​​The EU Youth Strategy game workshop​

The EU Youth Strategy game is a concept created by Lahti city Youth Services DramaLab, [...]

The session was an approximately 3-hour workshop which included an introduction to the topic through looking at posters of Youth Strategy, two hours of playing the game and a brief discussion after the game.  

The concept seemed like a good exercise on it’s own to learn about the Youth strategy values and suitable for the case. The progression was simple and the characters were well thought out. However, the method didn’t really have the mechanics of a game. We decided to add some gamification elements of our own to add more flow of a story to the method, and the simplest role playing game style dice mechanic to make the player’s choises and the character’s skills actually influence the outcome.  

In our method testing at the end of each exercise the players would roll dice to see what was the outcome of the choice they made, and how did it progress their character’s journey towards their goals. They would also check if their character had any positive or negative modifiers to the dice roll based on their skills or personal life obstacles. The facilitator would then narrate based on the discussion, ideas, choices and dice roll, how the situation resolves, like in a table top role playing game. If the dice roll were to fail, the facilitators would, through storytelling, present some options this character might have next and what actions they could take, if this were real life. The intention was not to drive the characters into a corner where the situation is hopeless due to bad dice rolls. 

In the end of the game, based on the outcomes during the game, the fasilitator would wrap up the story and tell how close to their goal the character got, and the participants could give their character some suggestions on what steps to take next in life. With this approach the method had more of a feel of a role playing game and it created a story for for the players to participate in. 

This experimental learning method encouraged the participants to reflect upon the Youth Strategy goals through concrete real-life scenarios of the characters in the game. The young people were generally active in participating and it seemed like they cared about their character and the situations in the game. 

They gave feedback that the workshop was fun, educational and meaningful to them. They felt it was easy to participate and they would participate in a similar activity again. 

• The participants demonstrated engagement, enthusiasm, and collaboration during the workshop and the tasks within the game seemed appropriately challenging. According to both facilitator and participator feedback, the game had a user-friendly interface and clear rules and instructions. 

• The tasks sparked discussion about different societal themes such as mental health issues and social support systems – the participants seemed to be interested in these topics and the game equipment gave them some concrete tools to reflect these issues. 

• The dice system added to the game was a good way to add an element of gamification and engaged the participants even more. The dice system also added a great story-building value to the game and encouraged the players to be more creative with problem-solving.  

• If used as it is, with the published ready-made materials and without active facilitation, the concept remains slightly incomplete. The method doesn’t have much gamified function, the tasks are disconnected from each other and lack a common thread, and the choices made by the players have no outcome. Discussion and reflection on the themes may remain superficial without active facilitation and debriefing. 

• There were considerable differences between the activeness and attention levels of the group’s participants. This could potentially be solved by using this method with groups of maximum 4 people. 

• The problem-solving tasks given to players could be more clearly tied to the European Youth Goal at hand – an instructor was needed to guide the participants to reflect their choices actively in reference to the Goal. 

​​​Make sure to save enough time for the debriefing discussion after the games and before the game for the participants to familiarize themselves with the topic. The facilitator should guide the participants to reflect their observations and ideas in regard to the Youth Strategy Goals. Otherwise, the game’s tasks and contents may feel disconnected from the content of the subject matter – the Youth Strategy Goals. The facilitator should be prepared to take active role in both the game and in the debriefing discussion.  Due to the benefits mentioned in the previous paragraphs, narrating the game and supporting participants’ discussion and reflection make the method more effective.  

​More time can also be taken for the character creation. By coming up with more details about their identity, background and life situation, these factors can be included in the story and the exercises, giving them more dimensions. It may also make the characters more realistic and identifiable to the participants.​​