International students get culture shock game

Academics at the University of Portsmouth have developed a mobile game to help international students cope with the 'culture shock' of life in the UK. 

C-Shock is the brainchild of Portsmouth academic and games technology expert Nipan Maniar, who himself arrived in the UK from India five years ago as an international student.

"I found some aspects of British culture very novel, and certainly things such as interacting socially with others, say in a pub, were very different to what I was used to in India," he said.

"I thought it would be great to have a learning vehicle or device to help people overcome the culture shock because it is hard to know how to react or behave appropriately if you have not experienced such things before."

Maniar and his research assistant, Dr Emily Bennett, developed a prototype of the mobile phone game after consulting with the University's International Office and the British Council.

The game follows an international student arriving in the UK for the first time. The aim is to reduce the character's 'culture shock' rating from 100 to zero by performing tasks that introduce culture shock-inducing incidents and images.

These include moments of cultural awakening such as going to the pub and watching people being affectionate to each other in public.

The game opens on a student's first day at university in the UK. The student is shown a map of the campus and is given tasks to find specific locations. Clicking on images along the way warns the student about what to expect in terms of culture.

As well as softening the culture difference blow, the game also includes important information such as campus layout and police and emergency telephone numbers.

"C-Shock could be used to guide students through events such as registration as well as help them with basic information like getting to the closest bank or ATM," Maniar said.

"You could incorporate a whole city guide into the game so, in effect, the new student has this interactive learning tool to settle into a new city very quickly.

"Using mobile phone games to communicate with people and educate in this way is a new concept and the potential is limited only by one's imagination. I expect many other universities to follow suit."

The ability to generate revenue from in-game advertising is also a significant factor in why this type of application would be attractive to organisations in the private sector as well, according to Maniar.

The game is in the final stages of development and is expected to be available for download from the University of Portsmouth website later this year.