Cultural Playing: A Videogame Case Study of Never Alone and the Teaching of Culture

Abstract

The present article proposes to study the game design as an effective instrument of teaching and propagation of culture. It has also been taken in consideration the aspects that are established as necessary for a game to be an effective educational game and how they are present in our object of study. For such study, we analysed the video game “Never Alone”, produced by the North American company Upper Games and how it relates to and transmits the folkloric and cultural elements of the Inñupiaq people through its own unique game design, taking in consideration its content, playability and visual, or textual information. In addition, we have also discussed the importance of the propagation of unknown culture in new popular media while being respectful and accurate to its source and people. All data was collected via playing the game whilst observing its contents under the scope of the analysis.