“Playing Doom”: A Design Case in Self-Defense Training

Abstract

We report a design case in the context of self-defense training, that was designed by participants of a coach development course for violence prevention coaches for emergency services. The game was designed to foster skill development with regards to the defense against knife attacks in the context of self-defense. Following pedagogical principles of representative learning design, this game gives an idea of how self-defense skills could be developed in a game-like and student-centered environment.

Full text

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“PLAYING DOOM”: A DESIGN CASE IN SELF-DEFENSE TRAINING
Mario S. Staller, Valentina Heil, Rüdiger Koch, & Swen Körner
University of Applied Sciences of Police and Public Administration North Rhine–Westphalia;
2Institute for Professional Conict Management; 3Federal Police, Germany; German Sport University–Cologne
We report a design case in the context of self-defense
training, that was designed by participants of a coach
development course for violence prevention coaches for
emergency services. The game was designed to foster skill
development with regards to the defense against knife
attacks in the context of self-defense. Following pedagogical
principles of representative learning design, this game gives
an idea of how self-defense skills could be developed in a
game-like and student-centered environment.
Mario S. Staller is a professor at the University of Applied Sciences
of Police and Public Administration North-Rhine Westphalia. His
research focuses on optimal learning environments in training
settings regarding interpersonal verbal and (un-) armed conflict.
Valentina Heil is a researcher at the Institute for Professional
Conflict Management in Langen, Germany. Her research interests
include the conception of reality of violent encounters and tactical
decision making.
Rüdiger Koch is a police use of force coach at a German Police
Force. His research interests include the pedagogy of police use of
force and self-defense training.
Swen Körner is a professor at the German Sport University Cologne
heading the Department for Training Pedagogy and Martial
Research.
INTRODUCTION
Through the lens of participatory issues, learning in the
context of self-defense is a two-edged sword. While civilians
may choose voluntarily to participate in personal protection
programs (Heil, Staller, & Körner, 2017), law enforcement and
emergency personal are subjected to mandatory trainings
(Di Nota & Huhta, 2019; Rajakaruna, Henry, Cutler, & Fairman,
2017). Current research suggests that especially training in
the area of physical confrontations does not transfer well
into the real world (Jager, Klatt, & Bliesener, 2013; Renden,
Nieuwenhuys, Savelsbergh, & Oudejans, 2015). As recently
argued, this may be due to the traditional methodology em-
ployed, focusing more on isolated skill development than on
the application of these skills in variable and representative
learning tasks (Körner & Staller, 2018). Additionally, motiva-
tional deficits arising through this traditional methodology
may account for sometimes observed low engagement and
investment of individuals in such programs (Honess, 2016).
Drawing from suggestions of game design in the context of
self-defense training (Staller, Heil, Klemmer, & Körner, 2017a),
a coach development session of violence prevention coach-
es for emergency serviced was built around the principles
of good game design and the opportunities for making
mandatory self-defense training more fun and meaningful,
thus promoting engagement, while equally ensuring skill de-
velopment through representative learning design (Pinder,
Davids, Renshaw, & Araújo, 2011). In the current paper, we
report a design case for a game of self-defense developed by
the participants of that coach development course.
THE CONTEXT OF THE DESIGN CASE
The coach development course was attended by 16 par-
ticipants, who aimed at developing the competencies to
plan and deliver violence prevention workshops within their
departments in the near future. The course was conducted
by three coach developers (MS, VH, RK) and lasted for two
weeks. It took place in a seminar room within a library that
was closed during the duration of the coach development
course. Besides providing the future violence prevention
coaches with the declarative and procedural knowledge of
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https://doi.org/10.14434/ijdl.v11i2.24108
2020 | Volume 11, Issue 2 | Pages 9-16

