This book provides the state of the art in the simulation and gaming study field by systematically collecting excellent papers presented at the 46th International Simulation and Gaming Association annual conference held in Kyoto 17–25 July 2015. Simulation and gaming has been used in a wide variety of areas ranging from early childhood education and school-age children, universities, and professional education, to policy exploration and social problem solving. Moreover, it now been drastically changing its features in the Internet Of Things (IOT) society while taking over a wide variety of aliases, such as serious games and gamification. Most of the papers on which this book’s chapters are based were written by academic researchers, both up-and-coming and well known. In addition, simulation and gaming is a translational system science going from theory to clinical cross-disciplinary topics. With this book, therefore, graduate students and higher-level researchers, educators, and practitioners can become familiar with the state-of-the-art academic research on simulation and gaming in the network society of the twenty-first century.

Annotation This book presents a current research scope and perspective of Simulation and Gaming. Theoretical problems of Simulation and Gaming will be examined with a view to improving the social sciences through the introduction of the techniques and concepts of Simulation and Gaming. The fields of economics, political science, psychology and business management can all be radically improved by introducing such techniques of Simulation and Gaming as the Agent-Based Modelling. Other important topics are the analysis of philosophical foundations in Simulation and Gaming as an academic discipline. The ever growing and massive popularity of PC and arcade games cannot be ignored. Their potential as agents of education and their essentially violent nature raise many ethical and moral problems that need to be addressed.

The ISAGA 50th Anniversary Conference proceedings is a collection of 76 accepted submissions. The proposed papers and posters are very diversified and have backgrounds in many areas, yet they come together in the simulation and gaming. We had 12 tracks for papers, a poster submission track, workshops track, and thematic sessions proposals track. The 50th anniversary track will allow us to look back at our heritage. The core tracks with the biggest number of submissions are the simulation and gaming track and game science theory track. For the first time, we also had tracks for gaming technology, AR/VR, e-sport science and gaming cultures, we have received many interesting and quality submissions, which will add new perspective and diversity to our field. ISAGA wants to stay relevant and up-to-date with the current problems; thus the tracks for S&G for logistics and smart infrastructure, gaming for individual efficacy and performance and gaming for sustainable development goals. We have also received ten poster submissions with very interesting topics.

This book constitutes revised selected papers from the 50th International Simulation and Gaming Association Conference, ISAGA 2019, which took place in Warsaw, Poland, during August 26–30, 2019.The 38 papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 72 submissions. They were organized in topical sections named: simulation gaming in the science space; simulation gaming design and implementation; simulation games for current challenges; simulation games and gamification; and board perspective on simulation gaming.

This book provides tips to teachers for moving toward active learning by using simulation and gaming. The book is a rare reference for teachers who wish to initiate active learning by applying many real experiences from world experts in simulation and gaming. This cumulative wisdom comes from cutting-edge trials reported at the 49th International Simulation and Gaming Association’s annual conference in Thailand 9–13 July 2018. The importance of changing teachers’ one-way lecture approach to that of active learning has been commonly understood for several decades and has been promoted especially in recent years in Asian universities. Simulation and gaming meets the requirements of such teaching programs, especially for active learning, but there are few books or references on how to gamify a lecture. This book serves as a guide to facilitate that change. The author recognizes the duty to provide readers with fixed directions toward simulation and gaming in the next generation, which have still not been fully elucidated. Developing a simulation and gaming culture and making it sustainable in the next decade are the purpose of this book.

This book constitutes the refereed post-conference proceedings of the 21st Annual Simulation Technology and Training Conference, SimTecT 2016, and the 47th International Simulation and Gaming Association Conference, ISAGA 2016, Held as Part of the First Australasian Simulation Congress, ASC 2016, held in Melbourne, VIC, Australia, in September 2016. The 28 revised full papers included in the volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 55 submissions. They are organized in the following topical sections: Making the grade; Come to think of it; From here to fidelity; The name of the game; and Ahead of the game.

This book focuses on relatively neglected areas of simulation and gaming (S&G), i.e., cultural aspects and ethical issues, in addition to giving readers a basic knowledge of S&G. Although the educational effects of S&G, and related methods such as gamification, as well as serious games have been studied and are gaining recognition, their downsides are often overlooked. For example, there is always a risk of manipulation by games if maliciously designed and facilitated. Ethical codes of game designers, facilitators, and educators must be established on the basis of academic research. Considerations of the ethics of games are essential not only for S&G researchers and educators but also for the general public, because games have sometimes been used for propaganda purposes in the past and could be again, in the present and future. Looking at the cultural aspect, as the S&G community has accumulated research over 50 years, the book includes the knowledge of the pioneers, i.e., archival interview data. This is the first book that includes extensive interviews of researchers and commercial game designers and critics. It also contains diverse topics from the perspective of gender and Japanese culture. Japan has been attracting attention in the field of board games as there are many independent game designers and an expanding market. Although women in S&G have gained some recognition, the topic has been rather ignored and was first officially discussed in 2019 at the international conference of the International Simulation and Gaming Association held in Warsaw. In summary, by focusing on comparatively overlooked or neglected aspects of S&G, this book expands future opportunities in the field for researchers and educators, with increased awareness by the general public.