scholarly journals Games Versus Reality? How Game Designers Deal with Current Topics of Geography Education

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (11) ◽  
pp. 70
Author(s):  
Joelle-Denise Lux ◽  
Alexandra Budke ◽  
Emmanuel Guardiola

Digital entertainment games frequently address current societal issues that are also dealt with in geography education, such as climate change or sustainable city development, and give various opportunities for learning. However, in order to be fully able to determine the games’ educational potential and to instruct meaningful reflection on them in class, the designers’ approaches to realism regarding these topics need to be understood. Therefore, we have developed a model of realism in games and conducted 9 interviews with 10 experts from the entertainment game industry about their understanding of and dealing with realism concerning the represented geographical topics. In many cases, the interviewees’ approach to incorporating real-world issues can be regarded as beneficial for their games’ educational potential, and some designers even pursued learning goals. However, we also identified approaches that can result in questionable presentations of real societal issues. We found the most problematic one to be the prioritization of player expectations for the sake of perceived realism. This approach may lead to the depiction of stereotypes and common misconceptions. The results presented in our study may help teachers to prepare reflection on such misrepresentations in class, or designers to become more aware of the educational implications of different forms of game realism.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joelle-Denise Lux ◽  
André Czauderna ◽  
Emmanuel Guardiola ◽  
Alexandra Budke

Designers of digital entertainment games and designers of games for education can learn from each other when it comes to gameplay mechanics, content and mediation techniques that enable a fun and at the same time educational experience for players. The following design guidelines bring together the perspectives of entertainment game industry and educators. Based on a range of studies, they present 11 recommendations to facilitate the design of games on complex social and socio-ecological issues such as climate change, migration, city development and resource conflicts – suitable for any designer who wants to provide an enriching game experience.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-46
Author(s):  
Rebecca Oberreiter

Rapidly changing framework conditions for city development such as globalization, demographic trends, deindustrialization, technological developments or the increasing urbanization as well as the economic, social and political changes are profound and change our urban life. This leads, that the cities of tomorrow will differ essentially from today´s city principles. Therefore innovative, strategically wise and quick action becomes a criterion for success. Here, more than ever, local conditions and requirements must be taken into account as well as global framework conditions. The responsible parties have to set the course so that the “City” remains competitive and sustainable in the future. Therefore, innovation processes and sustainable strategies for dealing with the diverse and complex agendas of a city in dialogue with those who are responsible for it must be initiated and management systems established so that new things can develop continuously and systematically. This work illustrates how the boundaries created to manage and market future liveable and sustainable city destinations are the root of the practical and academic problems that trouble city management these days.  This paper aims to develop the new integrated Smart Urban Profiling and Management model, which presents a new integrated approach for city marketing as an instrument of sustainable urban development. In this way, comprehensive research was conducted to evaluate if the holistic city marketing concept that integrates elements of smart city strategies and adaptive management is a more suitable instrument and integrative process than conventional city marketing in order to improve the sustainable urban development. Therefore, in this work, the designed “Smart Urban Profiling and Management model” for city management introduces an alternative and holistic perspective that allows transcending past boundaries and thus getting closer to the real complexities of managing city development in dynamic systems. The results offer the opportunity to recognize the city and consequently allow to developing successful strategies and implementation measures. This study targets to contribute to this endeavor in order to produce new impulses and incitements in the city management field and shall provide a fresh impetus for a new understanding of city marketing as the initiator of development processes, mobilization and moderator in concerning communication and participation processes. This paper is written from a perspective addressing those responsible for the city- management, city- & urban marketing and development.


2012 ◽  
Vol 524-527 ◽  
pp. 3264-3268 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhao Feng Lei ◽  
Bang Yan Li ◽  
Xu Li Lei ◽  
Lun He

Yulin City, which is rich in energy, is one of the national energy and chemical bases. But with the process of exploitation of resources, it causes serious ecological damage and has grim living environment situation in the local environment. It is in long-term about the sustainable development of city very urgent. This paper analyzes the reputation, ruin and its treatment of the development of energy resources in Yulin City, trying to explore the sustainable development mode which is suit in resource-dependent of area.


