Page - 19 - in options, Volume winter 2021

experiential learning pioneered by David Kolb, the game becomes an opportunity for each player to experience and contribute to social learning that lasts beyond the game session itself. In their feedback, participants report better understanding an overall system perspective in complex problems, a greater grasp of the importance of collaboration, including the wide network of stakeholders involved and, finally, a high level of personal engagement and fun. The benefits of the Nexus Game have been integrated as a tool in research projects that require stakeholder engagement and collaboration. Stakeholders of the Zambezi and Indus river basins, for example, had the opportunity to play the Nexus Game as part of the Integrated Solutions for Water, Energy, and Land (ISWEL) Project. The players were able to relate the real world challenges of managing their local water, food, and energy resources to the policy exercise offered in the game. Policymakers, researchers, and students benefited from the game as an educational experience, relationship-building activity, and as a capacity building exercise, preparing the participants for the upcoming stakeholder workshops. The Nexus Game was created in collaboration with the Centre for Systems Solutions (CRS). IIASA researchers and the CRS team have created a range of games tackling sustainability challenges, such as risk and resources management, that are all focused on the importance of systems thinking. Although more research is required to fully understand the extent of the impact of these games on policy, it appears that by walking the participants through the process of the game, researchers are able to broaden their scope of understanding. These games create a space for deliberations in which responsibilities are shared in the decision-making process, thus supporting more engaging and participatory research to policy practices. “I think for the kind of issues that IIASA studies, 'knowing more' is no longer sufficient, so we are focusing on how we can facilitate more 'doing and experimenting' for solutions,” concludes Mochizuki. Further info: pure.iiasa.ac.at/16952 pure.iiasa.ac.at/15227 pure.iiasa.ac.at/15496 www.iswel.org nexus.socialsimulations.org Piotr Magnuszewski magnus@iiasa.ac.at Junko Mochizuki mochizuk@iiasa.ac.at Social learning entails that the understanding of the participant will be changed after the game, but also that the change will affect social circles and practices around the individual. In order to achieve these expected outcomes of social learning and systems thinking, the role-playing simulation game needs to follow specific design principles and processes. IIASA and the CRS have developed the Complexity-Collaboration- Sustainability simulation game design framework for social learning on complex sustainability challenges. In this framework, the first phase is devoted entirely to defining the subject of the game, including reviewing literature, consulting with experts, and narrowing down the area of interest. This crucial step is key in defining the relationship between the game design and the real world issue. In the second phase, the environment, the roles, and their decisions are defined. This determines how the game will be played, defines the range of stakeholders in the game, and specifies what decisions are incumbent to each of them. “One of the important concepts that we included in our framework as described in our recent paper is what is called 'procedural rhetoric.' Proposed by Ian Bogost, it is rhetoric in a sense of persuasive content, but achieved through design of action situations ('procedures') not by words. No one has to lecture you on the need to collaborate, negotiate, and compromise for a solution. When you play games, you will simply experience it and make your own sense out of it,” explains Mochizuki. H O W D O YO U BUILD A GAME? 19OptionsWinter 2021www.iiasa.ac.at