Plight of the Gameur : Inhibitors to Empathic Connection with Representation of Suffering in Outreach Games

The field of serious game studies, while growing, is still working through the variables that create the conditions for a discernible effect towards real-world player behavior. One branch of serious games I refer to as outreach games aim at informing and prompting the player to take further real-world action. However, a significant impediment to this appeal is the relationship between the player and the game. Referring to the role of the flaneur in post-colonial literature, I describe how the relationship between whom I refer to as the gameur and the outreach game is similar to the urban wanderer, eavesdropping on another class of life. One thoroughly researched method of circumventing this difference is through the rhetorical appeal to empathy. After an evaluation of research in empathy, and its use in computer games, I demonstrate how empathy is impacted by representation and characterization within these persuasive texts. Finally, I conduct a small case study of Prisoners of War, an award-winning outreach game wherein I demonstrate how representation and characterization affect the gameur and the variety of impacts that affect her ability to consubstantiate with the in-game situations.