Pandora Project is an epistemic game developed by David Williamson Shaffer and a team of researchers at Harvard University, including Kris Scopinich, Chris Braiotta, and Victoria Martins.
In the game, players become high-powered negotiators, deciding the fate of a real medical controversy: the ethics of transplanting organs from animals into humans. Along the way, they learn about biology, international relations, and mediation.
About the game
X-Gen is a leading global pharmaceutical company with world headquarters in the Republic of Swindonia. Researchers at the company have been working for over a decade to make it possible to transplant organs from one species to another, a technique known as xenotransplantation. Yesterday, X-Gen’s scientists announced that they are ready to begin clinical trials on humans at their research center in the capital city of Hoggopolis.
Their announcement created a firestorm within the scientific and medical community. Proponents argue that xenotransplantation might end the shortage of organs for patients suffering from late-stage organ failure who need transplants to survive. Opponents say there are too many potential problems associated with taking organs from one species, X-Gen plans to use pigs, and transplanting them into humans. Not least is the potential risk that a virus that flourishes in pigs could infect the human recipient and be transmitted from that patient to the general public, causing an epidemic. It is clear to the scientific community that this is a possible risk. But no one knows how likely such a scenario is.
Thus begins The Pandora Project. The scientists of Swindonia aren’t sure how likely the dire scenario of global pandemic from xenotransplantation might be, and neither are scientists in the real world. X-Gen and Swindonia don’t exist, but the organ donor shortage and the risk of diseases that migrate from one species to another are all too real.
The game begins with a multimedia introduction to the issues of xenotransplantation: a cut-scene that gives an overview of the game to come. Players take on stakeholder roles in groups of three and spend several class periods conducting a conflict assessment, using internet links in the game to research their positions on xenotransplantation and the positions of the other stakeholders. They gather information on genetics, epidemiology, and cell biology they need to argue for their position. Based on their research, each stakeholder group prioritizes the issues in the dispute and the various options for each one. Using these priorities, players divide into groups, with each player representing a stakeholder in one of three separate negotiations. The negotiations take place over several hours, and the game ends with the same kind of debriefing that takes place in a negotiation practicum.
Go here to read about The Pandora Project’s game history.
To read about the effects of playing The Pandora Project, see the chapter on the game in How Computer Games Help Children Learn
