Playful Citizen Discussion Space to Help Steer Society Towards Water Security

A playful dilemma game called "Save the City" was co-designed with the UK water charity Waterwise to stimulate citizen discussion about household water use. The activity combines a water use survey, a data exploration task, and a cooperative dilemma in which players propose behaviour changes to halve bathroom water use in a fictitious drought-hit city. The central aim is to test whether serious-game formats can serve as effective tools for engaging the public in collective water security decisions, with the game developed using the GREAT methodology and run on the DiBL platform.

The evidence comes from a pilot with six participants and a main trial with 19 UK adults aged 22 to 71, with 16 completing a one-week follow-up survey. Participants reported considering their water use significantly more after the session (p=0.006, large effect) and rated the experience positively, averaging 4.32 out of 5. Immersion was moderate (M = 2.30) and positive affect was favourable (M = 2.53) in the pilot's Game Experience Questionnaire results. Although overall self-reported water use fell from 756.59 L to 725.68 L, this change was not statistically significant (p=0.531), though eight of the 16 participants reported deliberate changes such as shorter showers and turning off taps.

The authors conclude that the format succeeds as a discussion tool, while cautioning that conclusions about behaviour change remain tentative. The small, self-reported samples, the possibility of social desirability bias, a potentially self-selected participant pool, and the absence of measured behaviour change beyond a brief follow-up all constrain the strength of the findings. Coverage is limited to the United Kingdom and to household bathroom water use over a short period.

The work is framed against theoretical background on social dilemmas and on serious games for collaborative learning, situating the game within research on how cooperative play can support shared environmental decision-making.