Game design as a policy-making method
<p>“Hello, my name is Matteo and I am a very serious game designer.”</p>
<p>Chuckles in the audience.</p>
<p>“Seriously. Don’t laugh please.”</p>
<p>Open laughs.</p>
<p><a href="https://slyrabbit.net/about/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">Hwa Young Jung</a> and I were standing in front of a large group of UK policymakers from across government departments, gathered by <strong>Policy Lab</strong> for a taster day of <a href="https://openpolicy.blog.gov.uk/2022/05/18/launching-our-experimental-policy-design-methods/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">experimental policy design methods</a>.</p>
<p><img alt="" src="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:770/1*ULShRQL1ovksmjO3TxJ_SA.png" style="height:391px; width:700px" /></p>
<p>I was (re)presenting <em>Serious Games,</em> but the audience wasn’t taking me seriously.</p>
<p>“OK, let’s talk about this strange phrase.”</p>
<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serious_game" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank"><em>Serious</em></a> has been used to describe games designed to teach or train people, as well as entertaining them. But it sounds stiff and apologetic, as if we had to justify that games are a legitimate medium for serious adults to engage with.</p>
<p>Have you ever heard of <em>Serious Theatre</em> or <em>Serious Photography</em>? Indeed, because “serious” doesn’t add anything meaningful to the medium name. So let’s retire <em>Serious Games</em> too.</p>
<p><a href="https://medium.com/@baddeo/game-design-as-a-policy-making-method-517bd82d3b43"><strong>Read More</strong></a></p>