The International Journal of Games and Social Impact
type: channel
description: The IJGSI is a semiannual open-access publication for games research and critique on social change, inclusion, education and Human Rights.
publisher: Edições Universitárias Lusófona
language: en
publication name: The International Journal of Games and Social Impact
issn: 2975-8386
copyright: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. The rights of each article are attributed to their author(s).
items: Gaming for Social Change: Sharmila and the Representation of Otherness
items: CULTURAL HERITAGE IN YAKUZA 0: REPRESENTING JAPAN’S BUBBLE ECONOMY
items: A QUALITATIVE CONTENT ANALYSIS OF AFRICAN VIDEO GAMES DEVELOPED BY STUDENTS
items: ‘Cornerstones for Creativity and Success’
items: DESIGNING WITH AMBIGUITY: Iterating Equity in Game Jam Design
items: Heroes, Helpers and Villains: Representations of the Carnation Revolution through Cultural Game Jam Outputs
items: Editorial
items: History-Themed Games from the Players' Perspective
items: Gaming in the Crossfire
items: Tactile Texts
items: STILL NOT GAME
items: DIGITAL ARTS, DIGITAL GAMES AND VOLUMETRY
items: Art devices - play devices: immersion vs. estrangement in art-games
items: COLLECTIVE AESTHETICS THROUGH I-POSITION AND SELF-ENGAGEMENT
items: PRESS PLAY TO START
items: Cover and Front Matter
items: Playing With Fake News: State Of Fake News Video Games
items: See Me Play! Self-portraiture in Pseudo-museums as Immersive Playscapes for Adults
items: Moral Complexity in Videogames: a Pragmatist Approach
items: School as Playground: Discussing a Play Structure for Higher Design Education
items: Mastering Modern Board Game Design to Build New Learning Experiences: the MBGTOTEACH Framework
items: Editorial - Rethinking Board Games in Contemporary Societies
items: Cognitive Teleintervention With Board Games During The Pandemic Lockdown In School-Age Children
items: An Analog Game-Based Intervention and a Playability Analysis in the Elderly - A Pilot Study
items: “Public Interest” and the (Potential) Social Impact of Board Games: The Role of the “Strategic Twist”, Definition and Scope
items: Current Accessibility Challenges and Perspectives for People with Visual Impairments in Tabletop Games
items: Guidelines for Ludonarrative Conversion: A Case Study for a Children's Book Converted to a Game
items: Computer Supported Accessible Dexterity-Based Board Games

Gaming for Social Change: Sharmila and the Representation of Otherness
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description: Digital games have evolved beyond entertainment to become tools for social activism, education, and cultural representation. Scholars in game studies have highlighted their unique rhetorical capacity, enabling narratives to shape users' perceptions through digital environments and simulations of real-world challenges. This capacity is central to serious games, which aim to raise awareness about global issues such as humanitarian crises, hunger, and climate change. Despite research on their pedagogical impact, the potential of serious games to represent marginalized themes, especially in global inequalities and humanitarian efforts, remains underexplored. Using thematic analysis grounded in extended gameplay sessions and deductive coding, this research examines Sharmila, a serious game by the World Food Programme (WFP) that highlights food insecurity and the struggles of vulnerable populations. The game immerses players in the realities of hunger, displacement, and survival, offering a form of situated learning that links knowledge acquisition with real-world contexts. Sharmila serves as a case study to explore the depiction of “the other” and the construction of difference, raising critical questions about the representation of marginalized voices and the framing of poverty and crisis narratives in serious games. This research situates Sharmila within broader debates on serious games and cultural representation, highlighting their role in shaping perceptions of social justice and global inequality.
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creator: Cátia Ferreira
creator: Tamires Oliveira
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Cátia Ferreira, Tamires Oliveira
date: 2025-12-30
publication date: 2025-12-30
starting page: 102
ending page: 133
doi: 10.60543/ijgsi.v3.n2.05