IJDL | 2020 | Volume 11, Issue 2 | Pages 9-16 10
conducting efficient training programs, the recurrent issue
of a lack of motivation in former mandatory training settings
was frequently brought up by participants of the program.
Drawing from the literature of good game design (Pallesen,
2013; Schell, 2008) discussions revolved around how to
account for representative task design in order to ensure skill
transfer while simultaneously bolster motivation through the
use of game design elements, specifically the use of a story,
aesthetics and game mechanics.
At the end of the coach development course, coaches had
to design and conduct a training session about a chosen
topic in order to be licensed as a violence prevention coach.
A group of four coaches chose the topic of “coping with
knife attacks“ for their final coaching test. The participants
of the training session, with a total of 45 minutes, were the
other participants (n = 12) of the course. The training session
comprised of a small targeted warm-up with subsequent
representative partner interactions on a 1:1 basis with a focus
on adaptive behavior against knife attacks. This training sec-
tion took place in a cleared area (no obstacles, etc.) next to
the library. After 25 minutes, the participants were presented
with the final task, a self-defense-game called “Doom“.
A GAME OF SELF-DEFENSE
The self-defense game “Doom” had a similar narrative as the
1993 classic computer game from ID Software: In a research
facility, a portal to hell has been accidentally opened, so
that demons invaded the facility. The players had to escape
from the facility through the main exit, which requires to
find and use two different key cards. These key cards have
to be found by the players, while simultaneously avoiding
and fighting against attacking demons on the facility, while
demons continuously patrol the premises. After retrieving
the two key cards, participants were able to open the main
gate and escape the research facility. Before the key cards
could be inserted, the key card slots had to be powered up
by the energy wrist bands the player were wearing from the
beginning of the game.
The Creation of “Doom“
The design team chose “Doom“ as the template for the
self-defense game for two reasons: First, discussions in
the coffee breaks regularly revolved around pop cultural
media such as movies and games throughout the coach
developing course. As such, the designing team knew that
participants of their game would acknowledge references
to popular culture within their training session and that
the game centered learning environment would relate to
participants’ real-life experience.
Second, the coach development course heavily focused
on designing learning environments that (a) allow for high
amounts of representatively designed self-defense inter-
actions between the learner and his/her environment, (b)
include direct and immediate feedback, (c) allow for different
difficulty levels and (d) that are engaging. Concerning rep-
resentatively designed interactions, the recently postulated
partner interaction paradigm (Staller & Körner, 2018; Staller,
Körner, & Heil, 2019a) provided the rules of engagement with
regards to the interactions. Within this framework, the person
in the center of the learning process is termed „player“ being
responsible for the health and safety of their counterparts
(the „simulators“), while acting as close to the behavior in the
field as possible. The simulator is responsible for providing
high amounts of representative interactions that include
the information variables that are likely to be encountered
in the field while providing feedback with his/her behavior
depending on the actions of the player. Within the coach
development course, the first author (MS) referred to “Doom”
as a good example of a video game with high amounts of in-
teractions with direct and immediate feedback for the player
through which video games lear adaptive gaming behavior
in an engaging way (Staller et al., 2017a). The designing team
took this example literally by actually creating a Doom game
for the context of self-defense practice.
The design decisions were based around four intertwined
aspects of good game design: a story, aesthetics, game
mechanics and technology (Schell, 2008). The story and the
aesthetics were taken from the classic Doom game, which
lead to cheering and laughter of the participants when
they were introduced to the game. The technology mainly
focused on interactions between simulators and players in
order to allow for functional skills to developed. This was in-
tended to be achieved by incorporating well-designed game
mechanics, which will be explained in the next session.
The Game Mechanics
The Playing Area
The game took place in a library with small corridors and lots
of shelves that was located next to the cleared training area
that was used before in the training session. Players had to
move tactically around the corners of the shelves in order to
not get surprised by a demon. The main exit was indicated
with a white curtain and two key card slots (see Figure 1).
The playing area, with its narrow aisles and lots of corners,
constrained behavior of the players in a way that they have
to carefully enter new areas of the playing area by slicing
corners and displaying other forms of adaptable behavior,
in order to not get surprised by a demon. Without a direct
focus of this tactical aspect within the training session, the
designing team incorporated this design aspect intentionally
into the game, since tactical behavior has been considered
as an important characteristic of expert self-defense perfor-
mance (Staller, Abraham, Poolton, & Körner, 2018).
Furthermore, the game designers switched off the lights
in the library area partially, so that some areas were darker
than others. Finally, loud rock music was playing during

