Video games are a ubiquitous form of entertainment; one that reaches across generations and cultures. With the steady increase in online education and investment in E-Sports, mounting research suggests that gaming in immersive virtual environments can directly affect and impact regions of the brain responsible for memory, spatial orientation, information organizations, and fine motor skills.
The possibility to increase the efficacy in teaching complex and variable subject matter, like International Humanitarian Law (IHL), motivated the ICRC to look deeper into the effects of gamification on behaviour change and influence from a soldier’s perspective.
In 2012, three Relations with Arms Carriers (FAS) delegates published a paper in the International Review of the Red Cross on the topic of battlefield dilemmas faced by both real-life soldiers and those represented virtually in video games regarding IHL implementation.
It posited that military games not only have an impact on a user’s perception of what is allowed during war, but might also influence the way soldiers behave during armed conflict. While no conclusions were drawn, it began a larger discussion with the media and partners about how virtual environments and gamification could be used to better convey messages and potentially increase respect for IHL.
Within two years, the ICRC officially established its Virtual Reality Unit (VRU) to delve further into computer-generated environments as a way to educate, communicate and advocate respect for IHL.
By 2017, the VRU had amassed a library of virtual environments for FAS’ IHL training sessions but there was a desire within the VRU, as well as in FAS and ICRC’s Learning & Development, to develop more advanced VR opportunities for a wider audience. Virtual environments were thus tested in several métiers, including detention, forensics, water and sanitation and physical rehabilitation.
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