Legacy and Future Impact of Gaming Simulation Pioneers

Willy Christian Kriz, MSc, PhD, is a psychologist and a professor at the FHV University of Vorarlberg, Austria. He is the author/editor of 15 books and around 250 articles (book chapters and articles in scientific journals), has given around 300 lectures and keynotes worldwide, was editor in chief and is currently associate editor of the journal Simulation & Gaming (Sage Publishers), winner of five best paper awards. He is the founder and advisory board member of the Swiss Austrian German Simulation and Gaming Association (SAGSAGA), was a board member of SAGSAGA for 15 years and an executive board member of ISAGA (International Simulation And Gaming Association) for 12 years and twice president of ISAGA, as well as founding director of the ISAGA Summer School for Simulation Game Design in 2004-2013. He is currently an advisory board member of ISAGA. He is a juror of the German Simulation Game Award.
He is partner of riva solutions GmbH (Aschheim near Munich); a company in the field of education, personnel and leadership development, organizational consulting in transformation processes, with focus on gamified and simulation-based applications.

Toshiko Kikkawa (PhD, Kyoto University) is a professor at Keio University, Japan. She is a social psychologist and specializes in risk communication and Simulation and Gaming. She has been a vice-chair of Japanese Association of Simulation and Gaming (JASAG) since 2015. She was Executive Board member of International Simulation and Gaming Association (ISAGA) from 2012 to 2016. Since 2010, she has been an associate editor of The Jounal“Simulation & Gaming” and was a guest editor of special issue of the Simulation & Gaming” (vol.50,(5), 2019), ”From then to now: Transformation in Simulation & Gaming in Japan.” Since 2020, she is a Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Simulation and Gaming journal. Awards: 2005 JASAG Award of Excellence, 2009 FOST (Fusion of Science and Technology) Award.

Marieke de Wijse-Van Heeswijk is PhD researcher at Nijmegen school of Management (Radboud University, the Netherlands, promotors Prof. Etienne Rouwette and Prof. Sander Meijerink). Marieke studies the effects of interventions in and around game simulations on learning/change with participants. Marieke is a member of the ISAGA board (from 2004-2008 and 2021 until now) and community (since 2004) and member of the Dutch ISAGA branch Saganet (since 2004) and NASAGA (since 2020). Marieke was guest editor for the special issue facilitation of simulation games in the Game and Simulation Journal. Marieke was a change and learning consultant and game designer/facilitator for GITP International from 2004 until 2015. From 2015 she started her research on the effects of different facilitation approaches in various types of simulation games. Marieke uses both Qualitative, quantitative and action research methodology and is used to a multidisciplinary research approach taking in perspectives from sociology, organizational sciences, public administration and philosophy.

Heide Lukosch is an associate professor at the Human Interface Technology Lab (HIT Lab NZ) at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand. With her research, Heide aims to understand design affordances for applied immersive games, games that have a specific purpose such as training and learning, and use immersive technologies like virtual or augmented reality. Heide investigates how realistic in terms of representation, social interaction, and experience games have to be. Application domains of her work include education, mental health, and disaster management. Heide works together with local and international academics, as well as with organizations and game developers to answer her research questions, and to support organizations with game-based solutions on the interplay with the games industry. Heide is the EB chair of the International Simulation and Gaming Association (ISAGA), Vice-Chair of the ACM Sig CHI NZ, and an associated editor of the Simulation & Gaming journal.