D4.2: Findings on games as tools for remembrance - Dataset

D4.2 Findings on games as tools for remembrance presents the findings from two user-based evaluations designed to assess how serious games can foster empathy, historical awareness, and reflective engagement with the past. These evaluations followed an iterative process, beginning with a small-scale pilot using the third-party game Train to Sachsenhausen, and culminating in a large-scale assessment of the Beta version of Gulag Diaries, one of the narrative-driven serious games developed within MEMENTOES. Both trials were designed as control studies, comparing findings with other games, involving 129 participants. The datasets for these trials are included here. Across both phases, the work applied and refined the multi-dimensional evaluation framework developed earlier in the project, combining validated quantitative tools with custom historical awareness and empathy instruments, structured observation, and semi-structured interviews. Findings from the first study informed the design of the experiment of the second user study. This process ensured that the final study assessed Gulag Diaries not only for usability, immersion, and satisfaction, but also for its capacity to engage players emotionally, provoke reflection on contested histories, and support remembrance as a form of informal learning. The study demonstrates how iterative, evidence-based testing can inform the design and evaluation of serious games in the cultural heritage domain and supported the refinement of Gulag Diaries. The study also offers a transferable methodology for assessing the educational and cultural impact of serious games, linking player experience with historical awareness, reflective learning, and the complex role of empathy in remembrance-focused gameplay, and highlighting game attributes that contribute to each goal. -- Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the Research Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.