Vol. 8, No.2, 2012, pp.

17-27

Asia-Pacific Collaborative education Journal

Designing an Online Serious Game to Prevent

School Violence in Korea
Yong-Chil Yang, Jong-Hyun Park, Dae Yeoul Lee
Soon-Hyung Kwon, Joo-Eun Shim

Introduction

Abstract
The purpose of this study is to suggest specific

As the types and characters of school violence

ways of designing educational programs for school

have become more and more aggressive and diverse,

violence prevention by applying a serious online

the number of students suffering from school

game in Korea. To do this, first, the authors

violence has been seriously increasing in Korea (Ro

analyzed literature, programs and cases related to

et al., 2006, Park et al., 2007). To prevent school

school

violence.

Second,

we

violence, government-related organizations have

derived design

principles for serious games from the analysis of

been

offered

various

measures

and policies.

current game contents. Finally, we wrote a design

However, they seem to be ineffective to reduce it.

process to develop the game. A serious game for

One possible solution to reduce school violence is to

school violence prevention was specifically designed

provide educational programs which are appropriate

based on these design principles and processes. It

to educational needs, socioeconomic conditions, and

was applied by registering school violence cases,

information technology change for students. School

processing the cases, drawing solution plans, and

violence could be gradually and progressively

finishing the game. The game is intended for a game

reduced by providing effective serious games for

user to be self-taught and self-cured by participating

school settings with a long-term perspective.

There have been many attempts to reduce

in the solution process ofschool violence cases.

school violence by applying serious games to

Keywords: school violence, online serious game,

educational programs. A serious game is a game

game design

designed to accomplish specific goals implicitly by

using fun and game characters at the same time (Han,
201 0). The game is known as a way that can be used
effectively in the area of education, psychotherapy,
advertisement and more. In particular, it could be
provided as realistic multimedia contents for
psychotherapy for the assailant, or the victim

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Asia-Pacific Collaborative education Journal

suffering from school violence, in order to prevent

measures and policies, but by educational efforts

students from getting involved in school violence.

with a long-term perspective in Asian developing

The purpose of this study is to suggest a

countries, as well as Korea.

specific way of designing an online serious game for

school violence prevention in Korea. We will draw

Analysis of Korean School Violence Prevention

Programs

the design principles for the serious game by

analyzing

existing

serious

games

and school

violence prevention programs, and suggest design

Analyses of current status and prevention

guidelines for serious games. This study is expecting

programs

of school

violence

in

Korea

are

to suggest an alternative solution to solve the

summarized in the Table 1. First, school violence

problems of school violence, not by current

prevention and treatment programs seem not to be

Table 1. Analyses of Korean school violence prevention and treatment programs

Program names

Programs

Group counseling program for bullied

students
(Seoul
Metropolitan
Counseling & Resource Center for
Youth, 1998)

Focused on the assertiveness of damaged youth, selfcenteredness, lack of self-recognition, inappropriate relationship
skills, inappropriate self-openness, and the lack of selfconfidence.

Rainbow program (Foundation for

Preventing ofYouth violence, 2002)

Treatment and rehabilitation for victims of school violence:

awakening strength of mind, sharing interest and love, practicing
counseling with friends, discerning school conflict, sharing
seniors' experience, and providing care and hope.

Problem solving group counseling

program for bullied students (Lee,
2000)

Using a problem solving and social skills approach in targeting

bullied youth, improving the ability to overcome the bullying
problem that they are facing, and promoting communication
skills that can help form relationships with peers.

With love, with friendship I (Huh &

Choi, 2008a)

Consisting of anger a management section, a social skills training

section, mastering conversation and sympathy skill section.

With love, with friendship II (Huh &

Choi, 2008b)

Consisting of assertiveness training section, a social skills

training section, and mastering sympathy skill section.

Interactional movie treatment program

for school violence assailant (Kim,
2011)

Consisting of school violence assailants' self-efficacy

enhancement and a decrease in antisocial personality traits,
improvement in emotional stability and anger management and
social skills improvement and aggression reduction.

PEACE program (Koshland, Wilson,

& Wittaker, 201 0)

Using movement and dance focused on sharing students in group

activities to improve ability to modify specially selected
assimilation and destructive behavior, communication skills,
ability to control students' impulsiveness and space sense.

School violence student victim healing

program (Ministry of education, 2008)

Consisting of a 'Healing program' focused on healing victims'

after the effects from school violence and 'Training program'
focused on fostering social skills and ability to cope with stress.

