Gamifying Slavery, Augmenting Whose Reality? A Critical Analysis of Two Historical Games Developed by Danish Gamers and U.S. Educators

• In Event: Using Research-Based Pan-African Heritage Knowledge in Critical Educational Alternatives to 21st-Century Digital Plantations

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to conduct a critical analysis of two historical games that were intended both to entertain and inform (middle school) children on the history of African enslavement –in Africa and in the Diaspora. The games, “Playing History 2: Slave Trade (Slave Tetris)” (created by Serious Games, Denmark) and “Mission U.S.: Flight to Freedom” (created by WNET, the New York Public Broadcasting System-PBS affiliate) are free online role-playing adventure games that anyone can access and play. These two games were selected in part because of controversy that erupted about their representation of the Transatlantic slave trade and slavery (Allen, 2015; Thomas, 2015). Another rationale for this study is to examine critical issues in gaming research and scholarship, which considers the “cognitive worth” of recreational and education games, but does not reflect the perspectives of diverse scholars regarding student experiences, particularly ways that African American children experience these games (Gee, 2005; Everett, 2005). The games were examined both in a technical and in socio-historical context. The analysis found that while these games were sufficient in a technical and aesthetic sense, they perpetuate a misguided ideology on the slavery’s origins and the African and African American historical experience. The paper concludes with a discussion on the importance of appropriate cultural context and guideline recommendations for future game development.

Author

• Valora M. Richardson, Georgia State University