Question: I'm preparing a presentation on school shooter drills and came across this recent New Yorker article about a new video game that simulates a school shooter situation - (New Yorker, Jan. 19, 2025 "How a school shooting became a video game"). The developers collaborated with the parents of one of the victims of the Margaret Stoneman Douglas High School shooting. I'm concerned about the impact of the video game and was interested in your (the AAP Center's) thoughts on it.
Answer: Thank you for this question. There is currently no research on The Final Exam video game specifically, but we did identify studies on other “serious games” related to crises and emergency response which we will outline below including consideration for the psychological and emotional impact of playing such a game.
About The Final Exam
The game “The Final Exam” is a simulation video game set in an American high school, where players act as students experiencing a school shooting. Players navigate through different rooms while building barricades, hiding in lockers, and crawling quietly to escape. The game also includes information about legislative bills related to gun violence. From the game’s web page: The game is free of gore, violence, guns, and blood because it aims to be more than just a game; it’s a call to action. By promoting discussions about gun control and community safety, the Final Exam forces adults to confront a harsh and, unfortunately, too common reality. It empowers players to think critically about the issues affecting their community, encouraging them to become advocates for change.
Research on Serious Simulation Games
Simulation games, which are games that immerse the player in simulated real-life scenarios, have long been used to teach important safety topics. “Serious games” are video games aimed at problem-solving and teaching skills rather than entertainment. For example, over 10 years ago, a simulated driving game was used to demonstrate how texting while driving reduced performance compared to driving without distractions. While there is evidence that some serious simulation games are effective in teaching knowledge and skills related to safety and crisis response such as those used to teach users how to respond to intimate partner and gender-based violence, police encounters, and school fire preparedness, it is unknown whether a videogame about responding to a school shooting scenario would be effective in teaching preparedness or safety skills.
Potential Psychological and Emotional Impacts
While the psychological and emotional impact of playing a game that simulates a school shooting scenario (in this case, without any blood, violence, or guns) is unknown, there is some evidence that live in-person active shooter drills may have negative impacts on communities and students. A linguistic analysis of Twitter and Reddit posts about active shooter drills found that these drills may negatively affect the well-being of school communities over prolonged periods of time.
In 2020, the American Academy of Pediatrics released a policy statement called Participation of Children and Adolescents in Live Crisis Drills and Exercises advising against high-intensity active shooter drills in schools. These active shooter drills sometimes involve real weapons, gunfire or blanks, aggressive actors posing as school shooters, and realistic fake blood or gunshot wounds. Sometimes, students and staff are not warned of the drill ahead of time and are led to believe there is an actual shooter event. The AAP policy statement warns that this can be psychologically distressing and harmful for students and staff, and that schools should instead utilize calm drills which are focused on teaching skills rather than simulating distressing crises.
Notably, The Final Exam does not depict violence or guns and focuses only on the player’s own actions such as hiding and crawling, potentially in alignment with AAP policy recommendations.. However, since there is no research on The Final Exam, it is unknown whether this game specifically is psychologically distressing to players. Previous research on discomfort in video games has shown that content that causes emotional discomfort can lead players to reflect on life or important social issues which seems to align with the call-to-action goals of The Final Exam.
At this time, more research is needed to determine whether a simulation game like The Final Exam is effective in teaching survival skills related to school shooting scenarios and to understand the emotional and psychological impacts of playing this type of game.
References
- Jenney, A., Koshan, J., Ferreira, C., Nikdel, N., Tortorelli, C., Johnson, T., Allison, A., Krut, B., Weerahandi, A., Wollny, K., Pronyshyn, N., & Bagstad, G.M.. (2023). Developing Virtual Gaming Simulations to Promote Interdisciplinary Learning in Addressing Intimate Partner and Gender-Based Violence. Journal of Social Work Education, 59, 1–1.
- ElSherief, M., Saha, K., Gupta, P., Mishra, S., Seybolt, J., Xie, J., O’Toole, M., Burd-Sharps, S., & De Choudhury, M. (2021). Impacts of school shooter drills on the psychological well-being of American K-12 school communities: A social media study. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 8(1), 1–14.
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- Mystakidis, S., Besharat, J., Papantzikos, G., Christopoulos, A., Stylios, C., Agorgianitis, S., & Tselentis, D. (2022). Design, Development, and Evaluation of a Virtual Reality Serious Game for School Fire Preparedness Training. Education Sciences, 12(4), 281.
- Olson, D. M., Musgrave, T., Gumudavelly, D., Galan, C., Schoenebeck, S., Harrell, D. F., & Anderson, R. E. (2023). Embracing Virtual Reality Technology with Black Adolescents to Redress Police Encounters. Journal of Youth Development, 18(3).
- Pilote, B., & Chiniara, G. (2019). Chapter 2—The Many Faces of Simulation. In G. Chiniara (Ed.), Clinical Simulation (Second Edition) (pp. 17–32). Academic Press.
- Saqer, H., de Visser, E., Strohl, J., & Parasuraman, R. (2012). Distractions N’Driving: video game simulation educates young drivers on the dangers of texting while driving. Work, 41(Supplement 1), 5877-5879.
- Schonfeld, D. J., Melzer-Lange, M., Hashikawa, A. N., Gorski, P. A., Krug, S., Baum, C., ... & Zonfrillo, M. R. (2020). Participation of children and adolescents in live crisis drills and exercises. Pediatrics, 146(3).
- Simulation games. AppLovin. (2022, July 29).
- The final exam on steam. The Final Exam on Steam. (n.d.).
Age: 13- 18
Topics: violence, videogames, adolescents, simulator games, anxiety-inducing games, school shooting
Role: Clinician