Research and Reports

Our featured publications include:

Cover of the book "Locally Played"

Locally Played: Real-World Games for Stronger Places and Communities. In this 2020 book from MIT Press, Benjamin Stokes describes the rise of games that can connect strangers across zip codes, support the “buy local” economy, and build cohesion in the fight for equity. With a mix of high- and low-tech games, Stokes shows, cities can tap into the power of play for the good of the group, including healthier neighborhoods and stronger communities. By pairing design principles with a range of empirical methods, Stokes investigates the impact of several games, including Macon Money, where an alternative currency encouraged people to cross lines of socioeconomic segregation in Macon, Georgia; Reality Ends Here, where teams in Los Angeles competed to tell multimedia stories around local mythology; and Pokémon GO, appropriated by several cities to serve local needs through local libraries and open street festivals. See also: video of book talk (YouTube via Games for Change Festival).

thumbnail of figures in the article "Neighborhood Making of Story Games"

After three years of work across 50 towns and cities, we published “Neighborhood Making of Story Games: Accessible Joy in Low-Tech Design” in the 2026 proceedings of DiGRA. It is co-authored by Benjamin Stokes, Eric Schoenborn, Hazel Arroyo and Meagan Couture. From the abstract: “This study shows how game design often needs to be reframed for first-time designers, can be scaled through public libraries with minimal budgets, and can still retain the joy in making real games for local impact. The findings contribute to the study of democratizing game design for more neighborhoods and stronger places.” You can also download the PDF directly.

Photograph of the Sankofa Red payphone in Los Angeles

Urban furniture in digital placemaking: Adapting a storytelling payphone across Los Angeles. It was published in 2021 in the journal Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies. The article reflects years of design, organizing and research by the Leimert Phone Company in Los Angeles, with co-authors Stokes, B., Bar, F., Baumann, K., Caldwell, B., & Schrock, A. Read the proofs on ResearchGate. See also: the Leimert Phone Company team, and the contents for the full special issue on digital placemaking.

Cover of the report

2018 report: “Cities Remix a Playful Platform: Experiments to Embed Pokemon GO.” Funded by Niantic and the Knight Foundation, this is the first major report to show how city government, festivals and libraries can align AR (augmented reality) fans and platforms with their local goals. Based on research in five cities, the report shows how cities must be proactive to align games with their own campaigns and events — from walking tours at neighborhood libraries to Open Street Festivals.

2016 report: “Impact” with Games — rethinking “impact” with games, and how the right language is crucial to overcome fragmentation. In partnership with Games for Change, with funding from the Packard Foundation.

Additional publications (selected)