Center for Game Research

The central hub for disseminating game research from Utrecht University
 

Ecomodding: Understanding and Communicating the Climate Crisis by Co-Creating Commercial Video Games

This article explores how the climate crisis and specifically the underlying “crisis of the imagination” (Bendor 2018, 132) exacerbate the entrenchment of environmental communication, and how modifying commercial video games (ecomodding) can facilitate the use of games as effective communication infrastructures to address this issue. Environmental communication challenges are well-studied, but remain difficult to tackle in practice.

Editorial Team
20-10-2021 // Insights, Publications // Criticism and Analysis

Taking Playful Scholarship Seriously: Discursive Game Design as a Means of Tackling Intractable Controversies

The article at hand explores the concept of playful scholarship, focusing specifically on the use of playfulness in re-assessing the collaboration between academia and societal partners to tackle “intractable policy controversies” (Schön and Rein 1994, p. 23)—i.e., challenges in which opposing parties operate with conflicting frames (often without even noticing).

Editorial Team
14-09-2021 // Education, Insights, Publications // Criticism and Analysis, Games and Sustainability, Games Beyond Entertainment, Multi theme

PhD Project: The Becoming-Playful of Warfare in the Netherlands

This PhD research project seeks to understand and explain this ongoing logistical process by mapping out the Dutch ‘military-academic-entertainment complex’ and the nature of its relationship to the ludification of warfare in the Netherlands.

Editorial Team
01-09-2021 // Insights, News // Game Technology and AI, Games Beyond Entertainment

Research Projects

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Comenius - Fostering an Open Mind

Taking Perspectives with Game Design: Teachers wanted for pilot!

The participants of the Playing Perspectives workshop at the Onderwijsfestival at Utrecht University are fully engaged in conversation. The striking photo on the table is what they’re talking about. Because what do you see in this photo? What stands out and what is your interpretation? This turns out to be quite different for each participant.

dr. Jasper van Vught
12-03-2025 // Events, Insights, News // Games Beyond Entertainment

Crisis to Resilience

Redesigning Monopoly to Foster Climate Resilience

On March 6th, 2025, as part of the annual Onderwijsfestival at Utrecht University, Flora Roberts, Larike Bronkhorst and Stefan Werning organized a workshop on how co-designing iconic (board) games like Monopoly can facilitate imagining sustainable futures and help mitigate negative and cultivate positive climate emotions.

Editorial Team
09-03-2025 // Events // Games and Sustainability

STRATEGIES

In the media: “The game industry emits as much as the whole of The Netherlands”

In the newest issue of KIJK magazine, UU media researcher Joost Raessens was interviewed on his work in the area of games and sustainability.

Editorial Team
06-03-2025 // In the media, Interview // Games and Sustainability

Shoulder-to-Shoulder

Pinball Research at School

Utrecht University performed play experiments at Basisschool De Odyssee (Utrecht) to understand the positive effects of playing for children. To what extent does playing together promote self-disclosure? Specifically, the researchers were interested in to what extent playing together creates feelings of safety and social connectedness for children, and to what extent those feelings promote self-disclosure,

dr. Sander Bakkes
14-02-2025 // Insights, News // Play Research, Player Research and Psychology

Themes

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Games and Sustainability

Sea level game creates climate awareness among young people

Can a board game help young people better understand sea level rise? Over the past two years, Nieske Vergunst, a researcher at Utrecht University’s Freudenthal Institute, explored this question. She developed the Sea Level Game, tested it with various youth groups, and analyzed its impact. The findings? After playing the game, participants felt more aware

dr. Nieske Vergunst
18-03-2025 // Publications // Games and Sustainability, Games Beyond Entertainment

Games Beyond Entertainment

Taking Perspectives with Game Design: Teachers wanted for pilot!

The participants of the Playing Perspectives workshop at the Onderwijsfestival at Utrecht University are fully engaged in conversation. The striking photo on the table is what they’re talking about. Because what do you see in this photo? What stands out and what is your interpretation? This turns out to be quite different for each participant.

dr. Jasper van Vught
12-03-2025 // Events, Insights, News // Games Beyond Entertainment

Player Research and Psychology

Pinball Research at School

Utrecht University performed play experiments at Basisschool De Odyssee (Utrecht) to understand the positive effects of playing for children. To what extent does playing together promote self-disclosure? Specifically, the researchers were interested in to what extent playing together creates feelings of safety and social connectedness for children, and to what extent those feelings promote self-disclosure,

dr. Sander Bakkes
14-02-2025 // Insights, News // Play Research, Player Research and Psychology

Play Research

Game Research @Dutch DiGRA 2024 Symposium

On November 21, game scholars from all over The Netherlands and well beyond gathered at Erasmus University for the Dutch DiGRA 2024 Symposium. Many researchers from Utrecht presented their projects.

Editorial Team
22-11-2024 // Events // Games and Sustainability, Games Beyond Entertainment, Play Research

Disciplines

>> All Disciplines

Media and Culture Studies

Taking Perspectives with Game Design: Teachers wanted for pilot!

The participants of the Playing Perspectives workshop at the Onderwijsfestival at Utrecht University are fully engaged in conversation. The striking photo on the table is what they’re talking about. Because what do you see in this photo? What stands out and what is your interpretation? This turns out to be quite different for each participant.

dr. Jasper van Vught
12-03-2025 // Events, Insights, News // Games Beyond Entertainment

Educational Sciences

Redesigning Monopoly to Foster Climate Resilience

On March 6th, 2025, as part of the annual Onderwijsfestival at Utrecht University, Flora Roberts, Larike Bronkhorst and Stefan Werning organized a workshop on how co-designing iconic (board) games like Monopoly can facilitate imagining sustainable futures and help mitigate negative and cultivate positive climate emotions.

Editorial Team
09-03-2025 // Events // Games and Sustainability

Human-computer Interaction

Pinball Research at School

Utrecht University performed play experiments at Basisschool De Odyssee (Utrecht) to understand the positive effects of playing for children. To what extent does playing together promote self-disclosure? Specifically, the researchers were interested in to what extent playing together creates feelings of safety and social connectedness for children, and to what extent those feelings promote self-disclosure,

dr. Sander Bakkes
14-02-2025 // Insights, News // Play Research, Player Research and Psychology

Psychology

In the news: About the pleasures of blood and violence in games.

Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant has published a longread article investigating the pleasures of blood and violence in games with two Utrecht researchers reflecting on how violence has become part of the gameplay experience, and how it may affect players.

Editorial Team
03-12-2024 // In the media // Criticism and Analysis, Player Research and Psychology