Serious games have proven to be educational tools with numerous positive effects, capable of promoting learning, changing behavior, or improving training and skills development, among other effects. Serious games can also be applied to address and prevent social problems. This study describes the experiments and analyses we have carried out to test the effectiveness of Conectado, a serious game created to prevent bullying and cyberbullying in schools by increasing awareness of the problem in players. We have used the results from these experiments to answer different research questions regarding the game’s acceptance and effectiveness, validating several characteristics of the game design. We have also studied the influence of players’ characteristics on the effect of the game, as well as the relationship between the in-game behaviors of players and their degree of awareness. We have verified a positive effect of the game in terms of an increase of awareness regarding bullying and cyberbullying for all target users, and have provided further insight into how this increase is related to different players’ characteristics and behaviors.

事实证明，严肃的游戏是具有许多积极影响的教育工具，能够促进学习，改变行为，改善培训和技能发展等效果。严肃的游戏也可以用来解决和预防社会问题。这项研究描述了我们为测试Conectado的有效性而进行的实验和分析，这是一款严肃的游戏，旨在通过提高玩家对问题的认识来防止学校中的欺凌和网络欺凌行为。我们已经使用这些实验的结果回答了有关游戏的可接受性和有效性的不同研究问题，从而验证了游戏设计的几个特征。我们还研究了玩家特征对游戏效果的影响，以及玩家在游戏中的行为与其意识程度之间的关系。我们已经通过提高所有目标用户对欺凌和网络欺凌的认识，验证了游戏的积极作用，并进一步了解了这种增加与不同玩家的特征和行为之间的关系。