Gamers are, like Yamauchi, described as nonconformist, creative, and self-confident persons, who seem unafraid to make mistakes (Beck and Wade 2004). Is it true that games present us with an opportunity to develop a particular identity, or are specific people attracted to games that create these opportunities? In the last decade, research has been conducted into the (playful) organizational style of gamers, and into the leadership qualities that may be developed in a game (DeMarco, Lesser, and O’Driscoll 2007; Reeves and Malone 2007). The search for an answer to the above question is the aim of this chapter. To be more specific, we would like to better understand identity construction and representation. For this reason we would like to further elaborate on the notion of playful identity as discussed in the introductory chapter of this volume. In contrast to other identity constructs, a playful identity characterizes someone’s ludic activities without immediately discussing the valuing and moralizing practices arising from these activities
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In Western Europe, cities that host International Organizations (IOs) have to deal with more and more competition. The last decade many IOs settled in Eastern European and Asian countries. Distributing IOs over several cities in Europe for reasons of political balance and give-and-take among governments play a role in these decisions. However, public policy networks are more and more operational in these negotiations. Apart from the political and administrative actors, others – as private actors and external lobbyists – play a role as well. This often leads to increased complexity and ineffective decisions. This paper examines four cases in which political gameplay influenced the location decision-making of IOs in The Hague and Geneva. First, I will introduce the subject, research method and the four cases. Second, I will discuss how public policy networks are increasingly complicating factors to the settling processes of IOs. Third, a reconstruction of the settlement processes of four IOs will illustrate this.
