Adventures in Evaluation: Reviewing a CD-ROM Based Adventure Game Designed for Young People Recovering from Psychosis

摘要

Recently the Centre for Program Evaluation (CPE) at the University of Melbourne was approached by a mental health agency to undertake the unique and challenging task of evaluating a prototype CD-ROM based adventure game designed for young people recovering from psychosis. This unsual and inventive game, titled Pogo's Pledge, used "edutainment" in the form a medieval fantasy quest to provide educational messages about psychosis for young people who are experiencing psychosis for the first time. To explore the potential educational effectiveness of the product, an innovative expert review was conducted using a range of multimedia professionals including gaming designers, multimedia, graphic/interface designers and multimedia educational designers together with first-episode psychosis experts and young people who had experienced psychosis. For the client who commissioned this evaluation interviews focusing on areas such as game induction, interface design, navigation, game play and quality of psycho-educational material revealed that a substantial redevelopment of the game would be needed for the CD-ROM to be an effective tool in helping young people recover from psychosis. For a broader audience the evaluation provides a fascinating case example of the utility of expert reviews when evaluating complex multimedia products, and offers a cautionary tale to designers of the hazards and pitfalls that can await well intended products than combine gaming and edu- cational information for young people.