Using Social Media Data to Understand Citizen Perceptions of Urban Planning in a City Simulation Game

Background: City simulation games provide players a gaming experience by simulating different aspects of the real city. While there is an increasing scholarly interest in games for social learning and education, little research has been conducted to understand citizen perceptions and understanding of urban planning issues in city simulation games. Aim: This study aims to understand the affective perception and cognitive learning of citizens regarding urban planning elements in the online communities of Cities: Skylines. Research Methods: We develop a new methodological approach based on social media data analytics. Large datasets were scraped from Reddit, the most popular social media platform for video game players. The collected data were subjected to content analysis and sentiment analysis that identify different types of topics and emotions to understand citizens’ cognitive and affective perspectives. Key Findings and Conclusion: The findings show that positive emotions were often about the game design, while negative emotions conveyed real-world planning problems such as transportation concerns. The cognitive dimension uncovered citizens’ urban recognition tied to personal experiences in various geographical contexts. This study has practical implications for game design for urban planning.