Social Mpower: A Serious Game for Self-Organisation in Socio-technical Systems

Abstract

Smart grids for decentralised Community Energy Systems (dCES) can be simulated by Serious Games in which players use social networking and visualisation of Ostrom's principles to achieve collective action. Social Mpower is an interactive game designed to inform, aware and motivate energy consumers towards energy efficiency. Emphasising on the concepts of collective awareness and self-organisation, players need to coordinate their individual actions for common good. Field trials and beta tests of the system show that integration and encapsulation of different requirements by a serious game can promote successful collective action in an energy community.