Dialogue Through Play: Games as a Bridge for Citizen Engagement.
Background: Digital games are increasingly used as tools for civic and societal engagement, particularly to reach younger and digitally literate publics on complex issues such as climate change. While such approaches can facilitate large‐scale participation and raise awareness, their capacity to sup...
| Publicado en: | Journal of Computer Assisted Learning Vol. 42; no. 3; pp. 1 - 11 |
|---|---|
| Autores principales: | , , , , , , , |
| Formato: | pictorial research tables/charts Journal Article |
| Publicado: |
Wiley-Blackwell
Jun2026
|
| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=194050880&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ccm uiTerm: 194050880 longDbName: CINAHL Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: dissinfo: jinfo: jid: 02664909 6M1 jtl: Journal of Computer Assisted Learning issn: 02664909 maglogo: Y pubinfo: dt: Jun2026 vid: 42 iid: 3 pid: 480 pub: Wiley-Blackwell place: Malden, Massachusetts artinfo: ui: 194050880 194050880 194050880 10.1002/jcal.70236 194050880 ppf: 1 ppct: 10 formats: tig: atl: Dialogue Through Play: Games as a Bridge for Citizen Engagement. aug: au: Harris, Rebecca Hollins, Paul Garg, Anchal Hewage, Pradeep Watson, Paul Iwendi, Celestine Ower, Jude Schuur, Joost affil: University of Greater Manchester, Bolton, UK sug: subj: Consumer Participation Video Games Public Policy Questionnaires Climate Change Prevention and Control Human Male Female Adult Exploratory Research Descriptive Statistics Inferential Statistics Chi Square Test Communication Decision Making Attitude to Health Internet Digital Technology Program Evaluation Interviews Open-Ended Questionnaires Funding Source Adult: 19-44 years Male Female ab: Background: Digital games are increasingly used as tools for civic and societal engagement, particularly to reach younger and digitally literate publics on complex issues such as climate change. While such approaches can facilitate large‐scale participation and raise awareness, their capacity to support deliberative forms of civic engagement within real‐world policy contexts remains insufficiently examined. Objectives: This study examines whether and how survey‐based engagement embedded within a commercial digital game can move beyond surface‐level participation towards forms of engagement relevant to policy deliberation. Methods: The paper reports on an exploratory case study (GCS1) conducted within the GREAT project, in which a multiple‐choice climate policy survey was embedded into a commercial multiplayer game. The design prioritised scale and accessibility over deliberative depth, enabling large‐scale, anonymous data collection from a predominantly young and digitally literate population. Descriptive and inferential analyses were used to examine patterns of engagement and policy preferences across demographic groups. Results and Conclusions: The embedded survey achieved high levels of participation, demonstrating the feasibility of game‐based data collection at scale and the potential of games to introduce climate policy issues to digitally engaged publics. However, expressed engagement and policy preferences did not provide evidence of deliberative reasoning, reflecting constraints associated with survey design, platform demographics and the absence of reflective or dialogic mechanisms. Game‐based surveys are therefore best understood as complementary entry points for civic engagement rather than standalone tools for democratic deliberation, highlighting the need to integrate games within broader deliberative and institutional frameworks. Lay Description: What is currently known about this topic? ○Digital games are increasingly used to engage citizens with climate and policy issues.What does this paper add? ○This study shows that surveys embedded in a commercial game can reach large audiences but have limited capacity to support reflective policy deliberation.Implications for practice/or policy: ○Game‐based surveys work best as entry points for engagement when linked to wider deliberative and policy processes. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: pictorial research tables/charts Journal Article ougenre: Article language: English refInfo: holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
|---|