Atlantis Trader : Development of Transferable Negotiation Skills through Educational Games

Sammanfattning

Soft skills, such as negotiation, are becoming increasingly important in our daily lives and interpersonal relations. Historically, the art of negotiation was deeply rooted in the societal canvas. In ancient times, prices were not set; instead, merchants, traders, and their customers relied on persuasion and bargaining to obtain the best outcome acceptable to all parties. This structure has changed in the modern era due to the perceived fairness of keeping the same predefined price for all, and a fast-paced life where negotiation and bargaining are simply impractical. Nevertheless, negotiation and bargaining survived for centuries in places like the Middle East and along the legendary Silk Road and remain part of everyday life there. Atlantis Trader is an educational role-playing nano-game that aims to teach players the art of negotiation. Set in the mythical City of Atlantis, supposedly a vibrant trading place for merchants from all corners of the world, Atlantis Trader was designed to expose players to negotiation scenarios and pass the developed experience and new skills into their lives through bleed. While negotiation scenarios presented in Atlantis Trader focus on price negotiation for specific tangible and physical goods, these scenarios are an allegory that extends to other areas of our social interactions, including negotiating salaries, loan terms, warranty conditions or business agreements. Theoretical concepts embedded in the game, such as Deweyan concepts of learning by doing and bleed intend to create a long-lasting educational experience and skills development through fun and engaging gameplay. This thesis presents the rationale and iterative game development stages based on the Research through Design framework. It evaluates the player’s learning experience by deploying structured pre- and post-game surveys, semi-structured interviews, and observational research to gather students’ opinions on gameplay, their educational experience and the foundational game rhetoric.