Game Science Research Center

The GAME Science Research Centre (GSRC) is an inter-university research centre with administrative headquarters at the IMT School, which aims to promote, support and disseminate research in the field of game science. The GSRC is a unique reality in Italy and with very few comparable realities at the international level, which aspires to be an aggregator of any kind of research on “game” science.

Game Science, still a young and multifaceted discipline, investigates various phenomena related to the notion of “game, understood both as a model of strategic behaviour (i.e., as interactive decision-making) and as a system of rules and mechanisms for playful activities (i.e., both the game itself and the playing activity). Game Science encompasses Game Studies, as well as Game Theory and Game Design Research, with related quantitative areas of research. As a model of strategic behaviour, a “game” offers a general and flexible framework for describing and explaining social, cultural and natural phenomena, promoting our understanding of their dynamics and helping to predict their outcomes. As a game activity organised around well-defined rules, “play” is an important part of socially organised activities and can be a valuable tool for promoting motivation, risk prevention, health support, scientific data collection, science dissemination, socio-cultural change and artistic exploration. GSRC members work in all areas of Game Science application, from research projects studying game effectiveness, to training courses and workshops on game production and game design techniques.