Leaving the Cave Without Losing the Transfer

The transfer problem troubling the game-based learning field extends backward through the annals of history to Plato’s renowned Allegory of the Cave. A worked example from a course on Greek philosophical writings, in which the transfer problem itself has a key place in the learning-objectives, may therefore present a viable way forward. This paper outlines the use of an Alternate-Reality Game (ARG) layer in a learning game centering on Plato’s Academy. Through that ARG-layer, the game is fully-integrated into the curriculum: the game, as a world-saving “operation,”is “disguised” as the course in the same way that the shadow-puppet play of the cave is disguised as real life. Because the ARG-layer encloses a role-playing game, students, as the game/course’s basic mechanic, practice transfer from the RPG to the ARG. We suggest that Plato’s solution to the transfer problem may have important design implications for game-based learning in the present.