CULTURAL HERITAGE IN YAKUZA 0: REPRESENTING JAPAN’S BUBBLE ECONOMY
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description: The growing implementation of video games to depict cultural heritage goals has sparked an increased interest in research opportunities. This study presents a research opportunity on the portrayal of tangible and intangible cultural elements in Yakuza 0 during bubble economy of the late 1980s. The bubble economy is an important milestone in Japan not only for its impact on economy but also a cultural paradigm due to liquidity of money among its citizen who loosened themselves in over consumption of goods and services. The study relied on a framework that used dimensions of cultural heritage to analyze the tangible and intangible cultural aspects portrayed in the game through extensive gameplay and text analysis. It focused on different elements from Yakuza 0, identifying the cultural heritage represented by those elements, suggesting Yakuza 0 as an effective representative of Japan’s bubble economy culture. The world design, landmarks, in-game objects, as well as the story, environment, and side activities replicate the cultural impact of bubble economy in Japan due to liquidity of money and the desire for excessive consumption. The study highlights the effectiveness of Yakuza 0 as a time capsule for the later generation to learn the Japanese cultural heritage during bubble economy.
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creator: Md. Nahid-Ull-Islam Zoya
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Md. Nahid-Ull-Islam Zoya
date: 2025-12-30
publication date: 2025-12-30
starting page: 12
ending page: 29
doi: 10.60543/ijgsi.v3.n2.01

A QUALITATIVE CONTENT ANALYSIS OF AFRICAN VIDEO GAMES DEVELOPED BY STUDENTS
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description: It is necessary to move away from non-colonised perspectives in video games. There have been numerous issues with the representation of Africa and the portrayal of Africans in video games. It is necessary to discuss the essential aspects of Africanisation in video games to ensure that the African perspective is represented clearly. By utilising the participatory culture framework, students were grouped together to create video games with African themes. Students developed 17 unique games, all based on African themes. Eight unique characteristics were extracted from the video games. These characteristics include aesthetics, music and dance, mythological creatures, religion, race, play style, landscape, and language. This paper aims to inspire the representation of the rich African heritage in video games of African origin. In this way, we can ensure that the knowledge of indigenous African entities is projected, transmitted, and protected, despite the prevalence of Western approaches worldwide. Therefore, the paper recommends proper representation of African culture in both local and Western games and suggests further research to better understand the African phenomenon.
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creator: Oluwarotimi Randle
creator: Rebecca Y. Bayeck
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Oluwarotimi Randle, Rebecca Y. Bayeck
date: 2025-12-30
publication date: 2025-12-30
starting page: 134
ending page: 161
doi: 10.60543/ijgsi.v3.n2.06

‘Cornerstones for Creativity and Success’
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description: Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are value-based principles that are widely utilised in building more socially and culturally sustainable environments that are experienced as welcoming and fair for all – also in diverse game cultural contexts. In this study, we investigate how different types of game cultural organisations in Finland understand DEI in the context of their own activities, and what kind of guidelines and practices they have for promoting DEI. The results are based on a reflexive content analysis on 18 public DEI documents from 11 Finnish game cultural organisations focusing on digital games and gaming. Based on our analysis, it seems that Finnish game cultural organisations view DEI as a pathway for their continuous success as well as for building better game culture for everyone. The examined organisations were actively expressing their commitment to promoting DEI both by working to prevent discrimination and harassment and by utilising practices to build safer and more inclusive environments. However, it was not always clear if these organisations had set specific goals for their DEI work and if they were following their progress in this area. Importantly, our investigation illustrates that a wide range of different types of organisations can contribute to the cultural ecosystem in which digital games are created, consumed, and utilised in various ways, and that inspecting this variety of organisations operating on different sectors of game culture may reveal more widely shared cultural values and practices within this environment.
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creator: Usva Friman
creator: Essi Taino
creator: Kalle Laakso
creator: Taina Myöhänen
creator: Olli Sotamaa
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Usva Friman, Essi Taino, Kalle Laakso, Taina Myöhänen, Olli Sotamaa
date: 2025-12-30
publication date: 2025-12-30
starting page: 30
ending page: 53
doi: 10.60543/ijgsi.v3.n2.02

DESIGNING WITH AMBIGUITY: Iterating Equity in Game Jam Design
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description: This paper examines how inclusive, pluriversal, and transversal design lenses can reimagine game jams with youth, supporting and qualifying them as equitable, transformative, and empowering interventions. Drawing on theoretical and analytical insights from a contemporary research and innovation project that develops and experiments with cultural game jams, we examine how the design and iteration of these as collaborative game-making spaces can foster creativity, equity, and new forms of collective care. We initially frame the emerging field of game jams and their design, along with framing the three design lenses of inclusive, pluriversal, and transversal design. Through a retrospective analysis of the iterative processes involved in planning, designing, executing and evaluating cultural game jams with youth as participants and partners, we discuss how these lenses might inform more just and participatory design processes and propose relevant design questions. We argue that they offer valuable frameworks for addressing power, fostering care, and enabling young people to imagine and shape their futures. The paper contributes a theoretically grounded and practice-based framework for designing game jams to foster ethical, inclusive, and co-creative participation through the lenses of inclusive, pluriversal, and transversal design approaches.
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creator: Kim Holflod
creator: Eva Eriksson
creator: Em Achileus Hansen
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Kim Holflod, Eva Eriksson, Em Achileus Hansen
date: 2025-12-30
publication date: 2025-12-30
starting page: 54
ending page: 83
doi: 10.60543/ijgsi.v3.n2.03

