DOI: 10.4018/IJGCMS.2017010104 Copyright © 2017, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited. International Journal of Gaming and Computer-Mediated Simulations Volume 9 • Issue 1 • January-March 2017 Educational Games to Support Caring and Compassion Among Youth: A Design Narrative Sinem Siyahhan, California State University, San Marcos, CA, USA Adam A. Ingram-Goble, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA Sasha Barab, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA Maria Solomou, Cyprus University of Technology, Lemesos, Cyprus ABSTRACT In this paper, the authors argue that video games offer unique and pervasive opportunities for children to develop social dispositions that are necessary to succeed in the 21st century. To this end, they discuss the design of TavCats—a virtual role-playing game that aimed to engage children (ages 9 to 13) in understanding, acting upon, and coming to value being caring and compassionate. The authors’ discussion takes the form of a design narrative through which they explain the connections between their theoretical commitments and design decisions. Specifically, they review four design elements they utilized in their design work: identity claims, boundary objects, profession trajectories, and cyclic gameplay. The authors briefly share their observations from a pilot study with children in an afterschool setting to illustrate how their design work might be realized in the world. They conclude their paper with a discussion of the implications of their work for designing educational video games for supporting social dispositions as well as academic learning, and future directions. KEYwoRDS Design Narrative, Educational Games, Game-Based Learning, Game Design, Serious Games, Social Dispositions, Social Learning, Teaching Caring and Compassion INTRoDUCTIoN Citizens of the 21 st century need to work, communicate, and collaborate effectively with diverse groups to find solutions to the social, environmental, economic, and political challenges that are facing the world. Today’s job market demands interaction with people and collective intelligence to solve complex problems (Jenkins, Clinton, Purushotma, Robinson, & Weigel, 2006; Thomas & Brown, 2011). Students need to understand and develop empathy towards others to successfully participate in this global community (Poppo, 2006). Despite the increasing importance of these social skills and dispositions in the workplace, schools continue to focus on content knowledge and increasing children’s scores on high-stakes tests, and struggle to actively support the development of social values, behaviors, and dispositions among children (Elias, 2006; Hoffman, 2009; Kohn, 1991). The field of educational video game research and development also favors academic learning over the development of social values, behaviors, and dispositions (Connolly et al., 2012). Since the release of Oregon Trail in 1971, the field has mainly focused on designing video games that intentionally support children’s content learning in the subject areas (i.e. math, science, language arts, history, and 61