Editorial | Open Access
How Can Games Transform Cities? Geogames as Tools for Research, Education, and Urban Praxis
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Abstract: Geogames have matured from an emergent field in the 2000s into a transformative intersection of game design, geographic information science, and games with a purpose. This thematic issue advances the geogames research, education, and praxis agenda through 10 articles organized into two sections. Section 1 establishes geogames as rigorous research and educational instruments, exploring their theoretical foundations, methodological applications, and pedagogical value for fostering spatial literacy and emotional engagement. Section 2 demonstrates geogames as operational tools for real‐world urban planning, showcasing their implementation in participatory consultations, communicative planning, and sustainability initiatives. These contributions frame geogames as a socio‐technical epistemology rather than mere representational or engagement tools, revealing their capacity to address complex contemporary urban challenges. By bridging virtual simulation with material intervention in games, this issue presents a unified framework for reimagining research, teaching, and the transformation of urban spaces through geogames—where the concept of Gaia (Earth as a living system) converges with gameplay—in an era marked by unprecedented spatial, environmental, and social challenges.
Keywords: game‐based learning; game design; geogames; participatory planning; urban planning
Published:
© Bruno Andrade, Alenka Poplin, Marta Brković Dodig, David Schwartz. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits any use, distribution, and reproduction of the work without further permission provided the original author(s) and source are credited.