With contributions from leading international researchers in simulation and gaming, this book provides readers with up-to-date coverage of simulation and gaming as a professional endeavor rather than just as a set of subject-relevant techniques. Organized into four parts (applications, policy exercises, research, and professional matters), the book covers such topics as the application of simulation/games to specific purposes (such as international conflict, citizen participation, etc.); research in the areas of business performance and discourse analysis; and debriefing, ethics, and the state of simulation/gaming in various countries.

The ISAGA 50th Anniversary Conference proceedings is a collection of 76 accepted submissions. The proposed papers and posters are very diversified and have backgrounds in many areas, yet they come together in the simulation and gaming. We had 12 tracks for papers, a poster submission track, workshops track, and thematic sessions proposals track. The 50th anniversary track will allow us to look back at our heritage. The core tracks with the biggest number of submissions are the simulation and gaming track and game science theory track. For the first time, we also had tracks for gaming technology, AR/VR, e-sport science and gaming cultures, we have received many interesting and quality submissions, which will add new perspective and diversity to our field. ISAGA wants to stay relevant and up-to-date with the current problems; thus the tracks for S&G for logistics and smart infrastructure, gaming for individual efficacy and performance and gaming for sustainable development goals. We have also received ten poster submissions with very interesting topics.

Although gaming was once primarily used for personal entertainment, video games and other similar technologies are now being utilized across various disciplines such as education and engineering. As digital technologies become more integral to everyday life, it is imperative to explore the underlying effects they have on society and within these fields. Exploring the Cognitive, Social, Cultural, and Psychological Aspects of Gaming and Simulations provides emerging research on the societal and mental aspects of gaming and how video games impact different parts of an individual’s life. While highlighting the positive, important results of gaming in various disciplines, readers will learn how video games can be used in areas such as calculus, therapy, and professional development. This book is an important resource for engineers, graduate-level students, psychologists, game designers, educators, sociologists, and academics seeking current information on the effects of gaming and computer simulations across different industries.

This book constitutes revised selected papers from the 50th International Simulation and Gaming Association Conference, ISAGA 2019, which took place in Warsaw, Poland, during August 26–30, 2019.The 38 papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 72 submissions. They were organized in topical sections named: simulation gaming in the science space; simulation gaming design and implementation; simulation games for current challenges; simulation games and gamification; and board perspective on simulation gaming.

This book explores the lifecycle of digital games. Drawing upon a broad range of media studies perspectives with aspects of sociology, social theory, and economics, Aphra Kerr explores this all-pervasive, but under-theorized, aspect of our media environment.

This volume analyses, from a computational point of view, how culture may arise, develop and evolve through time. The four sections in this book examine and analyse the modelling of culture, group and organisation culture, culture simulation, and culture-sensitive technology design. Different research disciplines have different perspectives on culture, making it difficult to compare and integrate different concepts and models of culture. By taking a computational perspective this book nevertheless enables the integration of concepts that play a role in culture, even though they might originate from different disciplines. Culture is usually regarded as something vague and qualitative and thus difficult to deal with in a computational and formal setting. Taking a computational approach to culture thus encompasses a twofold risk: taking a too simplistic approach to cultural influence on behaviour; or trying to capture too much, hence not leading to useful computational tools. However, the approaches and insights in this collection show how different perspectives by leading researchers described in thirteen chapters still can form a coherent picture. The book thus illustrates the potential of using computing systems to better understand culture. By describing methods, theories and concrete application results about the integration of cultural aspects into computer systems, this book provides inspiration to researchers of all disciplines alike and presents the start of an interdisciplinary dialogue on culture.

Digital games are one of the most significant media interfaces of contemporary life. Games today interweave with the social, economic, material, and political complexities of living in a digital age. But who makes games, who plays them, and what, how and where do we play? This book explores the ways in which games and game cultures can be understood. It investigates the sites, genres, platforms, interfaces and contexts for games and gameplay, offering a critical overview of the breadth of contemporary game studies. It is an essential companion for students looking to understand games and games cultures in our increasingly playful and ‘gamified’ digital society.