Understanding complexity
In complex systems, different parts of the system are connected to each other as well as to other parts of the system. Making changes in one system might create a cascading effect on other systems in ways that can be difficult to grasp and overwhelming to those making decisions or affected by them. Furthermore, in complex systems we have to deal with subsystems with different goals that are not always fully aligned or even competing, such as competing interests of different stakeholders. Games can help stakeholders understand complexities and interdependencies in the systems, because they can engage participants and hold their attention for long enough for them to start understanding the complexity.
In this theme, we create gamified environments that help decision-makers to explore system's trade-offs and different viewpoints in a gamified environment to develop capacity for decision making. We also create environments for social exchange, to help the participants (e.g., the communities) explore system's complexity and start co-creating solutions to the messy and wicked problems.
Simulations & Scenario Thinking
When strategic decisions are made or policies are implemented, implications and consequences of such decisions can rarely be anticipated in full, and what alternative future scenarios we should be prepared for. In the context of climate change in particular, strategic decisions need to be tightly coupled with consequences and collapsed in time to make them more effective within the limited timeframe. This can be achieved by immersing decision makers in a simulation that allows them to play out decision options. Games and gamified environments help provide psychological safety for experimenting. When exposed to different experiences, decision makers neutralised biases are thus more likely to make better decisions. Furthermore, simulations are imperfect and games can help to validate them.
Within this theme we focus on modelling complex systems and developing a playground for reality simulation and experimentation, e.g. playing out alternative long-term policies. We build simulations, validate them with reality, and engage with different stakeholders, such as policy-makers, corporations and societal organisations to help them make better decisions. We also explore how gamification can be used to imagine how the world of the future could look like, e.g., through alternate reality games. Using gameful and playful approaches can help to capture more diverse views and opinions about different futures as well as alternative scenarios of the future.
Interventions for System's Change
We know that many problems in soft systems that are the most difficult to solve, e.g., transition to Net Zero and sustainable development more broadly are rooted in behaviour. Traditionally, the assumption was that if the conditions are right, the behaviour would adjust, however, in messy and wicked problems, such as the context of climate change, if behavioural change is left to the market to solve, it will be too late. To help us design better interventions for accelerated behavioural change, we focus on analysing systems, their structure, boundaries and behaviour, and identifying key pressure points. We also focus understanding why individuals and organisations behave as they do, and investigating why and how gamification works as an intervention, e.g., through longitudinal studies of the impact of interventions, so as to help individuals, organisations and society accelerate transition to sustainable development through better interventions.