Exploding Kittens

Playful Serious Gaming for Change Management

This study investigates how serious games for change management training can embed domain theory as a mechanical prerequisite for progression rather than as thematic decoration, a design flaw the authors argue undermines learning outcomes.

• Serious games for change management often embed domain theory as thematic decoration rather than as a mechanical prerequisite for progression, a design flaw the authors argue undermines learning outcomes.
• The core finding is a tension between instructional rigour and player engagement: mechanically enforcing theory produces an experience closer to a facilitated workshop than a game, while engagement-focused mechanics let players succeed through social manipulation without conceptual understanding.
• No single mechanic examined resolves both rigour and engagement; the authors propose theory-as-mechanical-prerequisite as a transferable design principle and suggest hybrid designs that enforce knowledge at bottleneck moments while allowing freer play between them.