Adapted from material contributed by Lisa Leutheuser
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Posted by ellen at May 20, 2009 05:55 PM
What is roleplaying?
Many corporate employees are familiar with some form of role-playing in the context of their job, such as communication skill building, customer service training, assertiveness training, etc. In most of these the participants play themselves, responding to scenarios in order to practice those scenarios and develop skills. Roleplaying can go far beyond that, and there are many contexts in which it can be used for both soft skills training and problem solving.
Roleplaying involves adopting a specific role to play out in the game. The role will frame the player's perspective in the game: it will define how they respond to the game environment. One one end of the roleplaying spectrum, each participant simply plays themselves, or on the other extreme, in the acting zone, players enact roles very different from their real selves with very different background and motivations.
Why use roles in a game?
A game isn't real life, so the consequences are low. The game provides a safe environment in which to explore an issue. Using "roles", a person may express ideas/opinions that they might otherwise feel too intimidated to say. "That's not my opinion; it's what this person in this role would think."
Changing purpose changes the game
- The purpose of your game, what your objectives are, will define or affect how roles in the game are used. If you are training process, real-life scenarios, or skills, then you will play roles that are very similar to yourself (or just play yourself). If your game is intended to explore communication issues, as opposed to communication skills, you may play different roles.
- An example is a police department and a fire department that were having trouble collaborating on emergencies. It was causing a lot of problems. Each side was pointing fingers at the other, and they were not able to develop an atmosphere of teamwork. So they played a game in which the police had to play the firemen and the firemen played police. Then they had to see how they would respond to an incident. In this way, they explored communication issues, exposed barriers that were preventing good collaboration, and it opened up a lot of communication between the teams and led to better teamwork.
- This kind of scenario can raise a lot of emotions and needs to be carefully managed.
Predictive modeling and "futuring"
- Imagining the World: The Case for Non-Rendered Virtuality - the Role Play Simulation Model
- Design of a role-playing game to study the trajectories of health care workers in an operating room DOI Bookmark: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1125451.1125658
- Creating Learning Opportunities Using an RPS Authoring Tool (Linser & Ip)
- Creating Learning Opportunities Using an RPS Authoring Tool (Linser & Ip)
- EJ330946 - Geriatrix: A Role-Playing Game. by Hoffman, Stephanie B.; And Others
- Lisa Leutheuser trained in the design and use of Role-playing games at the University of Michigan and also writes a blog at http://www.kitchenchick.com/
References