– The purpose of this paper is to address the issue of how university students address learning through playing wicked games.
– Using a case study run by the author of a university undergraduate education module, qualitative data are provided to support a pragmatic model of addressing the issues of realistic behavior and outcomes.
– Through a combination of elements – mainly, integration of more conventional academic research, use of repeated points of contact between students and the lecturer and extensive reflection after the activity by the student – it is possible to provide for a gameplay experience that more closely follows real-world outcomes than would otherwise occur.
– The use of a single case study clearly limits the ability to generalize and implies the need to replicate the work in new iterations and in new contexts.
– The paper highlights the importance of grounding wicked gameplay in reality, if they are to maximize their utility as a teaching practice. It also stresses the high level of engagement, not only on the part of the students but also on the part of the lecturer, who must be an active part of the gameplay structure.
– The consideration of a continuous process of grounding wicked games in reality is one that has not been explored by the existing literature, so it offers useful insights into practice that will be of value to both practitioners and theorists in the field.
