Engaging and persuasive possibilities of online history quizzes
Authors:   Saint Petersburg State University, Sergeyeva Olga V. ,   Sociological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences – Branch of the Federal Center of Theoretical and Applied Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Published: December 2024

In the context of excessive information and audience fragmentation, it makes sense for sociologists and political scientists to consider new ways of political communication that have the properties of viral and interactive content. This is why this article discusses the new media content used to ideas spreading in the society of “information niches”. Edutainment combines entertainment and education elements. Edutainment due to its ability to simultaneously entertain and educate has the resources of involvement and persuasion, which are characteristic of political communications. The author analyzes one of edutainment variants – online quizzes and tests that are used to create educational texts (for example, the Arzamas project). The author’s aim is an empirical analysis of online history quizzes gameplay, which makes this type of game the tool for civil and political involvement and persuasion. The research results are discussed in the light of gratifications theory, which makes it possible to determine how any video games, even the simplest casual ones, initiate positive emotions among gamers. Online history quizzes use the technique of transferring signs from one epoch to another, creating a memorable humorous effect. In addition, the game is a constantly rewarded
activity, and the size of game failures in online quizzes is minimal and can be emotionally controlled. Improved mood makes casual minigames a pocket generator of positive emotions that can unobtrusively broadcast various ideas, including political ones. In the article, online quiz game procedures are analyzed using the experience of game studies. The tradition of game studies emphasizes the persuasiveness of games through involvement in a playful procedure. Disassembling any computer game, we see a set of actions: firstly, gamer’s actions according to the rules; secondly, actions that develop something in the game; and, thirdly, gamer’s actions controlling the situation outside the game. Separately and in combination, these components constitute a model of human play activity. However, according to the game studies, a computer game is played on two levels: by the gamer and by the console/computer that runs the game software. The game session is composed of conflicting relationships between a human and a game as smart technology. At the same time, the gamer often – even within one game session – alternates playing “against” and playing “together” with a digital game. In online quizzes, the game software takes the position of the opponent, who provides conflict by offering tasks, but at the same time it works as the arbiter who identifies gamer’s success. Online history quizzes check knowledge of facts, artifacts, heroes, and event maps. Let it be minimal, but historical quizzes are associated with the in-game environment control, which stimulates memorization. The author concludes: being minigames, online quizzes today serve as an interesting complementary content, a kind of “icing on the cake”, increasing attention to any facts, personalities, or historical and cultural cases.