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Designing an Online Serious Game to Prevent School Violence in Korea

accessible to all students. Second, these programs

game needs to provide a space for users to write

are not likely to be natural and enjoyable or fun to

their journals. Second, the game design should

students. Third, they are not matched with the

include both learning and fun in the content. Third, it

students' cognitive ability to understand and judge

could have reward systems to keep users playing the

solution to school violence problem. Fourth, the

game. Fourth, it should tell a story as in a real case

programs do not seem to be developed for students

related to school violence. Fifth, it should help users

to participate more actively. Fifth and last, they are

play the game persistently through various and

not likely to give continuous provision to students.

appropriate levels of their ability. Sixth and last, it

Based upon the results of analyzing current school

could

be

more

effective

by

getting

useful

violence prevention and treatment programs, they

information which is needed to complete the game,

should be enjoyable, fun and easy for every student

and to stimulate a competitive mind by helping the

to access. Also, they should be organized to match

user perform the game with other users rather than

with students' cognitive ability and to be provided to

alone.

students repeatedly.

Research methods

Analysis of Serious Games

To derive strategies for a serious game to be

To do this research, the following steps and

used for the prevention and treatment of school

procedures are applied. The first step is to analyze

violence, we examined existing serious games in the

the cases of serious games to derive appropriate

public school setting. The number of the examined

design principles for the research. The second step is

serious games were six: Food Force (UN WFP,

to derive a design process for the serious game to be

2005), Earthquake in Zipland (Zipland Interactive,

applied. The third step is to study literature and cases

2004a), Personal Investigator (Zipland Interactive,

related to school violence in order to acquire

2004b ), Hanza Maru (Naucom, 2008), Clammy

contents connected to psychotherapy and education.

Clammy,

and

The fourth step is to collect the cases of school

Mabubchunjamun (Nintendo, 2006). There are three

violence and apply available ones to the design. The

foreign games (Food Force, Personal Investigator

final step is to design the online serious game

Brain Class

(Nintendo,

2007),

and Earthquake in

program to reduce school violence. The flow of

research steps is outlined below in Figure 1.

Zipland), and three domestic games (Hanza

Maru,

Clammy

Clammy,

Mabumchunjamun),

Brain

respectively.

Class
Their

and
main

Design ways of online serious games

purposes are one for the general public (Food Force),

two

for treatment (Personal Investigator and

Earthquake in Zipland), and three for education

The online serious game to be designed through

(Hanza Maru, Clammy Clammy Brain Class and

this

Mabumchunjamun).

psychotherapy tool for assailants and victims who

study

aims

to

become

an

effective

Suggestions drawn from the analysis of those

were suffering from school violence, to get

six serious games are as follows: First, a serious

knowledge and information about school violence,

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Asia-Pacific Collaborative education Journal

1. Analyzing serious games

Analyze the model cases of serious games and derive design principles from it.

L
2. Developing a design procedure of the online serious game.
Develop the procedure and step for the design of the serious game in online.

L
3. Analyzing literature and cases of school violence psychotherapy programs
Analyze the content of school violence psychotherapy programs through their literature and case
investigation.

L
4. Analyzing cases of school violence
Collect and analyze the cases of school violence, then select cases available in the design of the
serious game.

L
5. Designing the online serious game
Design the serious game of school violence psychotherapy according to the design principles and
procedures online.
Figure 1. Research procedures and steps

and to find solutions to reduce school violence. This

based on real school violence. In order to solve this

game is differentiated from other games in several

case, the user gets information such as similar cases

ways. First, it provides a true-false test for the user

of school violence,

to acquire basic knowledge about school violence.

broadcasts,

Second, it provides a private sector called the

interviews with people involved in the case. The

relevant newspapers

counselor's

advice,

literature,

and
and

'Detective Center' for the user. Third, it is designed

user carries out the mission to acquire the resources

to be vivid and easy to access by providing real

for problem solving. After acquiring resources from

cases related to school violence online. Fourth, the

various spaces on the game world, the user derives

use of various spaces for acquiring information and

solutions to the school violence by using the above

resources for solving violence problems is expected

resources. Table 2 shows specific contents of the

to reduce the user's reluctance to seek help through

game.

public help centers such as the police station or

counseling center. The specific ways of designing

Explanation of the Main Menu

the online serious game are explained in the

following sections.

The main menus of this game are The Detective

The Flow of the Game

Office, Detective Training Center, Street, PC Room,

Police Office, Broadcasting Station, Wee-Center,

The user plays the role of the detective, and

Library, Newspaper, and Cafe.

receives a case in the game, which is dramatized

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Designing an Online Serious Game to Prevent School Violence in Korea

Table 2. Flow of the game

Specific Content

Step
Starting Game
(See Figure 2)

This step shows the entire cover story with game start.
It provides introduction animation to acquire the user's attention.

Reporting Case

This step presents the cases in the form of animation for user to understand easily.
It provides realistic context of school violence and help users recognize the school
violence.
User reports each case of school violence in each chapter at the detective office.

