With the increasing mobility and connectivity of technological devices in smart cities, games are also used to address urban challenges like citizenship or equality. In my thesis, I argue that the design of many of these game solutions does not fit the challenge they try to address. For example, Pokémon Go ultimately became more a social facilitator than a pure for-profit app, while Geocaching for education purposes has proven ineffective. In order to assess the efficacy of the design of these solutions and suggest future improvements, I introduce an interdisciplinary method called ‘The Action Space Analysis’ which can be used to measure and judge how well the design fits with a challenge. First, I suggest a perspective on game design focused on the acceptance that whatever possible actions are contained in the game, some player will play them. Secondly, the city challenges are understood as the pursuit of a city model, an understanding of how you want the city to be. The action space analysis takes a game design and uncovers all possible actions of the game to check and score how well these actions fit the city model pursued. This checks how present the possibility is of players performing the desired actions from the city model. I check this for Geocaching, Ontdek Overvecht, Cities: Skylines, and Pokémon Go. The action space analysis works as validation method that allows designers to improve their games, critics to analyse city solutions better, and municipalities to pass informed judgment on suggested solutions.
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How can city games staged in public spaces activate citizens around the theme of the circular economy? That was the central question explored in the Games for Cities training school and game jam that took place October 10-14 in Amsterdam. The event was organized as part of the Games for Cities project, in close cooperation with the Play & Civic Media research group at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences and the EU COST Action TU 1306 Cyberparks.
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Studies on city‐building games as educational tools show positive results in addressing different learning objectives, but also identify a missing link to reality, as they are mostly computer‐based. Given the differences between existing games and their capabilities, the exact function of these games in an urban planning curriculum is unclear. The city‐building game Cities: Skylines currently has three different versions (Digital, Tabletop, VR). Through an affordance analysis of the game’s three versions, this study analyses how the versions afford four primary knowledge dimensions, and in doing so identifies different educational applications for each version of Cities: Skylines in different planning disciplines. The results show that: (a) the board game is strong in fostering player participation and critical thinking more suited for the social and health studies, public policy, and citizen participation domains of urban planning; (b) the digital version functions as moddable simulator, ensuring familiarity with existing systems and monitoring their effects, useful in logistics and transportation planning; (c) the VR form viscerally involves players in the simulated processes, applicable in design‐focused segments of urban planning, such as sustainable design theory, housing, and land‐use management. The results of this study can help urban planning educators identify possible uses for different versions of Cities: Skylines.
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How can games improve the social ties and living conditions of unaddressed audiences in Eindhoven? In a city that is increasingly relying on technology to connect to its citizens, how can those not participating in the tech-craze be reached? This particular topic shaped the talk show held during the Data Studio and Games for Cities Game Jam on the 22nd of March at the Designhuis in Eindhoven. Unlike the previous talk shows in Amsterdam and Utrecht this was more of a briefing informing the parameters of the subsequent game jam. Nevertheless, this briefing saw the clash of data deserts, preconceptions, and game parameters, resulting in new insights into games for cities.
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This post will deal with The Inclusive City Game Talk Show held on the 23rd of November 2016 at Wijk & Co. in Utrecht Overvecht. Like the preceding event in Amsterdam, the talk show was moderated by Utrecht University’s Michiel de Lange and it brought together local and national experts (such as municipal workers or representatives of local initiatives) and game designers. Unlike the previous event, the focus was on localizing the more general background of creating city games for newcomers in the environment of Overvecht. The talk show took place during the game jam of Games for Cities as well, thus the evening functioned as a dialogue with local experts, an initial presentation of game ideas and a chance to comment on their design. Sketching the general background were Michelle Provoost and Nina Hälker. Finally, Ekim Tan was present to discuss the game jam game design process. Due to the more specific localization of a neighborhood (instead of the whole of Amsterdam) the focus of this talk show was on how games can be used to approach an influx of newcomers in a specific neighborhood.