Heroes, Helpers and Villains: Representations of the Carnation Revolution through Cultural Game Jam Outputs
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description: The present article aims to analyse the content of nine game prototypes produced in the Óbidos Cultural Game Jam, organized in the context of EPIC-WE, a European project dedicated to game-making through a cultural lens. The research focus was on its representation of the Carnation Revolution, an historical event that led to the implementation of democracy in Portugal. Games were divided into three categories, based primarily on the protagonist’s role and depiction of revolutionary action. Games under the “hero” category attributed maximum importance to the protagonist as a revolutionary agent, “helpers” focused on small tasks that contributed to the revolution as a whole and “villains” opted for thrusting the player into oppressive roles as a way to critique the dictatorship
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creator: Francisco Assis
creator: Maria Costa
creator: Maria Gonçalves
creator: Inês Nunes
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Francisco Assis, Maria Costa, Maria Gonçalves, Inês Nunes
date: 2025-12-30
publication date: 2025-12-30
starting page: 84
ending page: 101
doi: 10.60543/ijgsi.v3.n2.04

Editorial
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subject: Editorial Information
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creator: Rikke Toft Nørgård
creator: Conceição Costa
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Rikke Toft Nørgård, Conceição Costa
date: 2025-12-30
publication date: 2025-12-30
starting page: 4
ending page: 11
doi: 10.60543/ijgsi.v3.n2.editorial

History-Themed Games from the Players' Perspective
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description: This study seeks to answer the question: What are the opinions and experiences of young people interested in history regarding learning history through digital games? To address this question, posts by enthusiasts of history-themed games on Reddit, a popular social media platform among gamers, were analysed through qualitative content analysis. Based on these posts, additional questions were formulated and posted on the platform to further explore the topic. The responses, along with the initial posts, were collected and analysed. The study is limited to texts written in Turkish or English by users on the mentioned social media platform. The findings reveal that some students attribute their success in history courses to digital games, while certain teachers incorporate these games as educational tools in their lessons. Additionally, some users stated that digital games can provide fundamental knowledge of historical events and offer complementary benefits for history education. On the other hand, some users expressed concerns about the potential of digital games to distort historical accuracy, highlighting the risk of misrepresentation in game narratives.
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creator: Ayşegül Nihan Erol Şahin
creator: Muhammed Erdoğan
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Ayşegül Nihan Erol Şahin, Muhammed Erdoğan
date: 2026-05-01
publication date: 2026-05-01
starting page: 134
ending page: 161
doi: 10.60543/ijgsi.v4.n1.07

Gaming in the Crossfire
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description: Negative online behaviors, such as toxicity, continue being issues in several popular multiplayer online games (PUBG) affecting player’s experience. Related research suggests that there are individual differences in how players understand the concept, and that various interconnected variables are relevant in understanding the emergence of toxicity. Although previous studies have illustrated common types and features of in-game toxic behavior, it remains unclear what psychological mechanisms can explain why toxic behavior emerges and evolves in gaming environments. To fill this research gap, this study explores the forms, causes, and effects of toxicity in PUBG, drawing insights from player interviews and community forum analyses. The findings reveal that toxicity manifests as trolling, harassment, skill-based insults, and gender-based discrimination, disrupting communication and creating hostile environments. The results were used to create a series of recommendations for online video game developers in their attempts to address toxicity. Recommendations included emphasizing transparency with a game's player base, overhauling the in-game report function, and introducing a system for reinforcing positive behaviors.
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creator: Akinade Adewojo
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Akinade Adewojo
date: 2026-05-01
publication date: 2026-05-01
starting page: 162
ending page: 187
doi: 10.60543/ijgsi.v4.n1.08

