Game welcomes Indians to the UK

Indian develops game to reduce culture-shock

2 May 2007 17:04 GMT / By Ryan Haynes

An Indian who came to study in the UK in 2000 has devised a mobile phone game called "C-Shock" to help overseas students overcome cultural differences.

Often foreigners struggle to deal with the cultural differences when moving to the UK, with many shocked by seeing students kiss and drink in public. The game's opening sequence is a student's first day at university. The student has a map of the campus and given tasks to find specific locations.

"C-Shock" follows an international student arriving in Britain. The aim of the game is to reduce the character's "culture shock" rating from 100 to zero by following a series of events to shelf the shock rating of the player.

The game's creator, Nipan Maniar said he hoped the game would act as an "e-mother" for new arrivals. "I came here as a student back in 2000. It was my first trip out of my country, the first time I had left my family", Maniar said. "There was no-one I knew, I was in an alien world where people react differently and the whole culture is different."

"The three main characteristics as far as I can see are drink, roaming around the world, and sex. But for me as an Indian those are the last things I would think of. For me the focus is education, degree, job..."

If you are interested in playing "C-Shock" it should be available later this year from the University of Portsmouth.

Full tags

Gaming, Mobile phone games, Simulation games