The Community Center: a serious game on migration and volunteering

Can serious games shift the current mainstream narrative towards migrants? Is it possible to raise awareness on their situation using ludic tools? Can volunteering in a humanitarian context become an online simulation? This thesis investigates the potential of serious games to represent migration beyond the journey itself, simulating the daily work of volunteers in a humanitarian context. Migration is frequently represented in mainstream media through narratives centered on humanitarian emergencies, statistical charts, and collective suffering, reducing migrants and refugees to mere numbers with little to no agency. Serious games offer an alternative medium capable of fostering empathy and critical reflection by allowing players to actively engage with the topic of migration in first person instead of being mere observers. From this idea, the project develops The Community Center a cooperative digital game prototype centered on volunteering within a Community Center for Migrants. Instead of simulating migration journeys, the game takes another different and new perspective, exploring from an “insider” point of view, the life, the struggles and the difficulties faced by people on the move not during their movement phase, but instead during their staying in hosting or transit countries. The prototype was evaluated through six ollective playing sessions comprising twenty participants, followed by questionnaire to capture player’s interactions, impressions and opinions about asylum seekers, humanitarian world and volunteering. The results show a general positive reception of the game, especially regarding the functions and usefulness of Community Centers and volunteering, along with game’s enjoyment and usability. However, no clear change was observed in participants’ general opinion about migrants’ and their perceived agency despite game’s characters’ showing slightly more independence than people on the move in general. The evaluation, however, recorded a decrease in the perceived threat towards refugees and asylum seekers. These findings highlight both the potential and the limitations of serious games to address complex social issues. Future projects should focus on strengthening characters’ agency, refining the game balance and provide more information about the context. Despite these limitations the project demonstrates how a serious game can create for players a space for reflection on migration, volunteering, and the social role of Community Centers.