Tactile Texts
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description: This paper describes Shadow Castle, a two-player interactive storybook game that blends digital projection with tactile materials to engage players in narrative exploration. Developed as an arts-based intervention, the game supports aliterate learners – those who can read but don’t want to – by reimagining reading as a self-driven yet collaborative process rooted in play and imagination. In the game, two players progress through a fairytale-inspired world using a collaged fabric book constructed with conductive materials, as well as a companion tablet. Touch-based interactions reminiscent of touch-and-feel storybooks activate hidden story elements, trigger animations from an overhead projector, and reveal additional pieces of narrative. This multisensory structure reframes reading as an active, process-based social experience, concepts that align with the core principles of intrinsic motivation. The development of Shadow Castle was shaped by co-design sessions with university students, who explored their emotional and symbolic associations to fabric through playful activities. These sessions investigated how physical materials shape understanding, offering valuable insight into how learners might connect more deeply with story when multiple senses are involved. Insights from these sessions directly informed the book’s material design. This paper outlines the game’s design process, technical implementation, and early playtest feedback, while also reflecting on how its creation shaped the author’s evolving artistic practice. By merging craft, technology, and storytelling, Shadow Castle explores how multimodal, participatory design can open new pathways into reading, particularly for those who have felt excluded or disinterested in traditional text-based approaches.
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creator: Simone Downie
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Simone Downie
date: 2026-05-01
publication date: 2026-05-01
starting page: 8
ending page: 31
doi: 10.60543/ijgsi.v4.n1.01

STILL NOT GAME
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description: Still Not Game reflects on the use of Unreal Engine as a visual artist’s studio space. The artist presents her personal journey of learning and making with the software, never having played a computer game. Determined to create abstract work unrelated to games or simulation, she built a virtual realm more concerned with non-worldly experience. The world formed into a sublime landscape, a timeless space that might transport visitors to altered states. Years later, after many software updates, the artist still feels like a beginner, using only fragments of its vast potential. Through experimentation and accretion, that world became an overwhelming space, full of strange objects, overgrown like a crazy garden. A revelation, a shift to an artist’s mindset, suddenly turned it into an artist studio: a site where iteration, what-if scenarios and serendipitous insights give rise to an endless flow of new works, exploring luminosity and transcendent spaces afforded by the software.
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creator: Linda Loh
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Linda Loh
date: 2026-05-01
publication date: 2026-05-01
starting page: 114
ending page: 133
doi: 10.60543/ijgsi.v4.n1.06

DIGITAL ARTS, DIGITAL GAMES AND VOLUMETRY
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description: The paper here presented stems from the experiences had at Laboratório de Poéticas Fronteiriças, LabFront, a research, development and innovation group that aims to problematize at the borders of the fields of science, art, and technology. One of the most relevant aspects of social construction currently is the way in which new, state-of-the-art technology is being applied to visual, artistic creations, and how they help us shape and understand the reality we live in. Specifically in the third decade of the 21st century, the applied potential of digital games, or gamified applications are, virtually, present in most aspects of our day-to-day lives. In this paper we propose to better analyse how such creations, which we understand as a facet of digital arts, are relevant to the ever developing world. Having a special interest towards the use and application of new technology and how it affects the strength of such visual, poetic constructions this paper aims to analyse how and in which ways new volumetry technologies are (or can be) used in digital game as a way to strengthen and expand the possibilities that such creations can achieve and, consequently, its social impact and reverberation.
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creator: Pablo Gobira
creator: Emanuelle Silva
creator: Eduardo Séllos
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Pablo Gobira, Emanuelle Silva, Eduardo Séllos
date: 2026-05-01
publication date: 2026-05-01
starting page: 70
ending page: 93
doi: 10.60543/ijgsi.v4.n1.04

Art devices - play devices: immersion vs. estrangement in art-games
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description: This paper examines the concept of "device" in art, beginning with Viktor Shklovsky's Russian formalist concept of ostranenie, or "making strange," as the essence of artistic expression. It then applies this idea to games, especially hybrid and large-scale analog art games, by exploring the central, academic tension between immersion and the Verfremdungseffekt (alienation effect) as an ethical-political device linked to the German playwright Bertolt Brecht. While the dominant paradigm in game design is immersion—where the player is so emotionally absorbed that they forget the artificiality of the medium—Brecht's Verfremdungseffekt is the deliberate act of breaking the audience's focus on narrative to allow for critical thinking about the situation. This paper argues that games that exist solely as one or the other are limited: a game focused solely on immersion risks being pure entertainment. At the same time, one concentrated solely on alienation could be perceived as abstract or unplayable. The most powerful design, therefore, lies in the dialectic between these two forces, in complicity. Estrangement creates an intentional "crisis within immersion" that forces the player to step back from their emotional experience and critically analyze the game's constructed situations and underlying systems. Through this process, the player becomes complicit, and the game is transformed into a participatory and critical medium, serving a political and didactic function that encourages reflection on the issues and power dynamics it models - an essential direction if it is to be considered a form of art. This paper draws upon the author’s design experience, using art games to demonstrate these concepts in practice. The analysis includes The Rousseau Game, an exhibition playground created for and displayed at the National Museum for Contemporary Art in Bucharest and Divided, a game developed for the Deep Space 8K at the Ars Electronica Center Linz.
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creator: Maria Mandea
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Maria Mandea
date: 2026-05-01
publication date: 2026-05-01
starting page: 58
ending page: 69
doi: 10.60543/ijgsi.v4.n1.03

