Rigor in Gaming for Design: Conditions for Transfer Between Game and Reality

<jats:p> Background. The increasing cognizance of complexity in systems has brought into focus important questions about the methods and tools we use to address them. Games for design, where games and computer simulations are used together to create concrete and tangible designs in a pluralistic way, with multiple stakeholders within the game is a new area for simulation gaming. </jats:p><jats:p> Aim. In this article about gaming for design, embedded in the design science approach towards game science, we raise important philosophical questions about this new area, as well as attempt to address practical questions at the application level. We attempt to bridge the analytical science and design science approaches to games, and analyze them through meta-constructs of games such as fidelity, abstraction and resolution. </jats:p><jats:p> Results. Results from two applications, through analysis of game play and debriefing of game sessions from two applications, COMPLEX and ProtoWorld are gathered and analyzed to understand the respresentational requirements for simulations and games. </jats:p><jats:p> Conclusion. Results point to the need for rigor in gaming, particularly when modeling reference systems and rigor in assessing effects, both during game play and while debriefing. Results also point to expanded definitions of meta-constructs of games, as well as to their linked nature. </jats:p>