David Crookall

Serious Games, Debriefing, and Simulation/Gaming as a Discipline

At the close of the 40th Anniversary Symposium of S&G, this editorial offers some thoughts on a few important themes related to simulation/gaming. These are development of the field, the notion of serious games, the importance of debriefing, the need for research, and the emergence of a discipline. I suggest that the serious gaming community has much to offer the discipline of simulation/gaming and that debriefing is vital both for learning and for establishing simulation/gaming as a discipline.

Philosophy and Simulation

We can enhance discussions of simulation by distinguishing between the rationale for using simulation and the philosophical tools for conceptualizing it. I offer my thoughts, inspired by this symposium, on the proposition that simulation is little more than stuff of our minds, a figment of our imagination. I also argue that philosophy is important to all simulation/gaming work.

Engaging (in) Gameplay and (in) Debriefing

In this editorial, I thank the guest editors and authors for their excellent and pioneering work. I set the topic of engagement within a broader area of learning and debriefing, and of the transformation of simulation/game engagement into learning. I suggest some broad areas for research on engagement in simulation/games (in both gameplay and debriefing) and in other realms of life. I emphasize that, only with properly engaged debriefing can a simulation/game have or maximize the positive learning outcomes than we aim for. Also, running simulation/games without debriefing them fully is unethical. I suggest that engagement in debriefing is as (or more) important as (than) engagement in gameplay, and more worthy of attention and research, given that the learning happens in the debriefing, not (much) in the game. I end with some quotes from the articles in this symposium.

Climate Change and Simulation/Gaming: Learning for Survival

This editorial outlines a number of connections between climate change and simulation/gaming/debriefing. First, the development of this symposium is mentioned, including appreciation for contributors, especially Klaus Eisenack, James E. Hansen, Dennis Meadows, and Diana Reckien. Second, a wide range of climate change dimensions is outlined, with emphasis on the increasingly important role that simulation/gaming and debriefing should play in educating people to combat climate change. Climate issues include anthropogenic warming, due largely to ever-increasing greenhouse gas emissions, resulting in massive and irreversible upheaval of the biosphere and the socioeconomic system. Given the massive direct and indirect negative impact of climate change on health and mortality, due largely to the lethargy of politicians and big business, such people, in a saner world, could be facing accusation of crimes against humanity. The topic of climate change needs to become the backbone of education round the world, with simulation/gaming and debriefing being one of the main methods for learning to survive in ‘pockets of resilience’. Topics for simulation/games and debriefing could include resilience, urgency, climate change science, indicators, and effects (feedback loops, rising sea levels, storm severity, food scarcity and security, water, war, denial, nuclear power, irresponsibility of politicians, etc.). Third, the absurdities of the push for growth in a finite world and of the burning of more coal are highlighted. Simulation/gaming and debriefing provide opportunities for learning to survive with a dangerously changing climate.

The founding of modern simulation/gaming: S&G and ISAGA four decades on

This editorial first touches on the early days of simulation/gaming. It then traces the links between International Simulation and Gaming Association (ISAGA) and Simulation & Gaming (S&G) up until the 2009 ISAGA conference in Singapore. The links are, of course, provided through people, who were active in both the organization and the journal. The joint contributions were of several kinds, including conference organization, conference presentations, journal articles, and journal symposia. A list of previous ISAGA conferences is provided. This article thus contributes some elements toward a more complete portrait of the development of the discipline.

Peace, Violence, and Simulation/Gaming

I characterize violence as falling into two types, using Arthur Koestler’s two tendencies: integrative and self-assertive. It is the integrative tendency, the belief in a cause and the abrogation of one’s identity and obedience to a higher authority, that leads to integrative violence and wars. The principal cause of violence is not individual aggressiveness, but submission to ingroup, cause, ideology, or country. Simulation/games and debriefing protocols need to take into account a wide spectrum of research on the springs of violence if they are to promote durable peace.

An exploratory study of teacher-required out-of-class academic collaboration among students at a polytechnic in Singapore

Academic collaboration among students takes place not only inside classrooms but outside of class as well. This study investigated such out-of-class academic collaboration among students at a polytechnic in Singapore as they worked on assignments on which their lecturers had required them to collaborate. Data were collected via a questionnaire completed by 232 students, interviews were conducted with 10 lecturers, observations were made of eight student groups as they collaborated on teacher-required work outside of class, and then interviews were conducted with these eight groups. Suggestions are made for enhancing this collaboration.

The 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami: Impact on and Rehabilitation of Fisheries and Aquaculture in Thailand

Southern Thailand, also known as Peninsular Thailand, lies between latitudes 50 and 110 N, and longitudes 980 and 1020 E. It covers an area of 7,153,917 ha and has over 2,705 km of shoreline, with the western coastline facing the Andaman Sea and the eastern coastline facing the Gulf of Thailand – see Figure 2. The result of the phenomenal growth of tourism and fishing is that much of the mangrove and beach forest along the coastal shores have been replaced by human-built infrastructures, such as aquaculture industries and tourist resorts (UNEP, 2005). As a consequence, the coastal areas of southern Thailand have become particularly vulnerable to natural disasters (Thanawood et al., 2006). The earthquake that created the tsunami was the world’s fifth largest, with a magnitude of 9.15 to 9.3 on the Richter scale. It occurred at 00:58:53 (GMT) on Sunday, 26 December, 2004, with the epicenter, at a depth of 30km, just off the west coast of North Sumatera, Indonesia (Harinarayana & Hirata, 2005); see Figure 1. The sudden vertical rise of the seabed by several meters during the quake displaced massive volumes of water, resulting in a devastating tsunami. This seismic sea wave traveled thousands of kilometres across the Indian Ocean, and ravaged the Andaman coast of southern Thailand at 9.30 am local time. The earthquake was the largest since the 1964 Alaska quake, and the fourth biggest this century. The tsunami that ensued was among the five largest recorded, as measured in tsunami magnitude – see Table 1. The waves that hit the Andaman coast were, in some places, as high as 20 metres. The Indian Ocean tsunami was the first in living memory to strike the shorelines of southern Thailand. The tsunami caused extensive damage to life and property in six southern coastal provinces along the Andaman coast of Thailand (Figure 2). The people suffered a total of 5,395 deaths, 8,457 injured and 3,144 missing. The severely affected areas included 292 villages in 78 sub-

Editorial: virtual reality simulation

What are the main differences between virtual reality and simulation? Is virtual reality a special type of simulation (e.g., with computers, machines, and visual displays)? Or is simulation a particular of form of virtual reality? Does it matter what the differences are? Some people use the terms interchangeably, as if they were (almost) the same. Other terms are invariably associated with the above two terms, such as interaction, environment, computer, visualization, model. The term virtual reality simulation is fairly common too. An example using some of the above terms is this abstract:

Warrior for Climate Science and Awareness Stephen Schneider

This tribute outlines some of the major contributions that Stephen H. Schneider made to climate change science and to communication about that science to help a broader audience understand it in an educated manner, and realize that urgent decisions are needed, even with incomplete information. We highlight some of the awards and honors that Dr. Schneider received, and quote from a few already published tributes. We cite some of his publications and provide further sources for readers to learn more about climate science and about Dr. Schneider.