Cookie Mania: A Serious Game for Teaching Internet Cookies to High School and College Students

• Published in: Serious Games pp. 69 - 77
• Main Authors: Diez, John Dominic S., Melcer, Edward F.
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 2020
• Series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science
• Subjects: Ethics; Game-based learning; Interactive narrative; Internet cookies; Media literacy; Serious game
• ISBN: 3030618137; 9783030618131
• ISSN: 0302-9743; 1611-3349
• DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-61814-8_5

Internet cookies are data storage tools that collect information from a platform’s users to inform various aspects of the platform such as marketing and recommendations systems. Notably, there is a lack of understanding around what internet cookies are and how they work, which spans from adolescents to adults. This can lead to major misunderstandings of how consenting information works in online mediums, and results in negative outcomes and effects for users by default. To help increase understanding of internet cookies and address these issues, we have developed a serious game called Cookie Mania. Our game aims to develop knowledge of internet cookies and related ethical issues through an interactive narrative, as well as foster additional engagement through cookie-focused minigames. In this demonstration paper, we discuss the design and development of Cookie Mania—highlighting how the various design choices target learning objectives for internet cookies and their underlying ethical issues.