A Scientific Foundation of Simulation Games for the Analysis and Design of Complex Systems

Lukosch, Heide; Bekebrede, Geertje; Kurapati, Shalini; Lukosch, Stephan

doi:10.1177/1046878118768858

Cited by 63 publications

(66 citation statements)

References 58 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Numerous studies have discussed tools and frameworks to assess serious games (e.g., [38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45]). Mitgutsch and Alvarado [44] argue that serious games, having an 'intention-based design', also require to be analyzed in relation to their purpose.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Serious Gaming for Climate Adaptation—Assessing the Potential and Challenges of a Digital Serious Game for Urban Climate Adaptation

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Serious gaming has gained increasing prominence in climate change communication, and provides opportunity to engage new audiences and new platforms for knowledge co-creation and dialogues. This paper presents the design and evaluation of a serious game on climate adaptation, primarily targeted towards high school students, practitioners and politicians. The game aims to provide an experience of the impact of climate adaptation measures, and illustrates links with selected Agenda 2030 goals, which the player has to consider, while limiting impacts of hazardous climate events. The game design builds on the key goals in Education for Sustainable Development combining comprehensive views, action competence, learner engagement and pluralism. This study draws on game sessions and surveys with high school students in Sweden, and aims to assess to what extent different aspects of the game can support an increased understanding of the needs and benefits of adaptation actions. The results of this study indicate that the game can engage players to reflect upon challenges related to climate adaptation decision making, but also point towards the challenge of including a high degree of complexity which can make it difficult to grasp consequences of individual measures, as well as to link these to the natural variability of the occurrence of extreme climatic events.Sustainability 2020, 12, 1789 2 of 18 mere entertainment such as instructional goals" [6] p. 414, has been addressed in a number of recent studies. Given the complexity of climate adaptation, referred to as a "wicked problem par excellence" [10] (p. 28), scientific knowledge, rivalling social interests as well as ethical consideration need to be recognized, and hence demand new types of educational tools. Enhancing science education by contextualizing the content as socioscientific issues is argued to increase understanding as well as to train ethical reflection and personal judgement needed in modern societies [11,12]. This is also in line with the core of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) that strives for systems thinking and democratic action competence in a world full of conflicting interests [13,14]. In this capacity, serious games can support teachers to strengthen their Education for Sustainable Development as it provides an experience of climate adaptation, based on systems thinking and action orientation. Inspired by these two strategies, we argue that digital games can be a valuable resource in climate communication and education.Climate change games cover a wide range of related topics, such as urban development [15,16], personal action [3], land use models [17], agriculture [18-20], water management [21-25], climate risk attribution [26] and simulations of climate negotiations [27]. In their review of climate adaptation games, Flood et al. [7] present a large number of more recent games with focus on climate adaptation, and discuss their efficiency for "engaging with diverse publics and enable social learning" [7] (p. 18) as well as the role of ...

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Serious Gaming for Climate Adaptation—Assessing the Potential and Challenges of a Digital Serious Game for Urban Climate Adaptation

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Klabbers, 2014). The three articles of Raghothama and Meijer (2018), Wardaszko (2018), and Lukosch, Bekebrede, Kurapati, and Lukosch (2018) are in line with this more traditional focus of interest. The authors are researchers from the ISAGA network and have in common that they all address different aspects of understanding and handling of complexity in and of systems.…”

Section: • • Gaming Enjoys Close Links With Professional Practitioners;mentioning

confidence: 76%

“…In his article, he proposes a model that also takes into account the process of complexity perception and complexity reduction by game designers and players. Lukosch et al (2018) describe the design and evaluation process of several concrete game-based projects. The insights gained are discussed in order to create a foundation for the analysis and design of complex systems through simulation games.…”

Section: • • Gaming Enjoys Close Links With Professional Practitioners;mentioning

confidence: 99%

Game Science: Foundations and Perspectives

Kriz¹,

Harviainen²,

Clapper³

2018

Simulation & Gaming

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background. Game studies offer cross-disciplinary perspectives, but the body of knowledge is not yet in the form of a cohesive game science paradigm. Klabbers (2018a) argues that a comprehensive and coherent view on game science is needed that connects three levels of inquiry: the philosophy of science level, the science level, and the application level.Aim. This single-theme symposium issue On the Architecture of Game Science is especially devoted to the reflection and discussion on the foundations and principles of gaming and simulation.Method. Raising a debate among scholars and professionals, addressing the questions and frame-of-reference presented in the introductory article of Klabbers (2018a) and completed by his rebuttal.Results. The contributions range from the linkages between game science and complex social systems design through gaming simulation, to gamification science, and game studies, focusing on the ludosphere and the growing field of digital games.Conclusion. The articles present an overview of the current state of the art, craft, and science of gaming simulation, gamification and game studies. They present a stimulating and challenging debate, and a good basis for advancing the principles and foundations of game science.

show abstract

“…In general for gaming this level of abstraction is higher as participants have limited processing capacities. In case of too many variables and choices players cannot decide anymore and game play will become impossible [33,38] (simulations can be used to add a certain level of detail to see the effects of choice, but they have the disadvantage that it becomes a black box and it is more difficult to understand the underlying relations. A consequence of the abstraction level is the challenge to make a direct relation to reality [33].…”

Section: Limitations Of Gaming Simulationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The knowledge and insights from the gaming sessions could be used in the design of the transitions' processes. In the debriefing of the game, the first steps can be taken to transfer the lessons learned in the game towards concrete actions or agreements [26,33] The game has been developed as part of the City-zen New Urban Energy project [34], a project subsidized by the European Commission's 7th Framework Programme, running from 2014 to 2019.…”

Section: A Gaming-simulation Approach Towards Local Energy Transitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards a Joint Local Energy Transition Process in Urban Districts: The GO2Zero Simulation Game

2018

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract:The depletion of fossil fuel sources for our energy system and the influence on overall CO 2 emissions drive the need to more sustainable energy systems. The transition towards a renewable energy system cannot be seen as a purely technical issue; it is strongly embedded within society.In this study, we analyze the stakeholder complexities of the transition in urban districts and research the use of a simulation game to increase the understanding of the complexity of the transition. Surveys and observations were used to collect data about the learning experiences of playing the game GO2Zero. The results show that participants liked to play the game and they considered the game a valid representation of the system. Further, the participants agree that they obtained a better understanding of the complexity of the residential energy system and experienced a variety of challenges in the transition. Simulation games, like GO2Zero, could become valuable instruments in local energy transition processes as they offer a safe environment for novices and experts to jointly experiment with the challenges in this process. These experiences could support the design of the transition process by helping actors to formulate goals and collaborative strategies for achieving those goals. Future research will focus on the use of this game for experimenting with different strategies and instruments and to analyze their effects.

show abstract

A Scientific Foundation of Simulation Games for the Analysis and Design of Complex Systems

Cited by 63 publications

References 58 publications

Serious Gaming for Climate Adaptation—Assessing the Potential and Challenges of a Digital Serious Game for Urban Climate Adaptation

Serious Gaming for Climate Adaptation—Assessing the Potential and Challenges of a Digital Serious Game for Urban Climate Adaptation

Game Science: Foundations and Perspectives

Towards a Joint Local Energy Transition Process in Urban Districts: The GO2Zero Simulation Game

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About