COLLECTIVE AESTHETICS THROUGH I-POSITION AND SELF-ENGAGEMENT
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description: The social impact of board game usability is historically explored in group and multiplayer contexts, ranging from pedagogical spaces of collaborative student learning to team and businesses development. Alongside educational usability, aesthetic features of board games are long established in children and adults therapy for enhancing symbolic and emotional expression with interpersonal motivation in a safe space. Given consistent emphasis on multiplayer board games and group impact, this paper addresses an overlooked area concerning human interaction with oneself rather than with others, achieved through artistic features in solo board games. We, therefore, employ psychological and aesthetic frameworks to discuss the significance of I-position designs for identity multiplicity, demonstrating the need for solo game designs to improve inclusion specifically for neurodivergent and disabled individuals as well as introverts who may prefer solo board games.
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creator: Maryam Farahani
creator: Ian Schermbrucker
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Maryam Farahani, Ian Schermbrucker
date: 2026-05-01
publication date: 2026-05-01
starting page: 32
ending page: 57
doi: 10.60543/ijgsi.v4.n1.02

PRESS PLAY TO START
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description: Curating video games in art museums presents a range of complex theoretical and practical challenges, necessitating a critical reassessment of established museological norms and practices. As both cultural artifacts and interactive experiences, video games are inherently participatory, technologically dependent, and susceptible to rapid obsolescence, which complicates the processes associated with their collection, preservation, and exhibition in ways that exceed the demands associated with traditional art objects. Drawing a parallel between New Media Art and video games, this article focuses on the challenges of exhibiting digital and electronic works within the context of art museums. By examining the process of translating video games into artistic objects and the implications of their inclusion in museum settings, it invites a reflection on more specific issues, including the mediation of interactivity within institutional space; the construction of narratives that confer cultural value and stimulate critical engagement; the tension between material and immaterial components; the intersection of gaming culture and the white-cube gallery; and technological obsolescence, which threatens to render games unplayable within a few years, thereby jeopardizing their preservation as authentic cultural forms. This analysis is informed by perspectives from museum studies and curatorial theory. By theorizing these issues, this exploratory article contends that video games should not be merely integrated into pre-existing curatorial frameworks. Rather, their exhibition demands the development of new curatorial models that address hybridity, interactivity, and technological ephemerality. Ultimately, this study contributes to broader debates surrounding digital culture, arguing that video games compel museums to reconsider both their curatorial practices and their foundational conceptual frameworks.
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creator: Raquel Pereira
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Raquel Pereira
date: 2026-05-01
publication date: 2026-05-01
starting page: 94
ending page: 113
doi: 10.60543/ijgsi.v4.n1.05

Editorial
type: item
subject: Editorial Information
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creator: Hugo Barata
creator: Rui Filipe Antunes
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Hugo Barata, Rui Filipe Antunes
date: 2026-05-01
publication date: 2026-05-01
starting page: 4
ending page: 7
doi: 10.60543/10.60543/ijgsi.v4.n1.editorial

Cover and Front Matter
type: item
subject: Editorial Information
  topic: section
creator: International Journal of Games and Social Impact
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 IJGSI
date: 2025-12-30
publication date: 2025-12-30
starting page: 1
ending page: 3

Playing With Fake News: State Of Fake News Video Games
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description: Employed almost synonymously with disinformation and misinformation, fake news refers to the increasing discourse of misconfigured news and information being shared online which has prompted global concern. Calls for digital literacy have come from researchers, governments, and public interest groups who developing an array of resources for the public. Games are one intervention. This article explores what it refers to as ‘fake news games’. Not focusing on a specific game genre, it considers video games that discuss or present fake news as central to their play or design. This paper evaluates how fake news is being presented in games and asks how the concept understood across these games. By analyzing the content, skills, and goals in these games, it situates fake news alongside digital literacy skills to see how the term is being re-framed by the medium of games. Twenty-two games were studied from a larger sample collected in late 2020. Through play analysis of twenty-two fake news video games collected in 2020 this paper provides an overview of game’s that discuss fake news. Games were play-tested and recorded to see the range of content, skills and central themes that were invoked in these games. These led to findings discussing the design, core premise, and general discourse around fake news that was promoted through play. The findings in this article offer value for future directions of discussion and game design focused on fake news. By pointing to gaps and differences in games in the field, this article offers potential information for designers while also highlighting how fake news is re-framed by these games. It emphasizes which points of interest around fake news are commonly being brought up, and points to future design and implementation considerations for scholars and designers.
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creator: Scott DeJong
rights: Copyright (c)
date: 2022-12-13
publication date: 2022-12-13
starting page: 94
ending page: 111
doi: 10.24140/ijgsi.v1.n1.05

