Issue: Systems

Welcome to issue nine of Ludogogy Magazine – Systems Thinking

This issue looks at games that could be used to for learning around systems thinking and related concepts like Emergence and Feedback Loops. It also explores how games themselves, work as, and can be designed as systems.

This has proven to be a particularly inspiring topic for our contributors, so be prepared for a really thought-provoking journey through a variety of perspectives, with plenty to get you thinking about possibilities for your next games-based learning experiences.

Explore:

Worldbuilding to create rich game experiences
Using games design as a learning tool in Systems Thinking
A dialogue between a games designer and a systems thinker
Learning about emergence through Crusader Kings III
Much more

We are now accepting articles for the next two month’s issue

Issue 10 (March) ‘Futurism’ – deadline 28 February – Designing games to look to the future? What does the future of games-based learning hold? How can games help us to practise foresight? etc.
Issue 11 (May) ‘Changes’ – deadline 25 April – Designing games or gamification to drive behaviour change. How is change represented in game narrative? Games for self-help or improvement. Coping with change (such as Covid-19) in a design team. Games around life-changes (adolescence, changing school, bereavement) etc.

Send proposals or drafts to info@ludogogy.co.uk

Stay Home, Stay Safe, Stay Playful

Maze cube

Learning about systems using games.

15th January 2021 Thomas Ackland 0

One of the main aspects of games that tends to be overlooked by most people when you approach them with the idea of utilising games as a teaching or training tool is the freedom to […]

Map

Beyond Engagement: Competition and Exploration in Serious Games Using Digital Narrative

14th January 2021 David Chandross 0

The following is a chapter from an upcoming book by David Chandross, whom many of you will know from his fascinating posts on LinkedIn, and others from his academic publications. David is a big-hitter in […]

Starling murmuration

What Lies Beneath – Emergence in Games Systems

14th January 2021 Ludogogy 0

There are a number of ways in which games can be classified or described as systems. In regard to their composition, they can be seen as collections of inter-related parts; rules, mechanisms, physical components and […]

Graffiti - loop

Beer and Trippples – Games as Cybernetic Systems

14th January 2021 Ludogogy 0

Nowadays, when most people hear the term ‘Cybernetics’ they will tend to associate it with computer technology, possibly in a sci-fi or futuristic context. However, the term existed well before the age of digital computing. […]

No Picture

Worldbuilding in Game-based Learning Environments – A System and a Tool

13th January 2021 Eduardo Nunes 2

The Fun Paradox While playing videogames, children seem to reach immersion levels not found anywhere else. They go to sleep thinking about how soon they can be awake again so they can keep playing. While […]

Holmes and Watson

What Video Games Have to Teach Us about Learning

13th January 2021 Erik Agudelo 0

Computer games, good computer games, well-designed computer games, are learning games. These games constantly collect data about the game session and the player. Based on these data the difficulty of the challenges is adjusted and […]

Green Economy Board Game

Board games to engage in systems thinking

12th January 2021 Wilian Gatti Junior & Beaumie Kim 8

Systems thinking is one of the competencies that enable us to understand the complexity of global and networked structures and their outcomes. The interconnectivity between countries, companies, and people creates a net of relationships that […]

Systems Thinking

What’s your System?

12th January 2021 Dave Eng 0

Pretty much everything, everyone, and everybody that we work with is part of system: large or small. But how do those systems work and how do they affect you? […]

Crusader Kings III

Engagement and Learning as Emergent Properties of Systems Modelling: What we can Learn from Crusader Kings III

12th January 2021 Terry Pearce 0

Your mileage may vary, but I remember history at school as long, boring lists of kings and queens. I had no interest in it. My sole motivation in showing up to any of the lessons […]

Rock Paper Scissors

A dialogue about creating a new game using two different lenses

12th January 2021 Corrado de Sanctis 0

When you are playing (in) a game you are actually interacting with a system. Understanding how the system is working is the basic nature of System Thinking. So, a player is a natural Systems Thinker. […]

Ludogogy 2022