New Media in Old Cities:The Emergence of the New Collective

This paper takes a look at the relationship between informational space and territory. It questions the common dichotomy that positions virtual space in opposition to physical space. It focuses on the different roles modern urban actors play in defining a new understanding of space as an inseparable composition of both the virtual and the physical realm. On the individual level, it looks at the emergence of a new type of citizen whose ludic attitude dynamically adapts the course of his responses to the virtual, real-time inputs that influence his presence in the physical environment. On the collective level, it analyses unintended, swarm-like synchronisations, and the role new media play in redefining the urban common

Mini is beautiful:Playing serious mini-games to facilitate collective learning on complex urban processes

Spatial planning projects can be conceived as processes of collective learning. Planners have been looking at games and playful approaches to support these processes. Considering that planning projects are long and complex, we propose to not reason for single, full-fledged and all-encompassing games, but instead work with strings of, so-called, serious mini-games that each addresses a specific learning goal, guided by a collective learning model. This paper conceptualizes a toolbox to support the development and contextualization of such strings of serious mini-games

Participatory game prototyping – balancing domain content and playability in a serious game design for the energy transition

Game design mostly engages future players as users and testers, whereas in the field of serious game design, approaches involving players more substantially are slowly emerging. This paper documents the participatory prototyping process of Energy Safari, a serious game for the energy transition in the Province of Groningen, and reports on the differences of the contributions made to the game development by separate groups of stakeholders. Each group contributed the most to the game elements that are most relevant to their interests. Overall, this study points to the potential of participatory game prototyping as a method to develop serious games that are balanced both in terms of domain content and playability, are meaningful for future players, and well embedded in the local context

Mapping Game Mechanics for Learning in a Serious Game for the Energy Transition

The integration of learning goals with game mechanics in serious games used in urban and spatial planning processes has the potential to enable game designers and planners to create games with narratives tightly aligned to particular processes and lead to increased learning outcomes. This study presents the results from testing Energy Safari, a serious game for the energy transition in the province of Groningen, and empirically associates specific game mechanics with learning events, derived from players' reports. The research is based on the analysis of post-play questionnaires. Play-testing Energy Safari illustrates that different learning events can be triggered by the same game mechanics, an observation which can be applied in serious game design to facilitate players with different learning needs and styles. In addition, play testing to evaluate the learning performance of serious games should be integrated in the game design process. However, to achieve lasting learning and actionable knowledge, serious games should be used complementarily with other civic participation methods

Mini is beautiful:Playing serious mini-games to facilitate collective learning on complex urban processes

Spatial planning projects can be conceived as processes of collective learning. Planners have been looking at games and playful approaches to support these processes. Considering that planning projects are long and complex, we propose to not reason for single, full-fledged and all-encompassing games, but instead work with strings of, so-called, serious mini-games that each addresses a specific learning goal, guided by a collective learning model. This paper conceptualizes a toolbox to support the development and contextualization of such strings of serious mini-games.</p

Chewing Gum and Graffiti: Aestheticized City Rhetoric in Post-2008 Athens

The post-2008 austerity measures imposed on Greece made public space in the city of Athens the prime target of economic development and city marketing. These processes are based on aesthetic strategies of ‘cleaning up’ and imposing a certain visual order while disposing signs of deprivation and exclusion in the streets. Referencing the works of Chantal Mouf fe and Jacques Rancière and illustrating a series of cases, we demonstrate how this exclusionary ‘police order’ of neoliberal consensus conf irms and reinforces the borders between the visible and invisible, acceptable and unacceptable. This is, however, contested by a more democratic aesthetics of redistribution, based on dif ference, which emerges as soon as the implemented order meets the world of complexity, boundaries and resistance

New Insights, New Rules: What Shapes the Iterative Design of an Urban Planning Game?

Games have become established tools within participatory urban planning practice that provide safe spaces for collective actions such as deliberation, negotiation of conflicting agendas, scenario testing, and collaborative worldbuilding. While a body of literature on the effectiveness of games to address complex urban planning issues is emerging, significantly less literature addresses the design and development process of serious games with a possible space in its own right within urban planning practice. Our study investigates long term iterative processes of designing a game for visioning urban futures, specifically, how design iterations connect to the application of games in practice by accommodating or responding to emerging needs, goals, and relationships. We approach this topic through the case study of the Sustainability Futures Game, a game designed by the Helsinki-based creative agency Hellon to support business leaders, sustainability specialists, and city officials to imagine desirable alternative urban futures. Through storytelling and collective worldbuilding, players first imagine what sustainable urban living means for a specific city, frame their vision using the UN's sustainable development goals, and finally create concrete pathways towards reaching these goals. This article uses a genealogical approach to systematically analyse the five design iterations of the Sustainability Futures Game. It aims to elucidate the contextual and relational influences on the application of serious games in urban planning practice to understand how these influences might encourage or inhibit their potential to foster transformation towards sustainable futures