2019 ◽  
pp. 265-295
Author(s):  
Anastasia Stratigea ◽  
Akrivi Leka ◽  
Maria Panagiotopoulou

The goal of the paper is to elaborate on sustainability aspects of smart sustainable urban environments. More specifically, at a first step the paper aims at critically reviewing globally initiated state-of-the-art approaches for assessing smart cities' performance as to sustainability objectives. The scope of this effort is to identify sets of indicators used in different approaches as well as convergence/divergence among them. Secondly, an attempt to integrate different indicator sets into a more enriched and coherent indicator system is carried out which, by effectively embedding smart and sustainable city development into sustainability indicators' sets, can be used by various types of cities' examples. Finally, the rationale of the indicators' selection process is depicted, in order to support policy makers and planners' guidance towards choosing an appropriate, city-specific set of sustainability indicators for carrying out relevant assessments.


Buildings ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (10) ◽  
pp. 207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dongming Guo ◽  
Lizhen Huang

Construction and demolition waste (C&D waste) are widely recognized as the main form municipal solid waste, and its recycling and reuse are an important issue in sustainable city development. Material flow analysis (MFA) can quantify materials flows and stocks, and is a useful tool for the analysis of construction and demolition waste management. In recent years, material flow analysis has been continually researched in construction and demolition waste processing considering both single waste material and mixed wastes, and at regional, national, and global scales. Moreover, material flow analysis has had some new research extensions and new combined methods that provide dynamic, robust, and multifaceted assessments of construction and demolition waste. In this paper, we summarize and discuss the state of the art of material flow analysis research in the context of construction and demolition waste recycling and disposal. Furthermore, we also identify the current research gaps and future research directions that are expected to promote the development of MFA for construction and demolition waste processing in the field of sustainable city development.


2018 ◽  
Vol 245 ◽  
pp. 16002 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anatolijs Borodinecs ◽  
Aleksandrs Korjakins ◽  
Aleksandrs Zajacs ◽  
Anna Iufereva

Rapid urbanization leads to the cities expansion in both dimensions: horizontal and vertical. Thus causing significant increase of energy consumption and reduction of environment quality. Nowadays European Initiative on Smart Cities development becomes a very popular across the globe. The aim of this initiative is to insure sustainable city development taking into consideration quality of life and reduction of carbon emissions. Residential sector is one of biggest energy consumers and carbon emission production in Latvia. Also, city transport is a crucial carbon emission producers. In scope of this study the city development potential is analyzed. The increase of energy efficient scale is taking into consideration.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (16) ◽  
pp. 9303
Author(s):  
Anna Myślińska ◽  
Jakub Szczepański ◽  
Witold Dłubakowski

The decommissioning of cemeteries noticeably transforms the urban fabric. The purpose of this article was to determine what impact the decommissioning of cemeteries has on the urban ecosystem. For this purpose, it was necessary to assess the value of cemeteries within the urban ecosystem. Cemeteries are classified as urban green spaces, and their value as preservers of flora and fauna in local ecosystems has been proven. However, numerous decaying bodies in one place could have adverse effects on the environment. In order to assess the impact of transforming cemetery areas for other uses in the context of sustainable city development, it is necessary to define what these other functions might be. This article presents the main reasons for decommissioning cemeteries and links them with subsequent land use. The history of cemetery locations in five major Polish cities was analyzed to determine the extent to which cemeteries were decommissioned. In the two cities with the highest number of decommissioned cemeteries, further research was carried out in order to establish the typical land use of these former cemeteries, whether this usage is related to the size or type of the former cemetery, and whether change in land use is an advantage or a disadvantage for the urban ecosystem.


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