Regarding the lengthy registration process :: Spirit of Europe

Why the registration process?

The development of our game was financed by the European Commission. Official information, as well as legal information on our project can be found here:
https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/erasmus-plus/projects/eplus-project-details/#project/2019-1-RO01-KA204-063864

As stated in the description, this game is an edutainment product. Our mission is to up the game in the edutainment genre by providing better products for a learner, more enjoyable learning experience. However, in order to do so, we need to undergo some educational research.

This game is also considered a learning module - hence the game's connection with a learning platform. After completing the final assessment quiz - upon finishing the game, you will be awarded a participation certificate.
In the end, it is your freedom to provide us with accurate information - or not.

Yes yes, but why personal information?
It's simple: the financier - European Commission - requires the information in order to check on our activity & make sure we don't just make up the number of players involved in the research, and/or its learning outcomes. For instance, the phone number/e-mail is required by the financier, since officials from the EC may contact participants to find out if they are actual participants in the study.

Ok... Why were we not warned about it on Steam?
That's on us. We did not think it was such a big deal and we apologize. Therefore, we updated the description having these steps underlined in the first area, not at the end as before. We hope that it will be clearer now. However, information on the data policy & regulatory conformity within the European legislation, can be found here: https://thespiritofeurope.eu/mod/page/view.php?id=27 (this link was available at the bottom of the page the whole time - European law requires organizations that deal with personal data to undergo a special registration to be able to do so and that particular section is mandatory)

What about the research - what is it?
We're just trying to assess the success of such edutainment products from various points of view: entertainment, learning outcomes, time invested vs gains, from an educational and entertainment perspectives. Our hypothesis is that as long as learning is fun enough, learning comes virtually free. Since we are trying to find out how to make better and better edutainment games in a scientific manner, we need to collect various data just like any other developer (regarding what players like/dislike, technical specs etc.) aside from those specifically required by our research endeavor (assessment scores before/after finishing the game, opinions on the quality/quantity of information, its relevance, learning outcomes etc.)

All in all, we just want to make quality educational content for gamers to enjoy. With a very small team, we strived to give you the best experience we could while trying to satisfy financier's, research methodology's and the gaming market's requirements, needs & preferences. Let's just say the conundrum is a goat, cabbage and wolf - level problem to say the least.

For further information/inquiries, please feel free to contact us. We have nothing to hide, we want to build a community and we are as transparent as you want us to be.

< >

Showing 1-15 of 39 comments

kensw Sep 30, 2021 @ 1:11pm

Still a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ process - if I even believe any of this

Predict Edumedia [developer] Sep 30, 2021 @ 1:14pm

Originally posted by kensw:
Still a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ process - if I even believe any of this

Just check out the legal info... It's on the EC's webpage with description, partners, finance agreement, all of it. I know it's lengthy but it is what it is...

kensw Sep 30, 2021 @ 1:32pm

Originally posted by contactspiriteurope:
Originally posted by kensw:
Still a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ process - if I even believe any of this
Just check out the legal info... It's on the EC's webpage with description, partners, finance agreement, all of it. I know it's lengthy but it is what it is...

I live in North America - I do not care about European rules or studies - they do not apply to me - so why would I want to give you my info?

davidburkhardt Sep 30, 2021 @ 3:47pm

The information asked for is no worse than asked for in many online games. The take a quiz no worse than many mini games and better than many that I've played. But did you need to make it so hard to find the quiz to take it. Finding the way through the Maze of the Minataur seems easier than finding the quiz.

nTu4Ka

Oct 1, 2021 @ 2:45pm

Eeem. How does it correlate with GDPR?
Isn't data collection that you do against it?

Predict Edumedia [developer] Oct 1, 2021 @ 10:11pm

Originally posted by nTu4Ka:
Eeem. How does it correlate with GDPR?
Isn't data collection that you do against it?

We explained the context especially for people outside of Europe, to know the need of having the evidence of participants in the educational project. We also pointed out that we DO comply with the specific regulations to process personal information. In the end, it's up to each participant to provide as much information as they want.

But we honestly believe we've explained enough on the topic and we've provided all legal information as well as proof for our claims. Anything more would just be us trying to convince people which is not only a waste of time, but also nowhere near our scope.

Last edited by Predict Edumedia; Oct 2, 2021 @ 11:21am

Predict Edumedia [developer] Oct 2, 2021 @ 5:09am

Originally posted by davidburkhardt:
The information asked for is no worse than asked for in many online games. The take a quiz no worse than many mini games and better than many that I've played. But did you need to make it so hard to find the quiz to take it. Finding the way through the Maze of the Minataur seems easier than finding the quiz.

Thanks for your understanding! We revised and adjusted some of the steps, where that was possible.
This is a direct link for Quiz 1: https://thespiritofeurope.eu/mod/quiz/view.php?id=4, to be used once you registered there.

Last edited by Predict Edumedia; Oct 2, 2021 @ 5:11am

kensw Oct 2, 2021 @ 9:45am

Originally posted by contactspiriteurope:
Originally posted by davidburkhardt:
The information asked for is no worse than asked for in many online games. The take a quiz no worse than many mini games and better than many that I've played. But did you need to make it so hard to find the quiz to take it. Finding the way through the Maze of the Minataur seems easier than finding the quiz.

Thanks for your understanding! We revised and adjusted some of the steps, where that was possible.
This is a direct link for Quiz 1: https://thespiritofeurope.eu/mod/quiz/view.php?id=4, to be used once you registered there.

This is funny
You need to create an account just to see the quiz