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Press play to grow!: Designing video games as "Trojan Horses" to catalyze and integrate human development
Abstract
This article explores the potential of video games as an interactive entertainment medium with unprecedented capacities for enacting novel educational and developmental practices. Based on three field applications of Integral Research, six different methodologies were applied to explore the potential applications of video games to catalyze and integrate horizontal and vertical human development (also referred to as translation and transformation). Various qualitative and quantitative studies were conducted, including phenomenological and structural analyses of the researcher; discussions with leading integral practitioners, video game critics, and designers; an online survey; attendance of video game conferences and events; and extensive review of the literature related to the educational and developmental potentials of video games. These potentials were not only accessed and validated by various methodological data, but also categorized into an Integral- Developmental Trojan Horse (INDENTRO) video game design framework. The INDENTRO framework applies a Trojan Horse approach for catalyzing and integrating human development through the medium of video games, based on complementary applications of the AQAL model, Integral Life Practice, and Integral Play.
... In the domain of cinema, researchers have explored the application of Integral Theory to cinematic story creation, acting, and video game design (Melody, 2008;Ornst, 2008;Silbiger, 2010). In addition, several cinematic artists have begun to explore and engage in dialogue about Integral Theory in relation to both their personal and professional lives (Aronofsky & Davis, 2006;Brill & Wilber, 2006;Crichton & Wilber, 2004;Konietzko & Davis, 2007;Ormond & Wilber, 2004;Stone & Wilber, 2007;Wachowski & Wilber, 2004). ...
Germaine Dulac’s “integral cinema movement” of the 1920s and her integral cinematic work, La Coquille et le Clergyman (1928), are analyzed from a historical and theoretical perspective. Results suggest an early introduction of integral consciousness into cinematic media that corresponds to and predates the integral theories of both Jean Gebser and Ken Wilber. Defining characteristics of what may constitute an integral cinematic work are mapped out and developed into a set of evaluation criteria using the works of Dulac, Gebser, and Wilber. A test of these evaluation criteria with the viewing of several motion pictures is summarized; the results suggest that several past and recent films demonstrate qualities that could be said to constitute an integral cinematic work. A preliminary typology of forms of integral cinematic creation, and the potential benefits and challenges for the application of Integral Theory to cinematic theory and practice are presented and discussed.
... Games for Change, a non-profit organization, was established in 2004 to support the development of digital games for social change through a membership that represents hundreds of organizations and includes partners in the gaming industry, academia, non-profits, local and state governments, foundations, the UN, and artists [59], having evolved from The Serious Games Initiative founded at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, in 2002 [60]. Silbiger has laid the foundation for the design of Integrally informed video games [61] and Gackenbach's on-going research indicates that video game play may be changing consciousness in a positive manner [62]. In 2007, UCLA Extension and Fielding Graduate University launched a master's degree in media psychology and social change [63]. ...
Our existing model of media, based upon a consumptive-materialist–atomistic orientation, falls short in seeking to promote mainstream awareness of systemic and integral thinking in society-at-large. This paper presents evolutionary guidance media, a new model for media arising from evolutionary perspectives including systems science, humanistic, transpersonal and integral studies designed to promote planetary consciousness and give rise to an ecological–spiritual–integral mindset. Two key elements of evolutionary guidance media are discussed: a databank containing purposeful data from nine or more dimensions of human activity, and transception, the infusion of cyberception with qualities arising from mutual causality. Specific types of transception are introduced including Gaiaception, Agoraception, and Dharmaception. Organizations and companies already in the process of creating green media, socially responsible media, and spiritual, or transformational media are vanguards of the development of conscious media.
As the need for international cooperation in confronting global challenges increases, and the pace of technological innovation quickens, the possibility of creating media capable of facilitating such cooperation becomes ever more tenable. Evolutionary Guidance Media is a systematic framework designed for those individuals and organizations interested in creating such media; specifically, media capable of advancing human evolution, promoting global ethics, planetary consciousness, and integral aims. This article briefly outlines an application of the Integral Operating System to Evolutionary Guidance Media, resulting in a more encompassing framework: EGM-Integral.
The idea of digital game-based learning (DGBL) is gaining acceptance among researchers, game designers, educators, parents, and students alike. Building new educational games that meet educational goals without sacrificing what makes games engaging remains largely unrealized, however. If we are to build the next generation of learning games, we must recognize that while digital games might be new, the theory and technologies we need to create DGBL has been evolving in multiple disciplines for the last 30 years. This chapter will describe an approach, based on theories and technologies in education, instructional design, artificial intelligence, and cognitive psychology, that will help us build intelligent learning games (ILGs).