Serious Games: MacDonald’s Game

“…discuss whether it is possible for a game to be successful on two levels: both in terms of its goals as a game (creating meaningful play and engagement/flow), and as a serious game (achieving specific learning objectives, conveying a political message, or other non-entertainment objectives).”

The game is successful as a game as it has entertaining graphics to capture user attention, user friendly interfaces to aid navigation, detailed game tutorials and ingame help functionality. All these help the player get interested in the game and maintain their internal locus of control when it comes to interacting with the game. The actions that players take in the game also have very direct consequences that are clearly, and interestingly, explained to them.

It has succeeded as a serious game as the player is taking on the role of the management staff in MacDonald’s and is expected to make several management decisions in the course of the game. The game is stunted in a manner that, if the player does not make any unorthodox decisions to help the company, the company does not thrive. Thus subconsciously reinforcing that MacDonald’s is operating in an unorthodox manner. Along the course of the game, additional info about the unorthodox practices is provided.

Educational game, but fun! Serious info but people will just read it for the cuteness of it all. A great success.