Games Without Borders: Digital Play as a Global Communicative Infrastructure for Climate Policy Engagement.

Background: Digital games are increasingly used for civic purposes, yet questions remain about whether commercially mediated, non‐deliberative interactions can constitute meaningful civic engagement. Existing research largely overlooks how entertainment platform infrastructures shape the democratic...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:Journal of Computer Assisted Learning Vol. 42; no. 4; pp. 1 - 13
Autores principales: Harris, Rebecca, Hollins, Paul, Garg, Anchal, Hewage, Pradeep, Watson, Paul, Iwendi, Celestine, Ower, Jude, Schuur, Joost
Formato: pictorial research tables/charts Journal Article
Publicado: Wiley-Blackwell Aug2026
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=195655217&site=ehost-live
header:
  @attributes:
    shortDbName: ccm
    uiTerm: 195655217
    longDbName: CINAHL Complete
    uiTag: AN
  controlInfo:
    bkinfo:
    dissinfo:
    jinfo:
      jid:
        02664909
        6M1
      jtl: Journal of Computer Assisted Learning
      issn: 02664909
      maglogo: Y
    pubinfo:
      dt: Aug2026
      vid: 42
      iid: 4
      pid: 480
      pub: Wiley-Blackwell
      place: Malden, Massachusetts
    artinfo:
      ui:
        195655217
        195655217
        195655217
        10.1002/jcal.70290
        195655217
      ppf: 1
      ppct: 12
      formats:
      tig:
        atl: Games Without Borders: Digital Play as a Global Communicative Infrastructure for Climate Policy 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:
          Video Games
          Consumer Participation
          Communication
          Public Policy
          Human
          Questionnaires
          Internet-Based Intervention
          Descriptive Statistics
          Data Analysis Software
          Regression
          Chi Square Test
          Post Hoc Analysis
          Analysis of Variance
          Latin America
          Asia, Southeastern
          Africa South of the Sahara
          Funding Source
      ab: Background: Digital games are increasingly used for civic purposes, yet questions remain about whether commercially mediated, non‐deliberative interactions can constitute meaningful civic engagement. Existing research largely overlooks how entertainment platform infrastructures shape the democratic legitimacy and interpretability of user input at scale. Objectives: This paper investigates whether ambient interactions within commercial games can meaningfully be understood as civic engagement, and under what conditions. Methods: We analyse Play2Act, a climate‐focused questionnaire embedded across 24 popular commercial mobile games as part of the GREAT project, which engaged over 181,000 participants from nearly every country. Drawing on civic media, platform studies and digital participation literatures, we examine the methodological, ethical and interpretive dimensions of embedding policy‐relevant surveys in entertainment environments. The analysis focuses on how civic voice is structured by game design, platform affordances and datafication logics. Results and Conclusions: Play2Act exemplifies what we term para‐civic infrastructure: socio‐technical systems that simulate civic input without supporting deliberation or accountability. Without evidence of participant intentionality or comprehension of the civic framing, these data are best understood as ambient civic signals rather than direct expressions of democratic will. We conclude that digital games are valuable diagnostic sites for understanding civic engagement at scale, and call for more dialogic and transparent design in future civic‐technological interventions.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype:
        pictorial
        research
        tables/charts
        Journal Article
      ougenre: Article
    language: English
    refInfo:
    holdings:
      @attributes:
        islocal: N