IJDL | 2020 | Volume 11, Issue 2 | Pages 9-16 11
the game. Both features (darkness and loudness) were
intentionally built into the game to (a) make it harder for the
player to track and locate the demons and (b) to incorporate
characteristically features of real-world conflict situations
into the game (Staller, Körner, Heil, & Kecke, 2019b). As such,
surprise attacks of demons occurred quite often, compli-
menting results of research identifying surprise as one of the
key features in hand-to-hand combat situations (Jensen &
Wrisberg, 2014).
The Demons
The simulators within the game were “the demons“ that
were played by three of the four coaches. Since the learning
goal of the self-defense session was to defend knife attacks,
the demons were armed with training knives made of wood
(see Figure 2). In previous training sessions, participants and
coaches have learned to train representatively while taking
care of the health and safety of the partner (Staller, Zaiser, &
Körner, 2017b). While the demons tried to stab the players
with the wooden knives, the players were only allowed
to mark their punches and kicks on the demons for safety
reasons. In the coach development sessions, all participants
of the course learned about the concept of extrapolation
within partner interaction. This refers to the ability of the
simulator to extrapolate from the marked attack and react as
if this attack would have been hit. As such, the demons (as
simulators) were able to react interactively to the actions of
the players depending on how hard the players marked their
attacks and to what area they aimed for (e.g., head, body). If
the player marked enough counter-attacks on the demon,
he fell to the ground indicating that the player has won this
encounter (see Figure 2). The demons “resurrected” after five
seconds by standing up again and continuing attacking
the other players, who were looking for the key cards. This
allowed the player to consider the current problem as solved
while ensuring future interactions to be possible with the
demon. The attacking behavior of the demons progressed
throughout the game in order to provide players with new
challenges and variability in order to trigger the adaptation
of their behavior. While initially, the demons moved slowly
FIGURE 1. The main exit of the game with a key card slot to the left and to the right. In front, a player (left) is fighting against an
attacking demon (right).

IJDL | 2020 | Volume 11, Issue 2 | Pages 9-16 12
towards the players, demons became faster every two
minutes of the gameplay.
The Players
Twelve players, which were the participants of the training
session, had the assignment to find the key cards in the
library while avoiding and defending attacks by the demons
(see Video 1).
Each player wore an energy wrist band, which indicated his/
her energy level.
The Rules
The rules of the game were as follows:
• The players had to exit the facility by using two key cards,
which have to be found.
• Each player had to wear an energy wrist band and keep
it till the end. Energy wrist bands were used to power up
the key card slots for opening the exit gate at the end.
• If a demon hit the player with the knife, the player lost
his/her wristband. Health could be restored by per-
forming attacks on a pad in the “health restore area” (see
beginning of Video 2). After 20 seconds of aggressive
attacks, the player’s health was restored and he/she was
given the energy wrist band back.
The design element of the energy wrist band allowed for
two aspects: First, players received immediate and direct
feedback (by losing their energy wrist band), when they
could not defend an attack. And second, besides represen-
tative partner interactions, the player had an opportunity
of practicing their striking and hitting skills as well as their
explosive aggression as a second task throughout the game.
Overwatch
One coach of the design team was in charge of the game as
a whole. He took the time, made sure that demons moved
in the defined speed, made sure that players ran to the
pad area when losing their wrist band, and made sure that
they returned after 20 seconds working on the pad. Also,
this coach reacted to more passive players by directing the
demons towards them. The three coach developers (MS,
RK, VH) were allowed to walk through the library but were
marked with yellow vests, so they could be easily identified
as being not part of the game. MS shot photos and recorded
video footage that is presented within this article.
Game Progression
The design team incorporated several features that made
sure that (a) each player had many opportunities to interact
with the demons (and as such practice their self-defense be-
havior), (b) the difficulty of the game was adapted according
VIDEO 1. Frame taken from a video clip depicting the players searching the facility for key cards while avoiding and defending demons.
Note: This video contains potentially triggering content which includes simulations of physical violence. The video clip is
archived and accessible at: https://purl.dlib.indiana.edu/iudl/media/c08h445f54

