A Realtor named Jed has a buyer who’s interested in a house because it’s right down the road from a pharmacy. After she expresses an intention to put in an offer, Jed finds out that the pharmacy is going to be turned into a deli.
Should he inform his buyer or not?
That’s the first ethical question that gameplayers face in Ethics Adventure, a mobile game from InteractCE that’s been approved for continuing education ethics training in Colorado, Oregon and Washington. Approval is pending in 13 additional states. As the game progresses, players walk through every article of the National Association of Realtors’ (NAR’s) Code of Ethics, figuring out what the best thing to do in many given scenarios might be.
InteractCE CEO and Founder Jed Etters (yes, the game’s hero is named after him) noted that focusing on ethics made a lot of sense for a company that crafts games to teach real estate agents how to better do their jobs — NAR requires that Realtors refresh their ethics education every two years. And everyone across the country abides by the same code of ethics.
“It’s required every two years to go take an ethics class because NAR has to revise the Code of Ethics,” noted Etters. “Think about before the internet — there was no online advertising.”
To play, agents can download the app to a phone or tablet device, choose which state’s Realtor organization should receive a copy of their certification and then — start playing.
“You get to go through these pretty standardized situations and you try to make the best choices,” Etters explained. “And sometimes you don’t make the best choices and that kind of makes it fun, too — to actually see instead of wonder ‘What would happen if I did that?'”
After completing the game, agents can opt for either a $5 or a $19.99 certificate to be immediately sent to both themselves and the state organization managing continuing education.
“Gamification is evolving and changing the way that we learn,” Etters said. “We say the difference is, if you had two pilots on two planes, and one pilot had trained with multiple-choice questions and one with a simulator, which plane would you get on?
“We put people in real life situations and they get to practice it in a safe environment, so when they meet those clients for the first time in real life, they know what to do,” he added.