See Me Play! Self-portraiture in Pseudo-museums as Immersive Playscapes for Adults
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description: This article analyzes and deconstructs interactive and immersive ‘pseudo-museum’ environments, which seem to be all about making the self-documenting player the main exhibit, or spectacle. The research material collected through a visual autoethnographic approach consists of photoplays and videos evidencing the author’s visits and adult play in four museums dedicated to selfies during pre-pandemic times (2019-2020), namely the Museum of Ice Cream in San Francisco and New York, Happy Place and The Selfie Museum in Las Vegas. Findings of the autoethnography demonstrate that the play experience based on selfie-taking is both a solitary and social form of play, and to some degree dictated and directed by the exteriors, interiors, rules of engagement and the hosts assisting. Finally, it is argued that self-portraiture in the ‘pseudo-museum’ context is about the creation of ‘playfies’, and making a toy out of oneself.
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creator: Katriina Heljakka
rights: Copyright (c)
date: 2023-01-01
publication date: 2023-01-01
starting page: 8
ending page: 33
doi: 10.24140/ijgsi.v1.n1.01

Moral Complexity in Videogames: a Pragmatist Approach
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description: The field of videogame ethics has already achieved a differentiated view on many ethical questions in regards to videogames, their players and the industry. However, most of these approaches have neglected the benefits of a less abstract, more pragmatic view on videogame ethics. Thus, in this paper, I will introduce the concept of moral complexity to formulate a device that allows a pragmatic identification, categorisation, discussion, and design of moral content in videogames. Moral complexity is defined as (or by) the degree to which a game offers alternatives and/or commentary to violence and deceit to players and is exclusively referring to how the issue of morality is implemented in past and contemporary game design. It is a reductionist approach, which treats morality as a game design element and shall help to understand the experience of morality in a closed player/ game circuit. To introduce and explain the notion of moral complexity, this paper will begin with a brief overview of fundamental developments and perspectives in the field of videogame ethics. Further, moral complexity is introduced based on a rendering of Kantian metaphysics into virtual space. Then, elements of Aristotle’s ethics, Csikszentmihalyi’s concept of flow and Habermas’ principles of communicative action are defined to articulate the phenomenological aspect of experiencing moral complexity ingame. Based on these theoretical building blocks, a comprehensive definition of moral complexity is presented. To illustrate this construct, cases of videogames (Grand Theft Auto V, Spec Ops: The Line and Detroit: Become Human) are introduced to exemplify different degrees and manifestations of moral complexity in contemporary game design. Moreover, a discussion on issues shall forward a differentiated picture of the concept. In the end, a conclusion presents prospects and chances for the notion of moral complexity.
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creator: Benjamin Hanussek
rights: Copyright (c)
date: 2023-01-01
publication date: 2023-01-01
starting page: 34
ending page: 53
doi: 10.24140/ijgsi.v1.n1.02

School as Playground: Discussing a Play Structure for Higher Design Education
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description: In this paper we intend to discuss the main elements of play – rules, order, freedom, pleasure, competition, representation, separation and uncertainty – as key elements of a new alternative learning structure in higher design education centered on ludic thinking. From the assumption that play is a free movement within a more rigid structure and that playful thinking is intrinsic to us, we draw on Aldo van Eyck and the City as Playground text by Merijn Oudenampsen (2011) and make an analogy between school and playground to discuss play process as learning process and study alternative pedagogies to traditional teaching which seek to foster self-learning through the work Homo ludens. School is observed as a playground where learning takes place through the transgression that results from the strong engagement with the context, the free exploration of space and matter and the ongoing dialogic interactions of the participants. This work is developed by cross-referencing data from different sociologists, educators, designers, and game theorists in connection with the data collected from an open talk with the author and four guests: Luís Alegre da Silva (designer, researcher, and lecturer in the field of communication design), Miguel Vieira Baptista (designer and lecturer in the field of product design), Filipe Luz (researcher and lecturer in the field of Multimedia and Videogames) and Ana Jotta (Visual artist) – that took place in the 1st Games and Social Impact Media Research Lab Conference (Glow2021) hosted by Lusófona University as a joint initiative between the CICANT and HEI-Lab research centers.
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creator: Marta Guerra Belo
rights: Copyright (c)
date: 2023-01-01
publication date: 2023-01-01
starting page: 54
ending page: 67
doi: 10.24140/ijgsi.v1.n1.03

