Designing a Serious Game to Simulate Ecological Processes on a Post-Eruption Mount St. Helens Landscape

Developing strategies to successfully manage landscapes to meet ecological, economic, and social goals is an increasing concern in a world experiencing anthropogenic global changes. The 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington state provided a major learning opportunity in managing resource effectively after a major disturbance. This information is explored through Resilience: After The Eruption: a serious game developed as part of this thesis that synthesizes research about ecological recovery and resource management following the eruption of Mount St. Helens. The digital game allows players to take on the role of four different stakeholders performing landscape-based operations while posing a minimal threat to a simulated environment and each other’s values. Through gameplay, players learn about the natural and human phenomena that affect post-disturbance ecological recovery processes and experience the complexities of multiple-stakeholder cooperation. Through pre- and post-gameplay surveys, we assessed how players consider post-disturbance ecosystems and cooperation among stakeholders. Players showed an overall increase in knowledge that corresponded to the desired learning objectives. These results confirm that Resilience: After the Eruption and serious games in general can be useful learning tools in the fields of resource management and ecology.