The Future of Games in Society (Manifesto from Dagstuhl Perspectives Workshop 25102)
Dagstuhl Manifestos, 1(1), 2026
In short
A manifesto written by the 26 researchers at Dagstuhl Perspectives Workshop 25102, organised by Anders Drachen, Johanna Pirker and Lennart Nacke. It is addressed both to the games research community and to policymakers, and sets out how society can study, fund and use games for societal benefit. I co-authored the working-group report on societal awareness of games' impact through rigour in assessment, evidence and knowledge mobilisation (Appendix A.7).
Key findings
- Nine working-group reports cover human flourishing, education, harm prevention, behavioural research platforms, research infrastructure, industry–academia collaboration, assessment rigour, global funding and research impact.
- From these, the manifesto draws cross-cutting findings about where games research needs to go next.
- It sets out six policy priority areas, each with concrete recommendations that name who must act and what they must do.
Read and cite
Open access under a CC BY 4.0 licence.
APA citation
Drachen, A., Pirker, J., Nacke, L. E., Canossa, A., Denisova, A., Deterding, S., Flick, C., Freeman, G., Frommel, J., Gerling, K., Harteveld, C., Hayes, A., Hirsch, L., Kowert, R., Kriglstein, S., Loria, E., Mandryk, R. L., Melhart, D., Mirza-Babaei, P., Rogers, K., Seif El-Nasr, M., Vanden Abeele, V., Wallner, G., Wohn, D., Young, R. M., & Zünd, F. (2026). The Future of Games in Society (Manifesto from Dagstuhl Perspectives Workshop 25102). Dagstuhl Manifestos, 1(1), 1–109. Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik.
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