Mastering Modern Board Game Design to Build New Learning Experiences: the MBGTOTEACH Framework
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description: Games have proven to be engaging tools for learning. Digital games dominate, but analog games are not obsolete. Modern board games provide new opportunities for teachers. This paper proposes the MBGTOTEACH framework as an introduction and ongoing process for teachers to use, adapt, and develop modern board games for learning purposes. This framework aims to help teachers profit from these games to build their game-based approaches. The MBGTOTEACH framework was tested during two sessions with teachers and education researchers. It increased the awareness of the potential of game-based learning and the design characteristics of modern board games. Sessions results show that participants might need a more solid game culture and experiences to recognize how to explore games’ potential. Modifying and developing new learning games based on modern board games is not achieved rapidly, although recognizing the games’ potential in introducing sessions is achievable.
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creator: Micael Sousa
rights: Copyright (c)
date: 2023-01-01
publication date: 2023-01-01
starting page: 68
ending page: 93
doi: 10.24140/ijgsi.v1.n1.04

Editorial
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description: International Journal of Games and Social Impact, 1(1) Editorial
subject: Editorial Information
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creator: Pedro Neves
creator: Carla Sousa
creator: Filipe Costa Luz
creator: Maria Micaela Fonseca
rights: Copyright (c)
date: 2023-01-01
publication date: 2023-01-01
starting page: 4
ending page: 7
doi: 10.24140/ijgsi.v1.n1.editorial

Editorial - Rethinking Board Games in Contemporary Societies
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description: International Journal of Games and Social Impact, 1(2) Editorial
subject: Editorial Information
  topic: section
creator: Micael Sousa
rights: Copyright (c)
date: 2023-09-01
publication date: 2023-09-01
starting page: 4
ending page: 7
doi: 10.24140/ijgsi.v1.n2.editorial

Cognitive Teleintervention With Board Games During The Pandemic Lockdown In School-Age Children
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description: Background. Playing modern board games has been linked to cognitive enhancement in children when playing face-to-face. However, because of the SARS-CoV-2, playing in an analog way was difficult. Objective. To test the efficacy of a cognitive intervention program with board games in school-age children (25 Spaniards; 5-12 years) delivered remotely through web conferencing. Methods. We performed a randomized controlled trial with a wait-list control group (n=10) and pre-post testing (updating, inhibition, flexibility, and verbal fluency). The study was preregistered on clinicaltrials.gov (NCT04823338). The experimental group (n=15) played commercialized board games adapted to an online format during 12 sessions. Results and Conclusions. We found higher flexibility and verbal fluency improvements in the experimental than in the control group. We also saw improvements in visuospatial updating solely in the passive control group. Board games played remotely could entail some cognitive benefits, though we found paradigmatic results too. Board games may benefit the most when played face to face.
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creator: Nuria Vita-Barrull
creator: Verónica Estrada-Plana
creator: Jaume March-Llanes
creator: Núria Guzmán
creator: María Mayoral
creator: Jorge Moya Higueras
rights: Copyright (c)
date: 2023-09-01
publication date: 2023-09-01
starting page: 8
ending page: 37
doi: 10.24140/ijgsi.v1.n2.01

An Analog Game-Based Intervention and a Playability Analysis in the Elderly - A Pilot Study
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description: Introduction: Gamed-based interventions (GBI) in old people is an interesting topic for aging-well purposes, however, few studies exist focused on the assessment of multimodal interactive experience (emotions, skills, engagement, etc), and most of them used digital games. Therefore, validation of analog GBIs, when implemented in the geriatric field, should be completed with a playability analysis. Aim: To characterise a multicomponent playability analysis, considering (i) emotional state changes, and (ii) the perceived experience during the implementation of an analog gamed-based short-term intervention in the institutionalized elderly person. Method: A pre and post-test study was conducted during four weeks of intervention through an analogue game. Participants were elderly people institutionalised in a Residential Home for the Elderly in the central region of Portugal. Playability is assessed before and after the sessions with analogue games, using the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) (0-10) of emotions and a questionnaire about participants’ perceptions of game-based experience. Results: Thirteen elderly people (9 women/4 men) with a mean age of 80±9.32 years participated in the study. A total of 48 states of tiredness/excitement, calmness/anxiety, and sadness/joy were recorded: 44,4% of participants increased their level of excitement; 66,7% decreased their level of excitement. The serious aims of the game were well perceived while maintaining the perception of the playful and fun character. Conclusion: The positive emotional changes in the elderly might be a sign of self-perceived novelty and challenge in the game. A good perception of the serious purpose of the game is associated with a positive emotional state, which encourages the adoption of proficiency feedback mode in the game. This pilot study was a relevant contribution to the continuing progression of playability analysis in elderly therapeutic contexts.
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creator: Dara Pincegher
creator: Marlene Rosa
creator: Emanuel Silva
creator: Roberta Frontini
rights: Copyright (c)
date: 2023-09-01
publication date: 2023-09-01
starting page: 38
ending page: 56
doi: 10.24140/ijgsi.v1.n2.02