Collecting Clues
(See Figure 3)

After reporting the case, User walks around the village to collect clues.
User has to collect seven clues by playing the game in the seven places (Police
center, Wee-center, Broadcasting station, Newspaper, PC room, Library, or Street),
and save collected data in the detective's notes.
User can acquire knowledge of school violence and have fun with the same time by
playing game.

Deriving Solutions
(See Figure 4)

After finishing clue collecting, user moves to the detective office to combine the
piece of solution clues and write the report.
After completing combining clues, user writes solutions by questions which help to
reach solutions. The written solutions are registered on the bulletin board and
shared with other users and experts.
Peer users express their opinion about solutions which were registered by the users
on the bulletin board, and interact with others by clicking "Good" button or writing
their opinion.
This step suggests solutions at the expert level: The form of text or video.
User can have opportunity to derive solution to school violence by himself and
correct his solution through peer users' opinion and provided solutions.

Ending Game

This step makes and provides solutions of the experts in the form of animation.
The assistant summarizes the case of each chapter.
User can rethink about what he learned from the game and compare his solution
with experts' solutions.
It gives brief introduction about the case of next chapter.

Figure 3. Detective notebook with collected clues

Figure 2. Game start

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Asia-Pacific Collaborative education Journal

Figure 4. Deriving solution

Figure 5. The mini map of main menu

Table 3. Main menu and their functions of the game

Main menu

Functions

Detective Office

Click the furniture placed inside the office to move to more detailed screen.
Detailed menu: Detective license frame, trophy, desk, TV, book-shelf, and
bulletin.

Detective Training Center:

OX speed game

Acquire knowledge about school violence through OX speed game.

Street

Place for listening to general public opinion about school violence.

Provide a form of animation, video and text.

PC Room

Provide internet materials related to school violence.

Provide a personal blog or writing registered on twitter, pictures or internet
news, and web cartoons related to school violence.
The user can search information with key words related to school violence.

Police Office

Provide the information about case records related to school violence.

The user can get clues through obtained resources about the case for problem
solving based on examples and is also able to set up the direction for
drawing their own solution.

Broadcasting Station

Provide media or broadcasting articles related to school violence.

Provide videos, expert interview images.

Wee-Center

Place for providing the school violence expert's opinion.

Provide the expert's analysis and solution or the expert's message related to
school violence.

Library

Provide relevant references on school violence.

Provide definition of school violence, the law related to school violence,
penalties and regulations about school violence and information.

Newspaper

Provide newspaper articles related to school violence cases which the user is
working out.

Cafe

A place for sharing opinions and communicating in the game world during
users' log-inning simultaneously.

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Designing an Online Serious Game to Prevent School Violence in Korea

The functions of these menus are presented in

Main Characters and Their Roles

Table 3. The mini map of main menu is shown in

The detective is a character who is played by

Figure 5.

the user in the game. Apart from the detective, there

Table 4. Main characters and explanations

Characters

Explanation

Detective
(User)

The user directly controls the detective and moves to each place of the
village. The user obtains resources to solve the case by playing various
games in each place, and suggests the final solution to the case based upon
clues and information.

Assistant
(Tutor)

The assistant is a character who is in charge of the tutor. The assistant plays
the role of guide and adviser to help the user play the game smoothly. To
explain how to play the game, the assistant gives a guide to the player in the
form of a tutorial.
The assistant plays the role of not only guiding the game but also motivating
the player and promoting interaction.

Client

The client plays the role of receiving the solution after requesting the case,
delivering an animation message (narrator), and developing the solution.

Police officer

The police officer is a character who the user can meet at the police office,
and provides 'the game of justice' and the material of the school violence
case which is similar to a real case.

Newspaper reporter

The newspaper reporter is . a character who the user can meet at the
newspaper company. She/he provides 'find the hidden picture' game, and a
newspaper related to the case of school violence.

Counselor

The counselor is a character who the user can meet at the Wee-center.
She/he provides 'Music tok tok' game and opinion related to the case of
school violence as a school violence counselor.

Librarian

The librarian provides 'jumbled vocabularies!' game, books or literature

related to the case of school violence.

PC room owner

The PC room owner provides 'struggle' game at the PC room, which allows
the user to find out information related to the cases of school violence case
on the internet.

Broadcasting Producer

The broadcasting producer provides 'brain plus' game and imagery data
related to the case of school violence.

Pedestrian

The pedestrian expresses his/her opinion about the school violence through
the interview. She/he says his/her opinion or tells the story of his/her
experience in the case of school violence. Depending on the case, this
character changes to a suitable different character such as parties to the case,
friend, adult, parent, grandmother etc.

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Asia-Pacific Collaborative education Journal

Table 5. User compensation for game performance

User compensations

Explanations
It means experience which is commonly used in the general game.

Detective point

Reputation

Level goes up when the character's detective points are above the standard point.
It can be obtained while the user fulfills missions.
It is used with the reputation for deciding the ranking.
It can be obtained by the number of 'Good' button, which other people press

about the written report.

