Games as Mediating Platforms in an Open and Digital World

Abstract

The complexity of social interactions has been pointed out as challenges in studies on social development, education, cultural diversity, behavior change, and innovation. The COVID-19 pandemics highlighted important issues of our modern society, especially regarding emotional and psychological issues: humans as artificial beings disconnected from the planet, anxious for socialization, mainly through virtual worlds. Stress, anxiety, hopelessness and depression are sources of concern, while pleasure - a fundamental aspect for human life - loses space. We argue that our society needs to recover the pleasure which relies on the learning aspects of life situations as well as to rebuild the way we interact for social or work purposes. In this chapter, we propose as a challenge for the games research community, to face the sophistication that encompasses how to conceptualize, model, design, evaluate, and play games which can turn our actions in the world more playful. We primarily approach games as enablers and agents for work relations, social change and innovation in organizations, with a special look to the Brazilian context.