“Public Interest” and the (Potential) Social Impact of Board Games: The Role of the “Strategic Twist”, Definition and Scope
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description: Modern board games – precisely after what has been dubbed the “renaissance” of analog games since the publication of Catan and the consequent affirmation of the “German games” – have served for a vast reflection in the field of metagame. In this text it is considered that the effects following what is called “strategic twist” in modern board games, allow reflecting about the dynamics of the field of leisure/ludicity from two aspects: the orientation of games towards strategy; and the strategic character of the transition of/in the milieu. One must understand how the “twist” can be thought about and what can be thought about the political-philosophical reflections that address the “public interest”, and how these two fields can be broadly intertwined. With this theoretical-societal connection, the aim here is to move on from the role that the “strategic twist” plays in calling the “public interest” attention for the practice of this type of activity (the impact of a new dissemination of games), to the “public interest”, that may have reciprocally provided it; and to how something like this “interest” can be treated in the games themselves. Finally, also how some light can be shed on it by the combination and choice of some game mechanics. The intersection of these two domains also prepares us to talk about serious issues in the future.
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creator: Paulo Antunes
rights: Copyright (c)
date: 2023-09-01
publication date: 2023-09-01
starting page: 57
ending page: 75
doi: 10.24140/ijgsi.v1.n2.03

Current Accessibility Challenges and Perspectives for People with Visual Impairments in Tabletop Games
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description: Much has already been discussed about the educational benefits of playing Tabletop games. However, as United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4.5 points out, there still exist many disparities in the access to quality education by vulnerable groups. This paper aims to address some of the factors that contribute to this disparity in regard to people with visual impairments in Brazil. Beyond that, there is a much more dire barrier of access to: the majority of information about the games is presented visually. In practice, people with visual impairments have to rely on the “goodwill” of other people to try and adapt the games for them, who are generally their teachers, friends or relatives. Lastly, this paper presents some accessibility criteria to be considered when designing board games for people with visual impairments, as well as present the Design in Partnership approach as a viable method to design more meaningful games for this context.
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creator: João Léste
creator: Jackeline Farbiarz
rights: Copyright (c)
date: 2023-09-01
publication date: 2023-09-01
starting page: 76
ending page: 97
doi: 10.24140/ijgsi.v1.n2.04

Guidelines for Ludonarrative Conversion: A Case Study for a Children's Book Converted to a Game
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description: Video games are a way to help children improve their communication and collaboration skills as well as engage them in the world of their favorite book characters. This paper explains the unique features of books and games, and how interactivity can enhance the reader experience in the game world. It then goes on to explain various design considerations for children, including age ratings and designs for screen time recommendations. Further, game mechanics are paired with Erickson’s stages of development to facilitate optimal design in various age group. Finally, a development framework is presented, and a case study features a prototype design which displays these principles in a real-world setting.
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creator: Katryna Starks
rights: Copyright (c)
date: 2023-09-01
publication date: 2023-09-01
starting page: 119
ending page: 139
doi: 10.24140/ijgsi.v1.n2.06

Computer Supported Accessible Dexterity-Based Board Games
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description: Board game accessibility analyses conducted by the Meeple Centred Design project have identified a number of problem areas where there exist no accessible intersection of disability and game design paradigm. While there exist fun and innovative board games for most players, making use of most game mechanisms, there exists no identified dexterity game accessible to those with physical impairments. Indeed, it is hard to imagine what form a game of that nature might take. In this paper, we outline a technological solution making use of computer vision, digital representation, and accessible game design. In its proof of concept form, it serves as a way of making the game Crokinole playable by mixed-needs groups. Future work will generalise this solution to work for a wide array of flicking and pushing based dexterity games, along with investigating how existing digital accessibility support tools can be leveraged to expand the demographic that can benefit from this approach.
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creator: Michael James Heron
rights: Copyright (c)
date: 2023-09-01
publication date: 2023-09-01
starting page: 98
ending page: 118
doi: 10.24140/ijgsi.v1.n2.05