This paper argues that serious games offer opportunities for civic engagement. This engagement is necessary for a good functioning democracy and as such context in which civic engagement flourishes must be nurtured. Games arguably offer such a context by facilitating a playful way of engaging with complex issues, such as poverty. Furthermore, games can provide a context that allows different angles for different players in terms of the same issue. This affects the changing academic notion of what it means to be a good citizen and, in particular, what this entails in terms of a more dynamic conceptualization of citizenship. While there is an increasing academic interest in serious games used as educational tools, a firm body of research within this tradition that considers long-term effects and behavioral changes in this respect is missing. The current study aims to contribute to this by investigating if there are long term behavioral changes in civic engagement and political participation after playing a serious game and how this is related to change in political interes
