<
https://thesicktimes.org/2025/05/06/long-covid-mode-seeing-the-crisis-through-games/>
"Since January 2024, Steve Wilcox has kicked off his game design classes at
Canada’s Wilfred Laurier University with a short game of chance he designed
called “The Haunted Woods.”
Wilcox asks his classes of about 30 undergraduates to envision that they’re
living in a village in a faraway land, surrounded by a foreboding forest.
Villagers have no choice but to make a pilgrimage through these woods each year
to reach sacred fruit on the other side. But the forest curses them when they
do — and for some, that curse becomes permanent.
To pass through, each student generates a random number between 1 and 10. Those
who roll a 2 or less are cursed permanently. When the group journeys into the
forest again, the rule changes: now, a 3 or less leads to the curse.
“Once again, the harvest sustains the villagers, but in time, those who have
been cursed twice before must make the pilgrimage again,” he warns his players
at the beginning of the third round. Then, he offers a talisman that can ward
off the curse.
“Every year, I’m like, ‘Someone’s going to see the twist coming, and they’re
going to blurt it out,’” he laughed, while describing the game in an interview.
No one has — though, when Wilcox revealed to this winter’s class that the
haunted woods were an allegory for their odds of contracting Long COVID, one
student gasped, “That is really fucking cool.” The game’s impact has been, too:
approximately 95 to 100% of students who’ve played the game now wear masks in
his classroom, Wilcox said.
Games uniquely incorporate emotional and social factors that influence how we
take in information — making them surprisingly useful communication tools in a
world in denial about the ongoing threats of COVID-19 and Long COVID. Whether
through the cathartic storytelling in indie designers’ interactive theater
projects or learning opportunities woven into popular video games, playing
games can help people make informed decisions amid the Long COVID crisis. They
can also bring us together in an absence of public health support."
Via Violet Blue’s
Threat Model - Covid: May 8, 2025
https://www.patreon.com/posts/128426416
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
