Gaming a Crisis: Insights From a Bibliometric Literature Review

Abstract

As crises become more prominent, serious gaming is emerging as an innovative tool to practice crisis management, yet a comprehensive overview of its applications remains lacking. Subsequently, this article poses the following research questions: What are the current applications of serious gaming in the field of crisis management? What are the emerging trends regarding the use of serious gaming in crisis management? Through a bibliometric review in combination with bibliographic coupling, we identified four themes: (1) healthcare, (2) disaster risk reduction and climate change, (3) adolescents and students, and (4) wargaming. Furthermore, our analysis reveals three critical trends: (1) diverse applications but inconsistent methodological rigor, (2) a divide between studying games as research objects (e.g., evaluating effectiveness) and using them as research tools (e.g., testing behaviors), and (3) a fragmented literature, hindering unified theoretical or practical frameworks.