Games Beyond Entertainment
Within this research theme, we situate all research on games and play where entertainment is not the main goal. Rather, games and play are studied in their capacity to persuade, steer, sell or in other ways influence the player through its design. This includes the many examples of serious games and gaming (educational, political, commercial) as well as the various forms and applications of gamification. We look both at the potential of, and provides critical reflection on these developments.
Crowds deciphered: simulation and control of the masses
We have researched a model for simulating crowds in big infrastructures, at events, and in computer games.
Game Research Magazine
In 2017, a special issue titled Game Research – Games that Change your Mind was published about the research projects of the Utrecht Center for Game Research.
Playful Identities – The Ludification of Digital Media Cultures
The edited volume Playful Identities Digital deals with media technologies that increasingly shape how people relate to the world, to other people and to themselves. This prompts questions about present-day mediations of identity.