A sustainable game changer? Systematic review of serious games used for agriculture and research agenda

CONTEXT: Serious games can be used as a tool for learning, increasing coordination, supporting decision-making processes, and other purposes that can strengthen sustainability transitions. While agriculture is an important corner stone for these transitions, little research has been done on serious games on agricultural and none on the potential link with sustainability issues. OBJECTIVE: This article is a systematic review of published research articles on the use of serious games to address agricultural issues. It aimed to understand how these serious games incorporate or are likely to address sustainability issues. METHODS: The process of the review is described accord to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA). After data collection, we conducted a four-step analysis: i) short bibliometric analysis of the corpus, ii) descriptive analysis of the games' characteristics, iii) comprehensive analysis on sustainability based on a framework developed to define what is sustainable agriculture, iv) analysis of assessment of the games. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Results were based on 237 articles including 182 empirical studies. We showed that the number of articles on serious games in agriculture have recently increased throughout the world. Serious games can reach different goals: i) learning, particularly on specific topics, ii) mediation and co-design, iii) research. Games can be seen as effective means to enable stakeholders to work together. In a context of sustainability transitions, serious games can be used to tackle complex issues. However, more effort must be undertaken to assess the real impact of the game. SIGNIFICANCE: This review confirmed the importance of serious games in agricultural research aiming to enhance sustainability transition. We identified gaps and proposed a research agenda to further work on i) inclusion of the diversity of games, ii) rethinking using of games with possible combinations, iii) opening to broader agricultural productions, iv) assessing the real impact of the games, v) using games for transdisciplinary research.