Playing the System: Comparing the Efficacy and Impact of Digital and Non-Digital Versions of a Collaborative Strategy Game

This study compares a non-digital board game version and a nearly identical iPad version of POX, a cooperative public health strategy game, to test whether such games can build systems thinking and shape attitudes toward vaccination among young people. The central thesis is that platform matters: the physical board game produced measurable gains in systems thinking and more favorable views of vaccination relative to a no-game control, while the digital version did not. The authors position this as the first causal evidence that a game can improve systems thinking, a skill widely regarded as essential in the twenty-first century.

The experiment involved 88 U.S. students aged 11 to 17, randomly assigned to play one version of the game or to serve as controls. Players of the non-digital game scored significantly higher on the Department Store Task, a measure of systems thinking, and allocated more resources toward vaccination. They also won more often, with four of six player pairs succeeding compared with one of six in the digital condition, played for longer, and engaged in markedly more discussion of strategies and consequences. The authors attribute these divergences to the faster pace, shorter turns, and shallower deliberation characteristic of the digital format, which appeared to encourage more concrete rather than abstract processing.

The findings carry practical implications for both designers and educators. The authors recommend that game designers incorporate deliberation prompts, timed decision periods, and facilitated communication to support deeper reasoning in digital settings. For educators, the results underscore that the choice of platform is not neutral when games are used for learning. The authors acknowledge that the mechanisms they propose require confirmation in follow-up studies, but the study's comparative design and controlled conditions provide a foundation for further research on how medium shapes learning outcomes in strategy games.