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Cities are becoming increasingly complex, both in terms of their social and cultural context, and in the technological solutions that are necessary to make them function. In parallel, we are observing a growing attention toward the public dimension of design, addressing societal challenges and opportunities at an urban scale. Conceptualizing, ideating, and framing design problems at a larger scale may still prove challenging, even as cities are becoming more and more relevant for all branches of design. In this chapter, we address the use of game mechanics to produce strong concepts for better understanding complex problems in city-making and communal participation, capitalizing on the necessity to shift the attention from smart cities to smart citizens. Through several examples we will show that games and play have a special quality of social bonding, providing context and motivational aspects that can be used to improve the dynamics and solutions within city-making.
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How do you design useful games for a neighborhood that houses about 170 different nationalities? This question shaped The Inclusive City Game Jam held on the 23rd and 24th of November 2016 in the Stadstuin Klopvaart in the Utrecht neighborhood of Overvecht. Briefed by the municipality of Utrecht, specifically the department in charge of Overvecht and its local initiatives, three teams of two game designers (Adam van Heerden & Genevieve Korte, Ekim Tan & Nina Hälker, and Gabriele Ferri & Txell Blanco Diaz) set out to design games uniquely fitted to the needs and strengths of the Utrecht neighborhood of Overvecht. Ultimately the three teams had two days to design something that would benefit Overvecht and could be deployed by the municipality as a useful, and self running, tool for citizens to use to their benefit.
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Aging diversity in organizations creates potential challenges, particularly for knowledge management, skills update and skills obsolescence. Intergenerational learning (IGL) involves knowledge building, innovation and knowledge transfer between generations within an organization (Ropes 2011). Serious games refer to the use of computer games in raising awareness about educational topics, acquiring new knowledge and skills by enabling learners to engage and participate in situations that would otherwise be impossible to experience (Corti 2006). Although learning with the use of serious games is similar to traditional learning in several cognitive respects, there are noted differences in the learning style and structure of learning using serious games. The success of learning using serious games lies in the actual involvement of a participant playing the game, which in turn, creates increased cognitive links with real-life situations allowing the individual to make relevant associations, to use mnemonic strategies with the facilitation of multi-dimensional educational aids (e.g., visual, auditory). Some of the beneficial aspects of learning with the use of serious games include the elevation of several cognitive skills, which are directly or indirectly implicated in the learning process. Among them are attention and visuo-spatial abilities, memory and motor skills. However, several barriers have been noted that fall into two general categories: a) health issues (e.g., cognitive strain, headaches) and b) psychological issues (e.g., social isolation, emotional disturbances). Since the training conditions are learner-centered and highly determined by the individual, there is increased need for evaluating the learning outcomes using specific success indicators. Examples of games that are designed to facilitate IGL are scarce, while there are no examples of IGL games in most EU countries. The purpose of this paper is to critically evaluate the current literature of theories on learning through serious games in adults and the elderly with reference to the cognitive mechanisms implicated, benefits and barriers in learning using new technologies in different generations. Secondly, this paper reviews the existence of serious games designed to facilitate IGL in Europe, as well as the characteristics of serious games in raising awareness that could be used to facilitate IGL. In doing so, specific focus is placed on the development of success indicators that determine the effectiveness of serious games on raising awareness on IGL.
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Stadsleven – The Happy City onderzoekt hoe een stad ontworpen kan worden om het geluk van haar bewoners te bevorderen. In deze gastcolumn verdedigt stadsgeograaf David ter Avest ons bijwijlen verlangen naar minder happy cities. Deze beleven we in romans, comics, films en games.
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What obstacles for game designers arise from the tension between gathering data from citizens and addressing a non-digital but spatially defined audience? This question arose during the Games for Cities game jam held on the 22nd and 23rd of march at the Designhuis in Eindhoven. A collaboration between Games for Cities, Het Nieuwe Instituut through the DATAstudio, the Municipality of Eindhoven, and the Design Academy of Eindhoven offered three groups of design specialists, inhabitants, researchers, and others that would take on a design challenge offered by the municipality.
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