Welcome!
Did you know that games can initiate social change? Games are powerful tools that can foster meaningful learning and adjust behavior. Our serious game, Equitopia Rising, is designed for early adolescents (ages 10-15) and addresses disability stigma and ableism. We aim to encourage long-lasting learning, promote inclusivity, and spark initiative to create a more inclusive and accessible world.
Disability Stigma
Despite lengthy government protections for people with disabilities, the social issue remains due to long-standing cultural attitudes, systemic barriers, and surface-level initiatives that continue to reinforce exclusion. Stigmas regarding people with disabilities persist today, with perceptions ranging from ableist pity to so-called inspiration rather than acknowledging that disabled people are ordinary people (Young, 2014). These stereotypes reduce the life experiences of those with disabilities to a single narrative, rather than recognizing their lives as full, complex, and equally notable as those without disabilities. Beyond these cultural misconceptions, long-standing medicalization and misinformation regarding disability are common. From the rise of eugenics in the early 20th century to involuntary sterilization, and more recent theories of vaccines and common medication causing conditions like autism, society and the media tend to describe disability in terms of risk and deficit rather than inclusion or value (NPR, 2025). Although there is a continuous negative frame of disability, it should not be valued as a tragedy resulting in someone being less than, but rather a difference that is simply a positive contribution to human diversity. To move forward in creating these spaces, an avenue for fostering inclusion and challenging societal stereotypes may be found in games and play, which have the power to help individuals engage in perspective-taking and promote inclusivity for those with disabilities.
How do Ableist Beliefs Form?
Through everyday interactions and narrative practices, children learn their culture and identities (Miller et al., 2007). Narratives are not simply a way of telling stories — they shape how children understand their realities (Bruner, 1991). Through this process of learning, children develop an understanding of the natural world. Through essentialism, children discover that an "essence" defines features of categories in the natural world and learn that enduring qualities create categories (Gelman, 2004). Children categorize the essence, or stripes of a tiger, as an innate feature. While this is true for tigers, applying essentialist categorizations to human behavior can lead children to experience rigid thinking about categorical features (Rhodes & Mandalaywala, 2017). Whereas some types of disability may reflect an unchanging characteristic, this does not mean that the individual is limited in their abilities, ambitions, or success — assumptions that stem from ableist stereotypes. While complex to explain, a straightforward solution presents itself: teaching children about the diversity of human abilities will nurture their thinking and promote inclusive behavior.
Serious Games
Serious games are designed to enact meaningful change rather than merely entertain. Games can address social issues and mobilize social change (Keating, 2016). Although there is a decline in social activism in communities, the prevalence of digital platforms, such as the internet and social media, allows for activism through new means. Keating (2016) explained that cyberactivism does not always have the effectiveness to change behavior, as these changes require new perspective-taking and reflection. Well-designed games can utilize critical mechanisms that can effectively address ableism. Through the creation of strong group identities and collaborative opportunities in virtual, immersive experiences, games can offer meaningful engagement and democratic community organization, which are necessary for social activism. Games designed to address the social issue of ableism can create a strong group identity and community that is empowered and motivated to engage in anti-ableist movements or change (Keating, 2016).
Story: You and the other players of Equitopia Rising are arriving on the planet of Equitopia to create an equitable and accessible society. You are each in charge of developing your own district. However, the elected mayor of Equitopia does not agree with your focus on creating a more equitable society and tries to stop the development of your districts. You and the other players must work to gather resources, support each other, and try to build your district as soon as possible, to create a kinder, more equitable society.
How to win: Each player is assigned their own district to build on. Players will interact with various cards that will either help them or set them back in the game. Players must finish building their entire district and make it accessible before the other players in order to win.
Needed to win…
Five buildings (one in each circle) to complete your district
Four perspective cards (One from each district) to turn in for an accessible flag. You can only do this once your buildings are completed.
There will be four different cards that can be used during gameplay.
Resource and roadblock cards will be in the same pile. When players draw from the pile, they won't know which card they are drawing. Community cards will be in their own pile, and each player will be in charge of handing out their own perspective cards.
There are three opportunities to trade cards during the game. Players can trade in three resource cards for one building, three perspective cards (one from each neighboring district) for one accessibility flag, or any combination of cards with another player's choice.
Game Cards
Resource cards are collected when a player lands on the specific icon, allowing them to draw from the pile containing resource and roadblock cards. Resource cards help players advance in the game, by trading in three resource cards you can collect a building to help further develop their city.
Road block cards are designed to mimic real world challenges that people with disabilities face, these cards will present barriers that players will have to overcome.
Community cards offer special advantages within the game. When a player gifts one of their own resource cards to another player, they can draw from the community card stack.
Perspective cards are collected when a player lands on a colored star, then they can collect a card from the person in charge of the corresponding district. At the end of the game, players will need one perspective card from each district to trade in for an accessibility flag and win the game.
Psychological Theories
Games draw on three powerful psychological theories: The Self-Determination Theory (SDT), the Social Cognitive Theory, and the Sociocultural Theory of Learning (Blumberg et al., 2013).
1) Self-Determination Theory Games create an environment that fulfills needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness, generating high levels of motivation.
Competence - Players are motivated to master tasks encountered in games and feel competent when they achieve them.
Autonomy - Players desire to create their own game experience and feel a sense of autonomy when games provide them with choice and control of gameplay.
Relatedness - Players want to feel connected with others, and games offer rich social experiences.
2) The Social Cognitive Theory:
People learn from observing others. Players engage in observational learning in gameplay, allowing game experiences to transfer to real-world behaviors. Players can identify with in-game characters whom they want to mirror and can also learn from other players.
