
Register for a specific Game and be teleported to the respective Game area.
These spaces will be denoted with the Names of the specific Game types.
Knowledge Center; This is a building with a large space that features lots of
sub spaces (or maybe even an area that resembles a campus). Each sub
space will correspond to a different type of resource. For example, we should
have study rooms where a group can arrange to meet in order to study an
issue. Sub spaces can also include an EC sub space where one can find more
information about the Safer internet Plus program, about relevant European
funded projects and about pan-European organizations such as Insafe and
Inhope. We can also have booths or sub-spaces dedicated to specific Nodes.
Areas for other activities and pleasure. These may include: V-Jacuzzi, Parks
Hall of Fame: This is where one can go and see his/her ranking and listen to
winners and their strategies.

5. Many ways to play
A minimum of 5 Players enter into the world at the same time and go from
Game area to Game area competing on the same problems. While competing
to maximize their score, they are also encouraged to collaborate
School competition: Five players from each school play as a Group. The
Game includes mechanisms for players to interact with players from other
schools. The winning Player is the one that not only performs well in the
Problems posed and in the collaboration with his peers but also the one is
sociable and succeeds in making new friends and cultivating those friendships
Children with their parents: Young players explore and play together with
their parents. They are the ones “teaching” their parents about safety and
about gaming.
Completely free and continuous Game: This is the ultimate Game because it
allows Players to enter at any time.

6. [Disturbances]
Disturbances are situations created by the Game system engine targeting
specific Players each time in order to provoke them take actions. Disturbances
are like invisible “Daemons” or “teachers” from the worlds of Metaphysics who
are experiences as “bad” people but they are actually inherently destined to
challenge one to distinguish what is right and what is wrong (in many cases by
making a mikstake and paying for it!).

7. Registering to play
Players are expected to register when they first enter the Game environment.
This registration should be analogous to a SNS. In very analogous way they will
re rewarded or punished and also categorized depending on the choices they
make.
Privacy settings
If one reveals too much personal information such as Address, mobile phone etc
(we need to decide how we simulate these) will be categorized as candidate for
bullying or for stealing his/her identity

8. Define Study Room
This is a space or a room which contains some furniture like a conference facility
and is equipped with some technology such as beamer, desk with a computer, a
Z-Communicator etc. These tools can be used in specific ways:
Beamer: The group can choose only a limited number of presentations (maybe
even just one) that they can attend. Once selected, the PPT presentation will be
beamed on the V-screen accompanied with an Agent talking (pre-recordings)
Internet Computer: This is a simulation of a computer from where a Player can
search within-the-world for information. This where they should locate the
resource that they will call on the beamer
Z-Communicator: This offers the possibility to call and teleport another person
to join this team.

9. Invitation to meet somebody
Somebody can send an invitation to the player to teleport and meet. There must
be many occasions in which this situation is encountered. There must be
reasons for players to move around the environment through teleporting (by
invitation of others) such as:
A player owns (has earned) a gadget known as [MobilePhone] and is in a Game
situation in which s/he wants to use the [RightToCallSomeoneForHelp]. S/he
calls and invites someone to be teleported to his/her locations so that s/he can
ask the question. The Receiver of the invitation doesn’t know what the other
person wants when s/he receives the invitation. S/he may also not even know
the other person very well.

10. Invitation to meet somebody
A player has to decide whether to accept the invitation to be teleported based on
the following criteria:
 Don’t go if there is only one single person at the destination. This can be
checked by consulting the MiniMap
 Take another friend with him/her if s/he thinks that the invitation is for some get
together, some fun or simply to get to know each other. The person
accompanying the one being invited must also earn points by doing this.
However, the same SI rules apply for that person as well.
Before one accepts an invitation by a person s/he doesn’t know very well to be
teleported somewhere, the person receiving the invitation must open the Profile
of the other person and see whether the information there makes sense and is
consistent with what that person communicated already
 One should check the MiniMap also for more reasons. For example, if one
invites someone for Help but that person is not a Game area but in discotheque,
then this is an inconsistency. Deciding to go anyway entails a risk that must be
punished by a score reduction.

11. Invitation to the Jacuzzi
A player may decide to spend some time in the Jacuzzi because it is relaxing,
because there are friends there but moreover because this is an energizing
activity. At the same time this is a place one shouldn’t be with strangers!

12. Invitation to a Discotheque
A player may decide to spend some time in the Disco because this is a place
where you can meet new people and it is also a place where you relax; it is an
energizing activity. But, again this is a place not to be alone with strangers!

13. Bullying
 A persona completely unknown to the player (simulated by the system and
having different names every time so that there is no memory that such and
such person is a known bully) send disturbing messages to a player. There
are two possibilities here: One is that this bully has first requested to become
friend with the player. Second option is that the bully hacks the system and
appears as a friend even though the Player has never accepted or invited
him/her. The second situation can happen only if a Player exhibits risky
behavior (we can base this on the relevant literature).
 The Bully manages to “steal” the identity of a person that is already in the list
of friends. Similar as above, this can happen whenever a player reveals too
much personal information.
 A programmable agent avatar is a “known” (to those who have encounter
him/her) bully who always hangs around in specific locations. We have a few
such “bad” guys in the streets, in the park, in the Discothèque, in the Jacuzzi,
even in the Knowledge Center.

