Planspiel-Literaturdatenbank des ZMS

Abstract:  The proceedings of the 54th edition of the International Simulation and Gaming Conference, covers a wide range of application types such as serious games for education, participative use of simulation games, design of board games and role-playing games, gamified environments and more. Some are meant to raise awareness on specific issues, others are intended for training purposes, and still others are designed to facilitate and encourage collective action.  In this publication, readers will find full papers and extended abstracts dealing with the evaluation of the effects of simulation games, including learning effects, effects on organizational or collaborative behavior, effects on motivation and engagement as well as, in a more innovative vein, effects on players' emotions. Other papers deal with design issues, analyzing role design, co-design processes or even the treatment of system complexity in game design. The use of new technologies, such as augmented reality, or the use of online educational games, are also addressed. Interestingly, several papers address the facilitation of simulation games, and seek to better characterize the facilitation role and its associated skills. Similarly, some authors propose characterizations of player profiles.  Meanwhile, the 54th edition of ISAGA conference highlighted the theme of "Simulation and gaming for social and environmental transitions". The ISAGA community responded enthusiastically to this call, and these proceedings include a large number of full papers and extended abstracts that approach this theme from different angles. Readers will find a large number of simulation games dealing with the multiple challenges of transitions, from games on energy transition, low carbon, sustainable development, "limits to growth", nature-based solutions, to games on the relation to science, equity issues, or ethics in transitions. Some of these games are meant to explore various transition pathways, others are meant to encourage social awareness about critical social or environmental problems. Finally, a number of papers present critical thoughts about the role of simulation and gaming in transition processes. Some question the concept of transformational learning, others analyze the rhetoric of social change games, and still others discuss the role of simulation games in the participation of citizens in transition processes.  In short, the proceedings of the 54th ISAGA conference provide a condensed overview of international research and current practices in the domain of simulation and gaming, focusing on issues of design, use and evaluation of simulation games in the present period of social and environmental transitions. 

Abstract: Simulation and gaming have proven their value in contributing to the analysis and
design of so-called complex systems, such as the development of sustainable cities and
smart infrastructures. Numerous examples of games about urban planning, intelligent
transport systems, social cohesion, and other related themes have been developed,
played, and studied in the past years. In the International Simulation and Gaming
Association (ISAGA) Conference 2017, we aimed at taking the current state of affairs
one step further and move toward a comprehensive theory of simulation games for
sustainable cities and smart infrastructures. During the conference, which was held
jointly by ISAGA and SAGANET (Simulation and Gaming Association The Netherlands),
hosted by Delft University of Technology, science met practice, and many
academic as well as practice-based games and concepts were presented and discussed.
The result of the scientific contributions is presented in this LNCS book.
The contributions to this book range from design thinking related to simulation
gaming, the analysis of the consequences of design choices in games, to games for
decision-making, examples of games for business, climate change, maritime spatial
planning, sustainable city development, supply chain, and team work factors, up to
games that facilitate (organizational) learning processes or are used for attitude measurement,
and the use of VR technologies in games, not to forget the role of de-briefing
in the game process.
In the section "Design and Development," the focus is on the design process of
simulation games. The articles show the importance of design choices and the influences
of these choices on the game's effectiveness. They also highlight the role of the
designer as well as the use of accepted design concepts and approaches. In the section
"Planning and Policy," games are presented that serve as support tool for
policy-making processes. The articles describe how stakeholders can be engaged in a
decision-making process, and how games can facilitate the participation of and discourse
between them. The perception of games as well as their use for (organizational)
learning processes is discussed in the contributions in the section "Games and Simulations."
Learner activation and individual value of games in learning processes are
topics discussed along with concrete examples of games facilitating, e.g., knowledge
development in the field of supply chain management. In the next section, we give
room to the relatively new and yet underexplored field of "Games as Research
Instruments." The contributions show how games can serve as research instruments
themselves, and how they can be combined with other research measures in order to
provide both a rich feedback to participants and researchers and a rigid research set-up
for measurement of, e.g.. participants' attitudes in the transportation domain. Games
that are used for learning processes are discussed in the last section, "Learning." The
authors introduce theoretical concepts of games as a learning instrument, from
assessment to conditions for learning, up to the role of de-briefing.
Thus, the 20 selected articles discuss game methodologies for the design and
research of and with games, applications of gaming to tackle the grand challenges of
our society as well as to support learning processes and policy development, new
insights in interface and interaction designs for games, and evaluated applications of
games in real-world settings.
The present collection of articles represents current advances in the field of simulation
and gaming, which were presented and discussed at a very constructive and
energetic conference in Delft, the Netherlands. The editors wish to thank all contributors
to this book, reviewers of the articles, as well as all participants of the ISAGA
2017 conference for adding to this important and still-growing field of research that is
strongly related to its application domains. We also want to thank Maria Freese and
Shalini Kurapati, who helped us process all contributions to the conference. We look
forward to future exchanges and further advancements of our exciting field of research
and design of simulation games!