Videojuegos prosociales como espacio transicional lúdico para la paz: el caso de Reconstrucción

Francisco-Julián Martínez-Cano; Rocío Cifuentes-Albeza; Begoña  Ivars Nicolás

doi:10.4185/RLCS-2019-1394

Authors

Francisco-Julián Martínez-Cano Miguel Hernández University https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8551-3144
Rocío Cifuentes-Albeza Miguel Hernández University https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6274-2283
Begoña Ivars Nicolás Miguel Hernánde University http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1127-0607

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4185/RLCS-2019-1394

Keywords:

conflict, education, peace, prosocial behaviour, video game, Audiovisual narrative

Abstract

The study and application of the video game, as an audiovisual product with aims beyond leisure,
gives rise to the emergence of different trends of videoludic product development characterized in the
merge of entertainment and education, which make the most out of the persuasion power of this
interactive medium. In this context, serious games are born and, among these, the prosocial video game
as an educational tool for education in values. These cultural devices must be able to promote dialogue
and serve as an instrument for mediating conflicts and fostering peace. With the aim of creating a
framework for the study of the prosocial videogame, we proceed to review the existing literature as
well as the audiovisual leisure productions for the screen that encourage the induction of prosocial
behaviours in the player. We identified a boom of this type of interactive products during the last
decade, and specifically about the Colombian conflict, promoted by different institutions as well as by
the Colombian government. In this sense, a case study of the video game Reconstrucción (Pathos
Audiovisual, ViveLab, GIZ, 2017) is carried out, applying two models of analysis. We present the
results obtained by the first model of analysis, which studies the narrative of video games, besides
contents thanks to the second model, based on the dentification of the design components of the video
game in compliance to the MDA framework. We conclude this study by pointing out the main
characteristics that enable an effective design of the prosocial video game, in which the generation of
game dynamics that promote decision-making, linked to offering some sort of help, is rather essential.

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Author Biographies

Francisco-Julián Martínez-Cano, Miguel Hernández University

Professor in the graduate studies of Audiovisual Communications and Fine Arts in Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche. Since 2006, his artistic background is focused on the mix of science and art to generate new audiovisual discourses.
He is a member of the research group Observatory on Audiovisual Communication and Advertising, OCAP, of Universidad Miguel Hernández. As a researcher, he studies and analyses the virtual reality and augmented reality technologies and their hybridization with the cinema and video games for the creation of new products for audiovisual entertainment, paying attention to the contemporary transmediatization phenomena and mass media.

He has performed his professional activity at several private organizations. He is coordinator of monographic publications in Miguel Hernández Communication Journal, MHCJ. He has co-directed the International Congress of Audiovisual Communication and Advertising, CICAP, in its last two editions. He has been guest professor in the Universidade da Beira Interior (Portugal), in Universidade de Évora (Portugal) and Plymouth College of Art, Plymouth (United Kingdom).

Rocío Cifuentes-Albeza, Miguel Hernández University

PhD by Universidad Miguel Hernández.

Professor in the graduate studies of Fine Arts and Journalism in Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche. Her background is focused on the area of design, particularly the creation and development of projects of corporate visual identity within the professional practice for different institutions and public and private entities.

In the field of research, she studies the functions of image and the design of contemporary communication, specially the design of corporate communication and online advertising strategies in the communication era 2.0 and following. She is a member of OCAP -Observatory on Audiovisual Communication and Advertising – as well as a member of AEIC -Spanish Association of Communication Research -.

Begoña Ivars Nicolás, Miguel Hernánde University

Professor in the Universidad Miguel Hernández (Spain). She is professor in the graduate studies of Journalism and Audiovisual Communication. At the same time, she works in the Communication Office of the same university developing social communication strategies.

She is PhD in Social Anthropology. She belongs to the research group Observatory on Audiovisual Communication and Advertising, OCAP, of Universidad Miguel Hernández and focuses her studies on the repercussion of Information Technologies and Communication on media in Internet.

She is an editor of Miguel Hernández Communication Journal, MHCJ, and co-director of the International Congress on Audiovisual Communication and Advertising, CICAP, in its different editions.

She has held conferences and published different articles of scientific relevance about Audiovisual Communication and the improvement of teaching.

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