Leading games researchers set out a roadmap for the future of games in society
Digital games engage over four billion people worldwide, account for more than a trillion hours of play every year, and support an industry worth more than $230 billion. Games now serve as social spaces, educational tools, health interventions and platforms for citizen science. Yet much of their potential to benefit society is still unrealized, and debate about games is often dominated by concerns over addiction, toxicity and exploitative monetization.
To address this, Professor Anders Drachen of the SDU Metaverse Lab, together with Professor Johanna Pirker (LMU Munich) and Professor Lennart Nacke (University of Waterloo), organized the Dagstuhl Perspectives Workshop “The Future of Games in Society” at Schloss Dagstuhl in Germany. The workshop brought together 26 leading researchers from Europe and North America across computer science, psychology, design, education and the social sciences.
The result is a Dagstuhl Manifesto, recently approved for publication by the Dagstuhl Scientific Directorate. Addressed to games researchers and policymakers, it covers nine themes: human flourishing, education, harm prevention, games as research platforms, research infrastructure, industry-academia collaboration, research rigour, funding, and research impact. It sets out five calls to action, aimed at research councils, game publishers and platform holders, education ministries, regulators, and the research community itself. Each call states what the actors addressed stand to gain.
“Games are one of the most widespread forms of human activity, but the research needed to understand their impact, both positive and negative, is fragmented and underfunded,” says Anders Drachen. “The manifesto is a call for coordinated action across academia, industry and policy, so that games can live up to their potential as a positive force in society.”
The full manifesto will appear in the Dagstuhl Manifestos series. A summary of the workshop’s outcomes is already available in Dagstuhl Reports: https://doi.org/10.4230/DagRep.15.3.39
Read more about the workshop: https://www.dagstuhl.de/25102
See also the article in ACM Interactions: https://doi.org/10.1145/3737651
To address this, Professor Anders Drachen of the SDU Metaverse Lab, together with Professor Johanna Pirker (LMU Munich) and Professor Lennart Nacke (University of Waterloo), organized the Dagstuhl Perspectives Workshop “The Future of Games in Society” at Schloss Dagstuhl in Germany. The workshop brought together 26 leading researchers from Europe and North America across computer science, psychology, design, education and the social sciences.
The result is a Dagstuhl Manifesto, recently approved for publication by the Dagstuhl Scientific Directorate. Addressed to games researchers and policymakers, it covers nine themes: human flourishing, education, harm prevention, games as research platforms, research infrastructure, industry-academia collaboration, research rigour, funding, and research impact. It sets out five calls to action, aimed at research councils, game publishers and platform holders, education ministries, regulators, and the research community itself. Each call states what the actors addressed stand to gain.
“Games are one of the most widespread forms of human activity, but the research needed to understand their impact, both positive and negative, is fragmented and underfunded,” says Anders Drachen. “The manifesto is a call for coordinated action across academia, industry and policy, so that games can live up to their potential as a positive force in society.”
The full manifesto will appear in the Dagstuhl Manifestos series. A summary of the workshop’s outcomes is already available in Dagstuhl Reports: https://doi.org/10.4230/DagRep.15.3.39
Read more about the workshop: https://www.dagstuhl.de/25102
See also the article in ACM Interactions: https://doi.org/10.1145/3737651