Other Worlds. When Worldbuilding and Roleplay Feed Speculation

Games inherently deal with exploring alternative worlds. Worlds where players can experience other roles and have in-game, first-hand experiences by suspending our disbelief. This chapter digs into those features and peculiarities that make games and game design such good spaces where to imagine alternative pasts, presents, and futures for triggering reflection and imagining possibilities. Being situated in the trend of future-oriented design practices, where fictional worlds, what-ifs, and their surroundings nurture design, the reasoning frames the game’ worldbuilding activity and its potentialities in terms of envisioning and speculation from a twofold perspective—that of players and game designers. In doing so, it investigates the peculiar traits that make this practice compelling, challenging, and fruitful for feeding innovation. Relying on which features and strategies can games embed reflections on the complex challenges we are facing today, will face tomorrow, or in the long run? How can the game design activity stimulate designers towards more aware, responsible, inclusive and diversity-oriented processes of envisioning, speculation, creation?