Simulation games that integrate research, entertainment, and learning around ecosystem services

Journal Article · Fri Nov 07 00:00:00 EST 2014 · Ecosystem Services

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoser.2014.10.001· OSTI ID:1286801

Costanza, Robert ^[1]; Chichakly, Karim ^[2]; Dale, Virginia ^[3]; Farber, Steve ^[4]; Finnigan, David ^[5]; Grigg, Kat ^[6]; Heckbert, Scott ^[7]; Kubiszewski, Ida ^[1]; Lee, Harry ^[5]; Liu, Shuang ^[8]; Magnuszewski, Piotr ^[9]; Maynard, Simone ^[10]; McDonald, Neal ^[11]; Mills, Richard ^[3]; Ogilvy, Sue ^[1]; Pert, Petina L. ^[12]; Renz, Jochen ^[13]; Wainger, Lisa ^[14]; Young, Mike ^[15]; Richard Ziegler, C. ^[16]

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1. Australian National Univ., Canberra, ACT (Australia)
2. Isee Systems Inc., Lebanon, NH (United States)
3. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
4. Univ. of Pittsburgh, PA (United States)
5. Independent Game Designer (United Kingdom)
6. Univ. of Queensland, Brisbane (Australia)
7. Alberta Innovates, AB (Canada)
8. CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences (Australia)
9. Centre for Systems Solutions, Wroclaw (Poland)
10. Australian National Univ., Canberra, ACT (Australia). Fenner School of Environment and Society
11. Univ.of Maryland, Baltimore City, MD (United States)
12. James Cook Univ., Cairns, Queensland (Australia). Centre for Tropical Environmental and Sustainability Science
13. Australian National Univ., Canberra, ACT (Australia). Research School of Computer Science
14. Univ. of Maryland, College Park, MD (United States). Center for Environmental Science
15. Univ. of Adelaide, SA (Australia); Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States)
16. US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Cincinnati, OH (United States). Office of Research and Development

Humans currently spend over 3 billion person-hours per week playing computer games. Most of these games are purely for entertainment, but use of computer games for education has also expanded dramatically. At the same time, experimental games have become a staple of social science research but have depended on relatively small sample sizes and simple, abstract situations, limiting their range and applicability. If only a fraction of the time spent playing computer games could be harnessed for research, it would open up a huge range of new opportunities. We review the use of games in research, education, and entertainment and develop ideas for integrating these three functions around the idea of ecosystem services valuation. This approach to valuation can be seen as a version of choice modeling that allows players to generate their own scenarios taking account of the trade-offs embedded in the game, rather than simply ranking pre-formed scenarios. We outline a prototype game called Lagom Island to test the proposition that gaming can be used to reveal the value of ecosystem services. Ultimately, our prototype provides a potential pathway and functional building blocks for approaching the relatively untapped potential of games in the context of ecosystem services research.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• Grant/Contract Number: AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 1286801
• Journal Information: Ecosystem Services, Vol. 10, Issue C; ISSN 2212-0416
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS
97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING
Computer games
Choice modeling
Valuation