Throughout history, complex societal problems have plagued societies with their ever-changing dynamic natures and sheer societal consequences. In efforts to address such complex problems, many actors have turned to participatory methods as a means to incorporate community level knowledge and produce community-oriented solutions while addressing societal concerns. Simultaneously, in the field of serious game design, a large body of research has studied the positive effects of using serious game play for societal intervention. However, fewer efforts have been allocated to exploring the effectiveness of participatory serious game design as a means for societal intervention. In other words, can participatory serious game design act as an effective method for societal intervention?

Such inquiry is the basis of this research, where the complex societal problem of biased US policing serves as the application of this study. A mixed methods approach to this research was implemented to explore how to develop interventions where serious game design concepts are to be created between US communities and police. Through a mixed methods approach involving quantitative elements of inferential and descriptive statistical analysis and qualitative elements of content analysis, sentiment analysis, and micro-interlocutor analysis, group brainstorming data, workshop observation data, and semi-structured group interview data was explored in an effort to understand if and how participatory serious game design can be leveraged effectively as a means to societal intervention in the context of US policing and beyond.

The outcomes of this research are two-fold. First, with regard to improving police-community relations through societal intervention, results from this research indicate that current relations between US police and BIPOC communities, specifically black communities, are in a dire state of mistrust. As such, any attempt at intervention between these two groups will likely be received with caution and scepticism. However, in demonstrating that intervention efforts are long-term oriented and not just “throw away” events, more willing engagement could be facilitated. In addition, this research has also demonstrated that police accountability in intervention efforts can exhibit to communities that such efforts to improve police-community relations are serious. In maintaining police accountability throughout interventions, communities may be more willing to welcome police efforts in engagement and relation building.

Second, in considering participatory game design as an intervention study, results from this study indicate that participatory game design has the potential to be an effective intervention method if it is implemented in a way that appropriately caters to the desired audience. In using participatory game design as a means to societal intervention, participant “buy-in” must be facilitated early on to ensure effective engagement. This study also alludes to the fact that participatory game design could be particularly effective as an intervention method when the topic of intervention is taboo, discomforting, or difficult to talk about, as the game-like nature of such intervention can provide an adequate amount of abstraction from reality that helps facilitate less anxiety-inducing dialogue. In a similar vein, the reality-abstracted game-like nature of participatory game design interventions could also be effective at fostering safe and inclusive spaces where all participants can feel able to engage and contribute to discussion, regardless of their backgrounds. Finally, with regard to using participatory game design as an intervention study, this research has exhibited that in ensuring a diversity of participant backgrounds and perspectives, echo chambers, polarity, and groupthink can be avoided in participatory game design-based interventions. Similarly, more meaningful intervention outcomes and creative problem solving has the potential to arise if a healthy amount of group conflict and pressure is managed appropriately within participatory game design interventions.

To the best of our knowledge, this research represents the first mixed methods study aimed at investigating the effectiveness of participative serious game design as a societal intervention method for biased US policing. Therefore, this study provides several potential scientific contributions to the fields of intervention science and serious game design, and it also has several potential implications in the context of society and public policy.