From Real-World Data to Game World Experience: Social Analysis Methods for Developing Plausible & Engaging Learning Games

The document presents a methodological framework for transforming qualitative interview data into interactive learning games, using HEALTHSIMNET, a prototype designed to improve practice within an HIV health care network in British Columbia, as its central case. Its core thesis is that cultural-historical activity theory, grounded theory coding (conducted in ATLAS.ti), action-relevant episodes, and TEAMVIEW representations can together convert real-world accounts into causally structured narratives that feel plausible and engaging to players. The approach treats the interview corpus as a source of causal chains, where tensions within activity systems can be resolved in multiple ways to generate varied plot developments.

The interviews with network participants surfaced consequential issues that shaped the game's design, including legal barriers to public health action, widespread gaps in family physician knowledge about HIV, underserved patient populations, and spiritual and judgmental influences on care. The authors acknowledge that their analysis cannot be comprehensive, and they identify two principal limitations: the combinatorial explosion of possible player choices, which is managed largely by redirecting players back into viable paths, and the simulation's inability to capture the nuanced, identity-shaping role that personal narrative plays in health experiences.

The work culminates in a proposed second-generation simulation that models how individual cognitive decisions and community social responses jointly influence health outcomes in life-threatening illness. The scope is regional and domain-specific, centered on HIV care in one Canadian province, and the methods are offered as transferable to other documentary learning contexts. The authors do not report empirical outcomes for the tool. Instead, they state that the next research phase will evaluate it within an inter-professional postgraduate course on HIV patient care, so the claims about its educational effectiveness remain untested at the time of publication.