3) Sociocultural Theory of Learning:
People learn through social and cultural interactions. This learning occurs while people engage in games, which are cultural tools that help mediate and develop cognition. Games offer players an inviting and natural space for learning, enabling them to build knowledge within their zone of proximal development — the gap between what a person can do without help and what they can achieve with guidance from a more knowledgeable person.
Game Design Elements
Games incorporate design elements that establish the pathways of influence, which allow for meaningful learning (Blumberg et al., 2013; Subrahmanyam & Renukarya, 2015.)
Design Elements in Gameplay:
Identity: Players personalize their gameplay experience.
Immersion: Players feel a sense of embodiment in gameplay.
Interactivity: Players provide feedback and control the course of events in gameplay
Agency: Players regulate aspects of gameplay, which contributes to player engagement and immersion
Challenge: Degree of complexity in the game. Challenges included in the game balance with the player's abilities
Narrative: Games compel players with a storyline and establish a connection between their creator and audience
Feedback: Players provided information about efficacy, reinforcing desire to continue play
Time: Time spent with gameplay and the displacement of time from other activities
Formal Features: Audiovisual and representational systems
Content: Themes and messages of
Context: Social context within which gameplay occurs
Equitopia Rising is empowered using these psychological theories and game design elements.
Modes of Representation
Games activate our knowledge structures through three key modes of representation: enactive, iconic, and symbolic signals (Greenfield, 1994). Games act as amplifiers, or cultural artifacts that embody a system that requires representational competence, or the ways one takes in, transforms, and transmits information. These cultural artifacts expand the range of motor, sensory, and cognitive processes associated with each mode of representation (Greenfield, 1994).
When semiotic modes of representation are combined in culturally relevant ways, games are further infused with the power to influence players and everyday cognition (Greenfield, 1994). As a result, when games mobilize semiotics in their design, they initiate a spread of activation across knowledge structures and effect meaningful cognitive and behavioral change. Subsequently, the modes of representation implemented in culturally relevant ways increase the effectiveness of games.
In Equitopia Rising, the game cards are used to activate knowledge in a variety of ways including through iconic representation. Each card has an icon on it that represents the type of card. For example, the road block cards have a lock symbol, and the community cards have a heart. Each icon is designed to activate a way of thinking; for example, the image of a lock on the road block cards is used to represent a barrier between the player and something the player wants.
Additionally, enactive representation can be seen through the game cards in the way that community cards are collected. In order to gain a community card, players must first give one of their own resource cards to another player. The actions of lifting your peers up in order to also help yourself will once again expand players’ thinking processes, fostering the realizations that community prosperity leads to individual success as well.
Metaphors
Metaphors in games guide and shape thought and behavior (Thibodeau et al., 2017). Metaphors can activate knowledge structures and shape cognition and behavior. Metaphoric language is easily processed and allows for the construction of conceptual representations of ideas. The ability of metaphors to alter cognition is demonstrated through the way in which framing words can change interpretations of the word. For example, when crime is described as a “virus” rather than a “beast,” people feel more inclined to approach crime through reform-oriented approaches rather than police enforcement (Thibodeau et al., 2017). Metaphors also influence behavior, which is a process that can be seen in increased persistence and learning in students when the brain is framed as a “muscle” that “grows” with practice and time rather than a fixed organ.
In our game, the idea of building a new society paints a clearer picture of how players can reshape their own society outside the game. Additionally, the inclusion of an ableist mayor allows information about systemic ableism to be presented in a way that is simpler and easily understood.
Procedural Rhetoric
Procedural rhetoric in games helps games maximize their potential to influence players. According to Bogost (2008), procedural rhetoric is a form of persuasion and expression achieved through rules and processes, combining procedurality and rhetoric. Procedurality creates representations through rules, which in turn create spaces for exploration, play, and rhetoric, which refers to communication aimed at persuasion. Procedural rhetoric employs processes to persuade and convey a message (Bogost, 2008). In gameplay, players interact with the messages and arguments conveyed in the game and internalize them. As a result, procedural rhetoric in games nurtures players' learning and meaning-making processes. When games are intentionally designed with procedural rhetoric, players can recognize the messages the game conveys and experience persuasion through gameplay.
Many rules in Equitopia Rising allow this to take place, one of the most notable being that players must collect a perspective card from each district to make their city accessible. Whether the players understand what accessibility means, the actions of visiting each district and gaining a new perspective from their peers can help them learn that multiple perspectives can be positive and are actually necessary for a society to thrive.
Meet the Authors!
Hello, my name is Morgan Boddy and I am a senior majoring in Psychology at Pacific University. I have loved creating Equitopia Rising as it strives to address real world issues regarding disability stigma and a lack of inclusivity. I have grown very passionate about this topic through my work with the disability community, and am excited to continue increasing awareness and accessibility as I go on to become an Occupational Therapist. My hope is that anyone who plays this game leaves with a new perspective and ideas on how they can improve their own community.
Hi! My name is Megan Pileri, and I'm a senior studying Psychology at Pacific University. My work with the disability community has shaped both my academic path and future goals as a Speech-Language Pathologist. Equitopia Rising was created to respond to a real problem: Ableist attitudes manifest early due to a lack of understanding and guidance about disability. Through a story-driven new world, Equitopia Rising introduces players to diverse characters and invites curiosity instead of fear. I hope you enjoy exploring our inclusive planet!
My name is Perri Funai, and I am a senior majoring in Psychology and Education. I am fascinated with adjusting rigid and biased beliefs and attitudes that develop in children. Through this project, I want to learn how to provide children with tools that nurture meaningful learning and narratives that broaden perspectives. I believe in the power of these tools to have an impactful application in Education and intervention, and I hope that this project can contribute to research in this.