Planspiel-Literaturdatenbank des ZMS

Abstract: Climate change is becoming more visible, and human adaptation is required urgently to prevent greater damage. One particular domain of adaptation concerns daily mobility (work commute), with a significant portion of these trips being done in individual cars. Yet, their impact on pollution, noise, or accidents is well-known. This paper explores various cognitive biases that can explain such lack of adaptation. Our approach is to design simple interactive simulators that users can play with in order to understand biases. The idea is that awareness of such cognitive biases is often a first step towards more rational decision making, even though things are not that simple. This paper reports on interactive simulators of potential factors of resistance, and illustrates their explanatory power on various scenarios. These simulators can be played online, with the goal to provide users with food for thought about how mobility could evolve in the future. Work is still ongoing to design a user survey to evaluate their impact 

Abstract: Sustainability is an essential factor for the future of mankind. This applies to all areas of society, but especially to the economy, which is responsible for a significant part of resource consumption. Therefore, the education of business students as future executives is of essential importance for the successful change towards sustainability. Against this background, the following article compares simulation games on sustainability and business simulations. The results are based on a quantitative empirical survey with a total of 1101 participants, of whom 125 took part in a total of 6 simulation game seminars on sustainability. On the one hand, the acceptance of simulation games on the topic of sustainability among business students at the DHBW Stuttgart is investigated. On the other hand, essential components that are responsible for the success of simulation game events are recorded and similarities and differences between business management simulation games and simulation games on sustainability are analysed. The results show a high acceptance, satisfaction and learning success of business students with the sustainability simulation games used at the ZMS. In addition, despite many similarities, some practically significant structural differences can be observed, especially in the field of teamwork and engagement during plenum discussion.

Abstract: In this study, the authors introduced the learning effects of gaming simulation in which students experience “the world lacking something.” This study developed a lesson in which students experience a world without science or scientific communication as a gaming simulation of the world lacking something. Hypotheses in this study are as follows: 1) Through the games, students can realize the difference between the real world and the world lacking science, 2) By experiencing “the world lacking something,” students can realize the social significance of science. In the lesson, the students experienced the world lacking something, which was completely devoid of the formative aspiration of science and very different from the real world where discussion was not possible for the students. Thus, the students could realize the difference between the real world and the world lacking science. So, it can be said that Hypothesis 1 was backed up. Furthermore, the students learned two things through the lesson: (1) the significance of science as a medium for democratic discussions with others, (2) the significance of science for enabling them to judge democratic decisions. From the above, by experiencing the world lacking something, the students could realize the social significance of science. So, hypothesis 2 is backed up. In the near future, in order to extend the results of this study, it is necessary to examine what would happen if students did not usually have interest in science. 

Abstract: Sexually transgressive behaviour (STB) causes serious health problems for, among others, students of higher education. The persuasive card game TALK THAT TALK was designed to promote ethical bystander behaviour in STB situations and contribute to a social transition to less sexual violence. To this aim, the game facilitates Intergroup Dialogues between female and male players. A controlled experiment was conducted to evaluate the game. The outcome variables of the experiment were obtained from the literature: Willingness to Intervene, Awareness of prevalence of STB, and Bystander Responsibility. Quantitative and qualitative analyses, including validated questionnaires and semi-structured interviews, were employed to measure the game’s effects. Participants evaluated the quality of the game (session) and game experience positively and reported that meaningful intergroup dialogues about STB situations took place during the game session. As a result, in the experimental group a significant increase of the three outcome variables was observed, whereas in the control group a non-significant decrease was found. We concluded that the game TALK THAT TALK has the potential to promote ethical bystander behaviour in STB situations by facilitating an intergroup dialogue between female and male participants. Future research should establish if the results can be generalised to a more representative sample of participants and if the game effects may be improved when institutes for higher education include the game in large-scale intervention programmes against sexually transgressive behaviour. 

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37171-4_2 

Abstract: These environmental and social challenges of the Anthropocene require us to imagine and implement alternatives to the current global economic organization. Accounting in biophysical flows (material, energy, land use, …) is one grid of analysis providing insights on the alternatives’ sustainability (strong sustainability and ecological economics frameworks). These tools are indeed relevant to highlight systemic effects (interdisciplinary understandings, spatial and temporal scales) on resources and important pressures to consider for the transformation of territories. If this biophysical flow vision may be very useful, it however remains for expert use only. However, one of the challenges of transition territories is to involve the populations in participatory processes in order to put their knowledge, wishes and specific capacities for action in synergy. Among the several participatory tools, serious games have long since proven their ability to sensitize to sustainability issues, facilitate learning and support changes. This paper presents an exploratory work to get insights on how playing with material and energy flows, fostering biophysical accounting and systemic vision learning to support stakeholders in territories’ transitions. A first work on literature aims at understanding how resource flows are involved in existing sustainability games. We then present three experiments we made to play with material and energy flows analysis: one first game focusing on biophysical accounting, two games aimed at pointing out systemic effects on resources and three workshops in which an energy flow analysis diagram was discussed with stakeholders in a territory involved in resource management participatory process. 

Abstract: The idea of translating citizen participation processes into hybrid games is ubiquitous. This decision is usually justified by the possibility of simplifying complex issues and using real data. However, hybridization as a combination digital and physical space offers another advantage that has not been highlighted so far: By creating a digital threshold, it enables a highly accessible transformation from participants to players. In citizen participation processes, a wide range of social groups encounter, thus the reduction of (social and gaming) inhibition is even more important for broad participation. While these benefits of the digital space are of great relevance, especially for the start of a game, the physical space creates an equally large opportunity of transparency and direct exchange. Particularly in mobility transformation, there is a need to sensitize citizens for the topic and make sure that they are engaged to get honest and thoughtful responses, so creating transparency is especially important. Based on the development of the citizen participation game UTurn, the authors took a closer look at the problem of participation as well as its solution by establishing a threshold. The following article therefore aims to shed light on this very establishment of a threshold experience in hybrid citizen participation processes and to debate its potentials and hurdles. 

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37171-4_14 

Abstract: Economists have demonstrated a positive correlation between management quality and the country's economic performance. In turn, business simulation games have shown their educational effectiveness in developing management skills crucial for African countries. However, its use is still nascent. Although they present different characteristics favorable to its implementation, for example, The African Continental Free Trade Area, the Digital Transformation Strategy Project for Africa (2020-2030), and The Pan-Africa Games Group, they also present singular characteristics such as the predominance of the informal sector, political instability, and high corruption rates. These factors influence the designing and adoption of the Pan-African Business Simulation Games Framework suitable for this specific context. This proposal aims to contribute a gaming framework to support collaborative development and appropriation by the end-users and Multi-User with content representative of their contextual diversity. The successful EVER project and Bootcamp created by the Mozambican firm ITIS, which adopted a lean startup methodology to add local content in Business Games, can inspire the Pan African Business Simulations Games - PABSG.