Serious Games in Spatial Planning: Strengths, Limitations and Support Frameworks

Abstract

Serious games are being developed in many fields of research and proving to be valuable practical tools. In the planning field, games can help approach complexity and engage more participants through first-person experimentation. This paper presents an overview of the main strengths and limitations of applying serious games in spatial planning and discusses available support frameworks. It proposes some guidelines for researchers and practitioners that want to profit from game usage. Serious Games can be powerful tools but can easily lead to failure processes, which demand previous systematic analysis of what planners may do and expect from games.