Summary Overview of the Engagement Tool/Innovation:
This method involves using a game to encourage engagement in decision-making and learning about the work of an organisation. It can be a fun way to work with participants who are a mix of ages, from around age 7 upwards. Two resources are linked below, discussing an example of how games have led to successful engagement in decision-making and also to participants learning about an issue. The case studies show that the use of games is fun and interactive. Games can be designed to spark discussion on important issues and enable participants to gain understanding of an issue. In the case studies, board games were designed and made. They were played by participants in workshop settings. One example asked ‘communities to come together and dream, design, and create resilient solutions that address the impacts of climate change’ in a specific region.
Role in decision-making:
Games are likely to be best used during a design phase if it is important to gain participant views of how they would make or influence a decision. They could also be useful to report back to communities if a game is designed that explores a challenge experienced by an organisation. This could, in turn, build trust if empathy grows towards the organisation.
It would be possible to record preferences displayed when the game was being played.
Good for various themes:
- Informing
- Involving
- Reporting Back to Communities
- Engaging younger people
- Building trust with communities
Suitable for:
This method works with any group who would enjoy a fun, interactive experience. Depending on the game, it would work with people who do not speak much English. Young people aged 7-25 will respond best to the game format, but it could also be used where inter-generational communication is sought. Families might be drawn to a workshop where games are played.
Board games, in general, work best in groups of 4-8, but there could be different games happening at different tables in the same room. The games in the case studies were played in-person. Designing a board game that is playable online might be possible using software such as Tabletop Simulator.
HOW TO DO IT:
Identify, design or adapt a game to be played. You might be able to find existing games, such as the one that was used during the ‘Lets Talk Parks’ engagement in Newcastle upon Tyne. Alternatively, you could design your own or adapt existing games such as Snakes and Ladders or In it Together (see below).
The game can be played just as any other board game. It will be important to give enough time to explain the rules and why you’ve asked people to participate.
Lay out the pieces, board, rules with each group and invite people to select a role/playing token and join in. As you play, you can relate the gameplay to the issue you hope to discuss or raise awareness of.
If there is discussion of what decision to make, and disagreement, you can ask people to explain why they have formed their opinion. It would be possible to ask people for feedback afterwards, and ask if they had developed their understanding of the issue at hand.
Selection method: This would work as an open event. People could be invited to come along to a workshop where they can try out a board game. It would also work in a specific group such as a community organisation. It would be important to have enough games so that for every 8 people, there was a set of board and playing pieces.
Good practice and case studies:
A game called ‘In It Together’ was developed by California College of the Arts students. The intention was to bring ‘stakeholders together around a map of the Estuary to cooperatively explore adaptation strategies, weigh their trade-offs and achieve greater local resilience’. By overlaying game elements onto a 1:400 map of the area, it was possible to bring real-life knowledge of the environment into how the game was played. ‘Players can compete or collaborate to realize a win-lose outcome. They individually accomplish their goals or achieve a win-win solution if they collectively score all available ‘Collective Resilience Points’. This method was used for a project called the Bay Area Challenge, based in the San Francisco Bay Area, which asked ‘communities to come together and dream, design, and create resilient solutions that address the impacts of climate change’ in the region.
Another game, the Resilient City Boardgame, was designed as ‘a new avenue in which to discuss issues of climate change and what can be done about it that would benefit all parties affected. The game was played by the South San Francisco High’s Youth Leadership Institute group and other interested community members. The goal of the board game was to create a fun and interactive way for the community to engage in the topics of sea level rise, flood mitigation, and restoring local ecology, while giving them hypothetical power to make urban planning decisions that will improve and protect their city.’
For a do-it-yourself method, you would need access to a colour printer – preferably an A3 printer to print out a board and playing pieces. You could then glue this onto stiff card or board. You will need scissors, pritt stick, card to stick print-outs of the pieces onto card to make them last longer. These could also be laminated.
It is a good idea to write a bullet point list of rules and laminate this.
In order to organise a workshop where a board game is played, it is important to set aside enough time. If you are using playing pieces from an existing game such as In It Together (see case study section below), this will be a little quicker, but if you are designing a game from scratch, it might take several days to design and create it. You could take inspiration from existing, familiar games such as Snakes and Ladders to speed up the process. Once the game is designed, it could be used on multiple occasions. It could also be printed professionally and sold to raise funds.
Ideally there would be one facilitator per group playing the game. If a co-facilitator is available, they could note down any interesting comments made by participants.
There should be a table and seats for each group playing the game. It might work best indoors so pieces don’t blow away or get lost. It is recommended that you play through the game ahead of time to make sure it makes sense and is easy to play
ADVANTAGES
-
You might be able to make use of or adapt existing games.
-
Games are fun and engaging.
-
This method could reach groups that are ‘hard to reach’ or do not speak English as a first language.
-
Allows UGN to be creative
CHALLENGES
-
This will take quite a bit of time to plan and prepare game pieces, especially if you don’t wish to use the downloadable game. However, if work is taking place with a group over a longer period, one workshop could be set aside to plan the game, one for making game pieces and one for playing the game. Collaborations with University students could also be developed to aid the creation and design of games.
-
The results of the engagement may not be useful to UGN.
-
Some board games may be more useful than others – for example, Monopoly could probably be adapted quite easily for UGN but Snakes and Ladders may not be suitable.
-
There could be licensing or copyright issues in adapting a board game for this purpose.
-
May not appeal to adults or those with little time as it will likely require a good amount of time from the participants.
