Urban Sprawl: Using a Game to Sensitize Stakeholders to the Interdependencies Among Actors' Preferences

• Authors: Diana Reckien;Klaus Eisenack
• Venue: Simulation and Gaming
• Year: 2010

This article introduces QuAG, a role-playing game, to enhance understanding of urban development through a social simulation. The participants represent actors of city development, divided into moving (e.g., residents, industry, retail) and nonmoving actors (e.g., planners, politicians). Development is performed by the relocation of actors between urban and suburban areas depending on the regionsâ聙聶 attractiveness and the actorsâ聙聶 preferences. An areaâ聙聶s attractiveness varies with the location changes of actors and the manipulation by planners. The game is based on a qualitative computer model with similar rules and elements. The role-play was effective in two ways: it sensitized participants to the interdependencies among actors and their contribution to a regionâ聙聶s attractiveness and made the computer model more tangible to them. If a similar impact of the planning measures in the game can be expected in the real world, the effects of investments can provide strong incentives for the movers.