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Drawing on architect and community-member perspectives, it analyzes the power structures and spatial outcomes produced by these initiatives. The work contrasts serious games with sandbox games, arguing that Minecraft functions as a space-mapping interface while systemic exclusion and accessibility limits can restrict genuine access to public space.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/playing-mapping-and-power-a-critical-analysis-of-using-minecraft-in-spatial-design/591774/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/playing-mapping-and-power-a-critical-analysis-of-using-minecraft-in-spatial-design/591774.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Dipper","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-03","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":29},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What projects and partners are discussed in the analysis of Minecraft in spatial design?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"The text discusses Block by Block Foundation initiatives using Minecraft with Mojang Studios, Microsoft, and UN-Habitat across three projects: Model Street (Nairobi), Mind the Step (São Paulo), and Former Marketplace (Pristina).","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"How does the author frame participatory design in relation to power structures?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"It investigates the power structures and spatial products resulting from participatory efforts, questioning the true effectiveness of digital-game-based participatory design in these contexts.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"What is the difference between serious games and sandbox games in participatory planning?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"Serious games aim to provide a playful learning environment tied to a specific urban issue and time frame, usually limiting map control; sandbox and virtual-world games like Minecraft are not tailored to one context and provide a higher degree of control that players can appropriate to map their imaginations.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},591774,1792189248,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":29,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145,"preview_page_count":4},1374404997633,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_a8503ba1806abce46bf441b54a3ca4cd","Playing, Mapping, and Power  \nA Critical Analysis of Using Minecraft in Spatial Design •  \nHamza Bashandy  \nInvestigating the potential of video games as an aid to community mapping and participatory architectural design, the author discusses the use of the sandbox game Minecraft by the Block by Block Foundation in collaboration with Mojang Studios, Microsoft, and UN-Habitat for three projects—Model Street (Dandora Phase 2, in Nairobi, Kenya), Mind the Step (Jardim Nakamura, in São Paulo, Brazil) and Former Marketplace (in Pristina, Kosovo) .  \nThe author offers different perspectives or “lens” from which to view the projects, including as an architect (which he calls a spatial lens) and as a community member (which he dubs a player lens) . Favoring agency over participant choices, he claims, the institutional forces at work can prevent true access to space making by either the foundation or the game, each of which suffers from accessibility problems for both players and the communities. He argues for a need to look more closely into the politics of the Block by Block Foundation and Minecraft and seeks to make readers explicitly aware of the systemic mechanisms of exclusion. Key words: democracy and public space; marginalized communities; Minecraft; participatory design;  \npower hierarchies; video games  \nPeople around the world use digital media to aid civic participation and promote social justice. Many governmental and community organizations have changed their mission and functions as they adopt new digital tools and practices (Gordon and Mihailidis 2016). Similarly, digital games have been seen as a very potent vehicle adopted by many large-scale institutions such as the United Nations Human Settlement Program (UN-Habitat). This use of games has led some cities to embrace digital games in their participatory design strategies, an important development in city planning over the last century that seeks to include people in democratic space making (De Carlo 2005; Hoskyns 2005; Luck 2018). Here, I look at the participatory model proposed by the Block by Block  \n363  \nAmerican Journal of Play, volume 12, number 3 © The Strong [Contact Hamza Bashandy at hamza.bashandy@uliege.be](Contact Hamza Bashandy at hamza.bashandy@uliege.be)  \nFoundation that integrates the sandbox video game Minecraft as an urban participatory mapping tool in collaboration with Mojang Studios (the developer of Minecraft), Microsoft, and UN-Habitat. The foundation works with nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), city councils, and government entities in marginalized communities to help them redesign and re-create their public spaces.  \nDeparting from the concept of participatory design that aims to democratize space making using video games in aiding communities mapping their built environment, this research looks at power structures and spatial products that have resulted from such efforts. In this research, I investigate these initiatives from a critical perspective, and I ask questions about the true effectiveness of participatory design through digital games in these projects. Unlike most of the urban participatory games, Minecraft promotes itself as a space-design and a space-mapping tool. I consider the produced spaces within Minecraft’s interface as a map—not an institutionalized cartography inscribed within a certain system but as a plan, a proposition (Wood 2010), and a spatial representation of a space that was, is, or will be (or even a space that will never happen) .  \nOverview of Video Games in Participatory Planning  \nSerious Games versus Sandbox Games in Participatory Planning  \nGames have been implicated in the urban-planning and space-making issues of cities since the second half of the twentieth century (Mayer et al. 2009; Tóth and Poplin 2013; Tóth 2015). Digital games specifically have gained attention and been used by local authorities for developing community engagement, including local planning and giving feedback to a city council. ","cbCaijRQPgxzN9Ld","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaijRQPgxzN9Ld","pdf",362233,27,"English","# Overview of Video Games in Participatory Planning\n## Serious Games versus Sandbox Games in Participatory Planning","[{\"question\":\"What projects and partners are discussed in the analysis of Minecraft in spatial design?\",\"answer\":\"The text discusses Block by Block Foundation initiatives using Minecraft with Mojang Studios, Microsoft, and UN-Habitat across three projects: Model Street (Nairobi), Mind the Step (São Paulo), and Former Marketplace (Pristina).\"},{\"question\":\"How does the author frame participatory design in relation to power structures?\",\"answer\":\"It investigates the power structures and spatial products resulting from participatory efforts, questioning the true effectiveness of digital-game-based participatory design in these contexts.\"},{\"question\":\"What is the difference between serious games and sandbox games in participatory planning?\",\"answer\":\"Serious games aim to provide a playful learning environment tied to a specific urban issue and time frame, usually limiting map control; sandbox and virtual-world games like Minecraft are not tailored to one context and provide a higher degree of control that players can appropriate to map their imaginations.\"}]","Playing, Mapping, and Power - A Critical Analysis of Using Minecraft in Spatial Design | PDF",1792073181,68]