14. Reporting to Hotline
Players are expected to report to the Hotline whenever they encounter any of the
following problems or issues:
They are being bullied; Someone or a “place” on the island promotes
pornographic material or makes them feel uncomfortable
Making a report is accompanied with score increase. Reporting that is not
complete results to no score.

15. Reporting to Hotline
There should be clear rules of how one makes a Report.. A Talking Agent can
“talk” a few issues based on a simple menu. For example, the Agent can answer
to the following questions;
Who are you?
What are you doing here
How can I make a Report?
Will you arrest or punish the criminal?

16. Reporting to Hotline
A Report is considered as complete if it includes the following information:
Name of person or object creating the disturbance or the bullying
Place where the disturbing material or experience was encountered
Exact evidence, eg should copy paste the exact text “sent” by a bully to the
player
A Report should be made within a reasonable time frame following the negative
experience. The chances for the Hotline to identify the “criminal” disappear are
time passes. Therefore, a Report must be made within a time window equal to
[OptimalReportingTime] to benefit from the full [ReportingAward]. The award
should fall exponentially as time passes
Someone encouraging another person to file a Report must be awarded some
points equal to [EncourageAward]
Someone accompanying another person to the Reporting facility should benefit
from an [ReportAccompanyAward]

17. Consulting the Helpline
Players are expected to conduct the Helpline and request support whenever
they encounter any of the following problems or issues:
 They are being bullied
 They encounter any situation that makes them feel uncomfortable
 The Helpline avatar will talk to them and give them basic information such
as:
 Explain what is the purpose and the role of the Helpline
 Encourage them to make a Report of the case is such that requires reporting
 Encourage them to share their feelings with one of the good friends (the
correct
 move is to share this with a FriendCategory5

18. Validating possibly misleading
information
Players encounter throughout the game various situations in which they need
information to proceed. That information might be wrong and will contribute to
negative earnings. They are expected to validate the information by going to the
Knowledge Center and searching and consulting the correct and reliable
references.

19. Simulating Scoring
Each player receives different kinds of scoring such as:
 SimScore: Players win or lose points depending on their achievements in the
specific Game areas. The starting SimScore is zero.
 EnergyLevel: All Players enter the overall environment with an energy level equal
to 1000. They loose energy in the flowing ways: (1) As time passes. (2) As they
move too much. (3) As they make wrong choices. This scoring aims to discourage
players from staying in the SimSafety™ Game for too long, and acts as an anti-
addiction measure.
 PowerImpact: The more friends one has the more powerful. The more places one
visits the better. The more games one plays, the more points s/he earns
(irrespective of game outcome).
 SafenetLevel: The value depends on his/her privacy settings. If a Player’s
SafenetLevel is low, s/he is a “good” candidate for Bullying, for encountering
situations in which his/her identity was stolen etc. The low value functions as a
trigger on the Disturbances Engine or the Bullying Engine to “prepare” a
“situation” for the particular Player.

21. Screen shots

22. Playing the game

23. “Visiting” countries

24. Simulating “friendship”

25. Testing in Schools
60th primary school of Patras
 Students: sixth grade including 12
boys and 8 girls (12 years old) -
familiar with social networking
environments and online games
 Head Teacher:The class teacher
with relevant experience in
teaching, using ICT
 Room: lab with five computers,
ADSL connection

26. Testing in Schools
Elementary and Secondary
schools in Cyprus
 Students: 8-14 years old) - familiar
with social networking
environments and online games
 Head Teacher:The class teacher
with relevant experience in
teaching, using ICT
 Room: lab with computers, ADSL
connection

27. Implementation
Drawbacks
 Difficulties setting up the computer labs
 Limited Number of computers available in
primary school labs
 Low connectivity

28. Implementation
Highlights
 Great enthusiasm on behalf of pupils (many
more would like to have been involved in the
project.
 Great support from teachers
 Persistence and patience on behalf of pupils
who also access SimSafety from home
regularly

29. Some Fieldnotes
 6th grade primary school pupils tend to be more focused and perform
better in SimSafety than 5th grade primary school pupils
 SimSafety is not an environment that pupils can take full advantage
of without the support of an inspired teacher
 Often visits to SimSafety minimises the technical problems and
highlights the positive aspects
 Mini games are successful when one of the roles is being played by
an adult making provocative questions and initiating interesting
discussions
 Interesting discussions among teacher and pupils occurred during
mini game playing and while answering the quizzes
 Some of the pupils have become great funs of SimSafety and import
“gestures” to the system, help us debug it etc.

30. Pupils liked….
They liked:
 the graphics (they thought there were many nice
places to visit)
 their avatars
 that there were many nice things to do
 that they could discuss with each other
 that they could discuss with pupils from other
countries
 flying
 the “Report Centre”

31. Pupils’ Comments
They didn’t like:
 “sinking” into the water or in the ground due to bad internet
connection
 the fact that “Kostas whispers” (bullying machine) was calling
them names 
They suggest that we implement :
 Planes, cars and motorbikes
 More action
 Superpowers
 Some punching and striking
 More games
 Multiple cities
 Speed (make the system quicker)

32. Teachers’ comments
 They liked role playing games (they found
them educationally useful)
 They thought it was an asset of SimSafety to
have many pupils online at the same time
discussing and acting together
 They thought there is great potential in
SimSafety