Youth feel endangered, as individuals and as humanity, which makes them vulnerable to harmful influences of extreme nationalism, racism, classism. On the other hand, the study also points out that young people care for the world. They are expressing a strong sense of personal stake in the crisis and feelings of betrayal toward governments that failed to protect their future.

Farca (2018) and Gojković (2021) report on popularity of dystopian fiction and dystopian video games among youth as one of the ways to process the heavy emotions exposed in the abovementioned survey. By engaging with imagined worst-case scenarios, they create a safe mental space to confront their fears without being completely overwhelmed by them.

Also research by Gerald Farca on gaming in the Studies of Digital Media Culture, shows that players ‘play through’ their anxiety. It allows them to turn anxiety into a form of preparation for the real-world action. The games offer something that real life does not – a chance to make choices and take action. In games, young players can fight against the systems that oppress them. This gives them a sense of power that they lack in reality, where they feel ignored by politicians. By engaging with these interactive narratives, young people are testing ideas about resistance and survival in a safe space where they can have full control. Succeeding in the game, even in a dark world, can inspire a feeling of capability and hope.

Dystopia as a tool of non-formal civic education

Thinking of the traits of dystopia – they are actually not the opposite of utopia. As observed by Cole (2025), both genres are about wish-fulfilment. Both turn around the dream of a better future, but somewhat distorted and impossible to reach. Then, how does dystopia serve as a tool of non-formal civic education?

The primary goals of civic education include stimulating critical thinking, ethical reasoning, and civic engagement. Dystopia contributes to reaching these goals in several ways:

1. Questioning conformity

The players are oftentimes put in a position where they have to make impossible choices. For example: do they report their best friend to the authorities to save their own child? Or … do they speak against the regime knowing they would be erased as a result? It is in a way testing ones’ values under pressure, thus developing an understanding why some people comply and why others are able to break free.

2. Enforcing confrontation with uncomfortable truths

In dystopia the abstract social and political concepts become visible and impossible to avoid. For example: the state surveillance would be represented by introducing visible cameras that follow movements of the players, or announcing on the loudspeakers when any of the players is breaking the rules etc. In such way the players can feel how they are losing privacy and autonomy in the name of the ‘greater good’.

3. Allowing learners to experience the perspective of those living under oppressive regimes

Being in a dystopian game or larp is not an actual situation – yet it is sufficiently representative that the player can feel what this situation means for someone in reality. For example: when a player is hiding a prohibited item they hear an automated voice announce their location to security. They cannot reason with the system, the only option is the escape. It brings the realisation that the only way to survive the game is by obeying the rules.

4. Bringing a sense of empathy and moral imagination

In dystopian games the players must hide all the time and learn how to trust no one, even their existence becomes a crime. The experience is so real and vivid that they don’t need to debate the questions of privacy in theory but they feel the fear of losing it. Living it brings one closer to transforming from a passive observer into an active initiator of change.

Dystolarp thus uses the discomfort as a pedagogical tool. By engaging with these stories, young players stay with a sense of unease in a safe yet intense environment. This ‘emotional rehearsal’ transforms their anxiety into a clearer understanding of what is at stake and stimulates critical thinking and activism. As it may also evoke anxiety if not presented thoughtfully, careful facilitation to ensure safety is required.

The Dystolap project was designed to support youth workers and young people engage with dystopian stories through educational and facilitated larp experiences. In the course of the project we are developing concrete materials for using dystopian larp in youth work. They will be published in multiple forms such as facilitation guidelines, scenarios, game master guide, curriculum, theoretical backgrounds etc. Do not hesitate to follow the project website here.

Further reads on the topic:

• Cole, M. B. 2025. Fear The Future: Dystopia and Political Imagination in the Twentieth Century. University of Michigan Press. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3998/mpub.14528874.7
• Hickman, C. eds. 2021. Climate anxiety in children and young people and their beliefs about government responses to climate change: a global survey. Lancet Planet Health. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(21)00278-3/fulltext
• Farca, G. 2018. Playing Dystopia Nightmarish Worlds in Video Games and the Player’s Aesthetic Response. transcript Verlag. https://www.transcript-publishing.com/media/pdf/6e/03/db/oa9783839445976kV79x57Yut7tB.pdf
• Gojković, T. eds. 2021. Gamification in non-formal education and youth work. Youth for Exchange And Understanding. https://share.google/gQrx4kdnefSpuWWFG
• Freire, P. 1998. Pedagogy of Freedom: Ethics, Democracy, and Civic Courage. Bloomsbury Academic.