Games Versus Reality? How Game Designers Deal with Current Topics of Geography Education

Abstract

Digital entertainment games frequently address current societal issues that are also dealt with in geography education, such as climate change or sustainable city development, and give various opportunities for learning. However, in order to be fully able to determine the games’ educational potential and to instruct meaningful reflection on them in class, the designers’ approaches to realism regarding these topics need to be understood. Therefore, we have developed a model of realism in games and conducted 9 interviews with 10 experts from the entertainment game industry about their understanding of and dealing with realism concerning the represented geographical topics. In many cases, the interviewees’ approach to incorporating real-world issues can be regarded as beneficial for their games’ educational potential, and some designers even pursued learning goals. However, we also identified approaches that can result in questionable presentations of real societal issues. We found the most problematic one to be the prioritization of player expectations for the sake of perceived realism. This approach may lead to the depiction of stereotypes and common misconceptions. The results presented in our study may help teachers to prepare reflection on such misrepresentations in class, or designers to become more aware of the educational implications of different forms of game realism.

Assessing the Extent to Which Players Can Build Sustainable Cities in the Digital City-Builder Game “Cities: Skylines”

“…As an essential outcome of the analysis, it seems to be clear that C:S incorporates a high scope of possibilities regarding the scientific criteria and indicators of sustainable city development. While Lux et al already emphasized the potential for players of CBGs to "explore the connection between different concepts relevant in cities" [10] (p. 25), the number of measures contributing to sustainability in C:S seems noteworthy. For example, C:S entails not only a wide range of sustainable transport networks and renewable power plants but also a variety of progressive policy measures (e.g., workers' rights and unions, social dimension, Table 3).…”

“…To date, C:S is considered the best city-building game of all time [7] and sold over 6 million copies by 2019 [8]. Researchers like Lux et al [9,10] and Bereitschaft [11,12] have already included C:S in their respective studies of educational potentials.…”

“…Many of these publications discuss the use of CBGs in higher education. While Nilsson [10], for example, observed motivational aspects when the science students were building sustainable cities in SimCity, she also points out the possibility for the students to experiment with and apply the concepts of sustainable development in the game. According to Khan and Zhao [11], the research suggests that while their students were able to enhance "their critical thinking and problem-solving skills" [11] (p. 770) with C:S, the game also helped them solve previous understanding difficulties.…”

“…One reason for the success of digital games, as Bereitschaft sees it, is the way they create an intrinsic motivation for problem solving within the game [14]. Due to the interest in complex systems and interconnected challenges, researchers in geography education have been studying the use of commercial simulation and strategy games extensively [9,10,14]. However, even though the educational benefits have been pointed out and reviewed, there has yet to be a detailed and qualitative game analysis of sustainable city development in C:S (or other CBGs).…”

Reflexives Spielen?

“…Dabei können Spielaspekte sowohl intern logisch als auch nah an der Welt ausserhalb des Spiels sein, müssen dies aber nicht zwingend. Viele Spiele mischen reale Themen mit Fiktion, vereinfachen oder überspitzen reale Themen stark (Lux, Budke, und Guardiola 2021;Petko 2008, 4). Eine Reflexion über den wahrgenommenen internen und externen Realismus könnte dabei helfen, die Spiellogik von der Realität zu trennen, um zu vermeiden, dass realitätsferne, aber logisch eingebettete Spielinhalte Fehlvorstellungen zu realen Themen auslösen.…”