Can simulation games influence citizen's attitude and behaviour vis-à-vis online public debate?

Hélène MICHEL
IREGE Université de Savoie

Domique KREZIAK
IREGE Université de Savoie

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     Last modified: May 10, 2005

Abstract
Each day, more than 320,000 people visit www.vacheland.com to care for their virtual cow. They have to develop knowledge on diverse topics including cultivating crops, understanding the effects of weather, protecting against attacks by wild pigs, and negotiating purchase and sales of a range of farming inputs. More than 3,000 players also belong to an online community where they exchange advice, develop strategy and learn collectively.

Although many immersive virtual environments exist, Vacheland (“cow country”) is unique because it was created for a French agricultural region with pedagogical aims. The goal of the simulation was to explain the complexities of agriculture while creating a new image of farming. From political and communications perspectives, the Regional Council wanted to improve the image of the region, its products and the Council itself.

The website was launched in January 2004. One year later, we are conducting a study to understand why people participate in this game and what they learn from playing. From a marketing approach, we seek to understand whether this kind of relational tool has an impact on citizen’s attitudes and behavior concerning farming. From a public management perspective, we want to identify the pedagogical potential of simulation games for public organizations to develop citizens’ knowledge concerning public issues. Ultimately, we ask whether simulations can increase participants’ willingness to engage in online deliberation.

We employed a four-step methodology: first, in a “netnography” approach, we started breeding our own virtual cow and participated in the virtual community. To identify the major elements of learning and participation, we launched a topic on the community forum and organized chatroom group interviews. We are now developing an online questionnaire that will be posted on the website in April. Through statistical analysis we will build a typology of users and initial results in May.