Video games and gamification against online hate speech?

Abstract

The project "Play Your Role: Gamification against Hate Speech", funded by the "Rights, Equality and Citizenship" programme, proposes the creation of spaces for dialogue, debate and awareness-raising on hate speech through games. Video games and entertainment play a fundamental role in the daily lives of young people. The influence of games and the idea of gamification proves to be unavoidable in the construction of values, standards, and behaviours, being, therefore, an indispensable and valuable tool in the fight against hate speech. This article contextualises and presents a set of tools developed by the project. Namely: a pervasive game, around the social awareness of the problem of hate speech online transforming the urban space of the cities of Rimini, Italy; Munich, Germany; Warsaw, Poland, and Siauliai, Lithuania, in playful interfaces; and four serious online games developed following an international Hackathon – “Divide Et Impera”, “Youtuber Simulator”, “Social Threads” and “Deplataforming”.