IJDL | 2020 | Volume 11, Issue 2 | Pages 9-16 13
to the self-defense skills of the players. First, the designing
team only hid one key card in the library. The players did not
know that fact, as such continuing looking for the second
key card and thus providing continuous opportunities to
encounter demons and to move tactically aware between
the shelves. The second key card was hidden by the game
designers ten minutes after the game started, in order to
allow for enough training time and numerous interactions
between demons and players. As such, the players did not
have the possibility to finish the game earlier and spent the
planned training time with the three main activities of (a)
moving tactically between the bookshelves, (b) defending
knife attacks, and (c) practicing hard and aggressive attacks
on the pad. The time limit was not known by the players,
since otherwise, the players may have displayed reduced
motivation to move within the facility if they knew that their
efforts were in vain at this stage. After the players retrieved
the two key cards and every player wore an energy wrist
band, the exit gate could be opened (see end of Video 2).
REFLECTIONS ON THE GAME
After reflecting on the game after its completion, we noted
several issues . First, the game felt loud, noisy and very
chaotic from the perspective within the game. This provided
the players with a challenge in completing their assign-
ments. However, the game designers (overwatch and the
three demons) seemed to have everything under control,
while players struggled with the unfolding chaos within the
playing area. Players were regularly surprised by demons,
screamed while defending themselves and were immedi-
ately confronted with the next problem, e.g., discriminating
friend from foe when turning around or looking for the best
route to get away from the demon. From a skill development
perspective, the chaotic nature of the game provided players
with a key characteristic of real-world conflict situations
(Körner & Staller, 2019), allowing them to practice and to
attuned the needed skills for such situations.
The second issue is related to the first one: Players displayed
adaptive behavior throughout the game. It seems that the
demands posed by the game, lead to (a) the adaptation of
already learned skills and (b) to the emergence of sometimes
new behaviors that were not trained before. For example,
some players, when caught off-guard by the demons, had to
cope with new attacking angles, yet succeeded in applying
the principles that were taught to them. Other players
demonstrated new behaviors, like using books to fend off an
attacking demon. Adaptability has been identified as a key
skill in real-world conflict situations (Boulton & Cole, 2016;
Preddy, Stefaniak, & Katsioloudis, 2019). Hence, the game
offered opportunities for practicing an important conflict
management skill.
Third, the players had fun playing the game and were clearly
engaged in the game. Players searched the bookshelves
VIDEO 2. Frame taken from a video clip depicting a player restoring her health by performing aggressive attacks on a pad. Note: This
video contains potentially triggering content which includes simulations of physical violence. The video clip is archived and
accessible at: https://purl.dlib.indiana.edu/iudl/media/950495111m

IJDL | 2020 | Volume 11, Issue 2 | Pages 9-16 14
in detail for the missing keys and really put the effort in to
complete the tasks. Besides the observed tension, when
clearing corners or defending an incoming demon, the
player laughed a lot. They enjoyed the little details the
game designers brought into the game (e.g., masks, key
cards, energy wrist bands, etc.). With each new detail players
discovered within the playing area, short moments of
laughter and enjoyment could be observed. Also, after the
players completed the game, they laughed in relief and
talked a lot about this great experience of the game. From
a motivational perspective, having positive experiences in
training settings promotes subsequent attendance in similar
training (Salas, Tannenbaum, Kraiger, & Smith-Jentsch, 2012;
Sitzmann, Brown, Ely, Kraiger, & Wisher, 2009). As such, the
game contributed to the motivation for further attendance
in similar settings within the participants. This was evidenced
a year later when the coaches showed up for a continuous
professional coach development session and still talked
about the game, that was played a year before.
Forth, we reflected on the quality of the observed player-de-
mon interactions within the game. While interactions gener-
ally had the quality we aimed for (e.g., representative attacks
by the demons, representative defenses of the players), some
interactions lacked quality. This was the case when players
only defended the knife attack without counter-attacking.
In such cases, demons often just stopped attacking and
turned to another player. However, from a skill development
perspective, it would be preferable, when the demons would
stick with the player and keep attacking, in order to provide
the necessary cues, from an ongoing knife-attack, which is
likely more close to real world dynamics of violence. Hence,
the game would increase its effectiveness concerning skill
development, the more representative each interaction is
carried out. As such, they are able to perform representative
interactions is a key prerequisite for playing this game.
Finally, we would like to focus on the specific context the
game takes place. The specific group that attended the
two weeks of coach development were unique insofar,
FIGURE 2. A player (left) has defeated a demon with a knife (right). The demons continuously resurrected after five seconds, thus
posing continuous problems to the players, that searched for the key cards.

IJDL | 2020 | Volume 11, Issue 2 | Pages 9-16 15
that they shared a common enthusiasm for popular culture
in general. While references to movies and games were a
general theme within this course, and coaches discussed the
benefits of good game design, the creation of the Doom as a
self-defense game was the climax of this shared group effort.
The design team enjoyed creating this game as much as the
players that played the game. However, it has to be critically
taken into account that this game was a perfect fit for this
specific group within the specific context of a two-week
coach development course. Since motivations and expecta-
tions of individuals differ, it may be possible that participants
that have other expectations of a violence prevention
workshop or a self-defense training program have to be
treated differently.
CONCLUSION
The presented “Doom” game related to participants’ real-life
experience and provided the players with many motivating
opportunities for performing the self-defense skill in focus (in
the current case: defense against knife attacks) through play-
ing a game. As such the design case provides an idea of how
elements of game design could foster skill development and
behavioral adaptability in the context of self-defense while
keeping representativeness and safety high (Staller et al.,
2017a). In the context of mandatory training like emergency
services, this could be a fruitful avenue for further research
on student-centered design of learning environments.
Future studies have to empirically investigate how learning
and motivation is affected by game design with regards to
conflict management and self-defense.
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