Promoting Positive Attitudes Through Narrative-Driven Digital Heritage Games
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Date
2025
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
The Eurographics Association
Abstract
Video games offer new ways to engage audiences with cultural heritage beyond traditional museum settings. However, can video games authentically replicate the narrative depth of museum experiences while promoting the positive attitudinal impacts museums seek to achieve? This study investigates whether a narrative-driven video game, We Grew Up in War, inspired by historical research and curatorial practice can positively influence players' attitudes towards the depicted topics. The game employs complementary multiperspectivity, a storytelling strategy that presents different but thematically aligned perspectives focused on the topics of refugees and migration. Using a pretest-posttest design with experimental and control groups (n = 116), we measured both explicit and implicit attitude changes. Results show that players who played the game exhibited significantly more positive explicit attitudes than those in the control group (d = 0.33, p = .037). Implicit attitudes did not significantly differ between groups. A more detailed analysis showed that there was a statistically significant change in players' affective responses between the pretest and posttest, whereas no such significant change was observed in the cognitive or behavioral components of explicit attitudes. Despite using a short prototype of the game (approx. 23 minutes), these findings suggest that video games can be effectively employed in promoting cultural heritage and attitude change to wide audiences across geographical boundaries.
Description
CCS Concepts: Human-centered computing → Empirical studies in interaction design; User studies; Empirical studies in HCI; Applied computing → Interactive learning environments; Psychology; Computer games; Social and professional topics → Informal education; Adult education
@inproceedings{10.2312:dh.20253327,
booktitle = {Digital Heritage},
editor = {Campana, Stefano and Ferdani, Daniele and Graf, Holger and Guidi, Gabriele and Hegarty, Zackary and Pescarin, Sofia and Remondino, Fabio},
title = {{Promoting Positive Attitudes Through Narrative-Driven Digital Heritage Games}},
author = {Kolek, Lukáš and Šosvald, David and Flores, Fernanda and Halilovic, Jasminko},
year = {2025},
publisher = {The Eurographics Association},
ISBN = {978-3-03868-277-6},
DOI = {10.2312/dh.20253327}
}