Gamification stuff we love: Parliament Games
In the interactive learning game MyUK, you take on the role as prime minister in a five year term. The purpose of the game is to teach about the parliamentary houses and how bills are passed. When you open the application, you get to dress up your avatar the aka the prime minister, then a slot machine look-alike selects the rather original political party, after which you are ready to go and select your cabinet.
Then you set out to work on selecting bills to look into, you are given some background information about the bill and the views of some key cabinet members. The names of the bills are hilarious and some of the content even more so, which I would say is appealing for the younger teenage market for whom the game was built. When you then push a bill through you get instant feedback on how the bill has been received by your citizens, you get a bit of guidance as to who is in favour and who isn’t. The news headlines then follow with feedback from both sides of the population. My abandonment of the boring bong bill, was rather ill-received as you can see from the screenshot.
I have to say, I thought the language and interactions was relatively age appropriate and it would take a few run throughs for me to truly understand the process. Based on some of the statistics the game is mainly played during school hours, so teachers are actively bringing it into the class room. The fact that you are in first person learning mode is a positive thing, the naming of all things in the game and rather funny styling you can opt for does give additional fun when done in groups.
What game have you recently played to learn from?
