Gaming workshops

Gaming has long been a global subculture that fascinates and inspires young people. A large proportion of teenagers and young adults enjoy playing games, sometimes for several hours a day. Games and gaming platforms also deal with political issues and questions of coexistence: Which characters are perceived as cool, appealing, interesting or completely absurd? Which characters are missing? Are women real gamers? How are Jews or Muslims portrayed in the games? What's more, also right-wing extremists and Islamic extremists have long since discovered games, platforms and gaming aesthetics as a strategy and use them to their advantage.

All of this makes it important to engage with young people about what they encounter in gaming. To this end, Cultures Interactive has developed the mobile game “Adamara - Harsh Waters” with two associated editors as part of its Call of Prev project.This game can be used as a door opener to engage with young people about democracy and human rights and open up new perspectives for them.The game also enables young people to acquire media skills and skills in digital game design.The editors included with “Adamara - Harsh Waters” allow them to shape the story and logic of the game themselves.The gaming workshops then focus on programming, character design and narrative design, among other things.

Game Design

In the workshops with “Adamara - Harsh Waters”, young people can try their hand at game development and add their own little adventures (quests) to the game. They learn to create complex game worlds, locate their avatars and quests in the game's mapping, link quest actions and make game decisions.

Based on this, it is possible to discuss with the young people what kind of coexistence they would like to have or what questions and conflicts are currently on their minds.

Character Design

Character design focuses on the creation of avatars. The participants also explore the question of which characters are particularly common in computer games and what effect these characters and avatars have on the players. Which avatars would they like to see in a game and what should they look like? In this way, the young people approach the topics of social representation and inequality in gaming and society in an artistic way.

Storytelling

Storytelling is all about dialog, interaction and relationships. After all, one of the most important elements of many games is the dialog between the main characters: What language is chosen in the game? How are the participating gamers addressed? The young people set the setting of their game themselves and write new dialogs between the characters. They decide where the journey of their game will take them. Building on this, an exchange about human rights-oriented attitudes, but also about discriminatory language and social exclusion mechanisms, can emerge.

Requirements for a gaming workshop

The gaming workshop can take place as part of a youth culture project day or over several days at schools or youth facilities. Tablets are provided for the duration of the workshop. The team members and the workshops are also prepared for the often different levels of prior knowledge that young people have about gaming.