“We require more vespene gas” Learning about social conflict in computer games and simulations

Abstract

This paper explores how computer games and simulations can be used to stimulate the understanding of social and cultural conflicts as something inherently complex, and of various stakeholders' positions as contingent and contextual. We perform a close reading of a sample of games to discuss how they depict conflicts through simulations. Based on that, we extract a series of principles that can be helpful both to orient the design of games aimed at facilitating learning from conflict, and to facilitate the discussion and analysis of games by highlighting their strategies in depicting conflict.