While the proposed model was generally successful at predicting outcomes, it did a better job of accounting for the experience of participants who played a role rooted in their own culture and professional aspirations (the journalist) than in a different culture and class (the Haitian survivor), and for female players compared to males. These results suggest that serious game designers should prioritize inducing empathy and immersive presence in players, giving secondary attention to designing for flow and character identification, and that educators should supplement games that challenge students to play characters from distant cultures and social backgrounds with additional lesson planning and instructional materials.