It is a compensation provided when the episode is completed.
The user can check his/her case report again through the trophy.

Trophy

Conclusions

are many characters in the game; the assistant who

helps the user play the game, the police officer who
provides information from each place, a newspaper

This senous game is designed for users to

reporter, a counselor, a librarian, a PC room 1 , a

acquire knowledge and various solutions to school

broadcasting studio producer, and a pedestrian. Table

violence, and to derive their own solutions by

4 shows an explanation about each character.

participating in the game. Conclusions from the

design study of the serious game to reduce school
violence are as follows.

User Compensation

First, it could be a game that may practically

help the assailant and the victim suffering from

The serious game of this study provides

school violence. Whereas there are limits to existing

'Detective point', 'Reputation', and 'Trophy' as user

educational programs to reduce school violence

compensations for performing the game. Detailed

provided by the system or instructors (Ko et al.,

explanations are in Table 5.

2005; Mun, 2006), this serious game makes the user

participate actively and find her/his own solutions by
obtaining

User Activity

information

about

school

violence,

understanding their seriousness, and analyzing the

cases of school violence.

In order to obtain resources for problem solving,

Second, it can create easy access to the

the user plays Flash games and writes the case report.

education and psychotherapy program of school

The user shares her/his opinion with other users

violence, and lead them to participate actively. Most

while playing a serious game. Detailed explanations

of existing school violence prevention programs is

are in Table 6.

not easy to access. However, this online serious

game seems to be easy to access and to use
anywhere and anytime as a form of web games. Also,
it can lead users to participate actively with interest

1. PC room is a unique place in Korea similar to internet

in the popular Flash game.

cafe.

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Designing an Online Serious Game to Prevent School Violence in Korea

Table 6. User activity and explanation

User activity

Explanation

Games for obtaining

solution resources

Users play a Flash game to obtain resources for solutions. For the types of games,
there are 'Music tok tok', 'Brain plus', 'Hammer of the righteous', 'Jumbled
vocabularies!', 'Struggle', and 'Find the hidden picture'.

Providing solutions and

writing the case report

One report is completed when the user combines the piece of collected clues from
various places and makes the puzzle. On the case report, the user can write how
she/he feels and thinks in the process of the case.

Sharing opinion and

interaction among users

The user can share her/his opinion about the game at the village "Cafe" with other
users. Also, communication is possible through two kinds of "bulletin board" at
the detective office. On the first bulletin board, the user can check her/his ranking
and see other users' play points. On the second bulletin board, the user can obtain
information about what she/he could not solve through tips that other users wrote.

treatment.

Third, a serious game seems to be easy to

Seoul,

Foundation

Korea:

for

Preventing Youth violence.

develop and implement. The serious game can not

only reduce the development cost, but also give fun

Han, H. (2010). A study on conceptual definition and

to users. Also, it can be used over a long period

types of serious games. Korea Humanities

because its development is focused upon cases of

Content Society, 19, 219-236.

Huh, S., & Choi, T. (2008a). Application and effect

actual school violence.

We suggest further research based on the online

of group counseling program for preventing

serious game designed in this study. One is that the

elementary school violence (1 ): for Bullies. The

serious game can be developed into actual contents,

Journal of Elementary Education, 21(3), 175197.

and tested for its effectiveness. Another is that a

comparative study of the effects of reducing school

Huh, S., & Choi, T. (2008b). Application and effect

violence between the serious game and existing

of group counseling program for prevention of

education or psychotherapy program can be done.

elementary school violence (2): for Victimizers.

The Journal of Elementary Education, 30( 1),

149-163.

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The Authors

http://www.nintendo.co.kr/DS/soft/magic_ hanja
2DS/main.php

Yong-Chil Yang is a educational technology

professor at Andong National University in Korea.
He received a Ph.D in instructional systems from
Florida State University.
Email: ycyang@andong.ac.kr

Nintendo. (2007). Clammy Clammy Brain Class.

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26

Designing an Online Serious Game to Prevent School Violence in Korea

Jong-Hyun Park is a doctoral student at Andong

National University in Korea. He received a master
degree in educational technology from Andong
National University.
Email: zilpung27@naver.com
Dae Yeoul Lee is a master student at Andong
National University in Korea. He received BA in
educational technology from Andong National
University.
Email: daeyeoul2@naver.com
Soon-Hyung Kwon is a master student at Andong
National University in Korea. He received BA in
educational technology from Andong National
University.
Email: ksh8560118@hanmail.net
Joo-Eun Shim is a undergraduate student in the
Dept. of Educational Technology at Andong
National University in Korea.
Email: jooeun21@naver.com

Received Date: August. 30, 2012

Revision received Date: October. 9, 2012
Accepted Date: October. 30, 2012

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