The overarching objective of this paper is to consider the ways that serious games could be developed in the future to maximise potential benefits in the context of governance of complex transboundary water systems. A focus is placed on the use of serious games for decision-making; as such the use of serious games for other purposes (e.g. games with a solely educational purpose), while interesting and useful, is outside the scope of this work. The Upper St Lawrence was used as a case study of a transboundary watershed to enable specific examples of the potential uses of serious games to be drawn. A review of the serious games and decision-making literature was undertaken to derive a theory framework for the way serious games might be able to support decision-making in different contexts. Following this, exploratory interviews were conducted with water resource managers across the St Lawrence region to establish whether a serious game might be useful in this particular context. Three decision-making contexts were identified in which serious games might be a useful tool: decision-making involving complex systems or significant uncertainty, decision-making involving multiple stakeholders with divergent perspectives and decision-making under time constraints. It was found that several contextual factors make the St Lawrence region a potentially viable candidate for the development of a serious game to support decision-making.

本文的总体目标是考虑在将来在复杂的跨界水系统治理的背景下发展严肃的博弈以最大化潜在利益的方式。重点放在使用严肃的游戏进行决策上；因此，将严肃的游戏用于其他目的（例如，仅出于教育目的的游戏）虽然有趣且有用，但超出了本文的范围。上圣劳伦斯河被用作跨界分水岭的案例研究，以便能够得出有关严重博弈潜在用途的具体例子。对严肃的游戏和决策文献进行了回顾，以得出理论框架，说明严肃的游戏可能能够在不同情况下支持决策的方式。按照此，与圣劳伦斯地区的水资源经理进行了探索性访谈，以确定在这种特定情况下严肃的游戏是否有用。确定了三种决策环境，其中严肃的游戏可能是有用的工具：涉及复杂系统或重大不确定性的决策，涉及多个利益相关者，具有不同观点的决策以及在时间限制下的决策。人们发现，一些背景因素使圣劳伦斯地区成为开发支持决策的严肃游戏的潜在可行候选人。涉及复杂系统或重大不确定性的决策，涉及具有不同观点的多个利益相关者的决策，以及在时间限制下的决策。结果发现，一些背景因素使圣劳伦斯地区成为开发支持决策的严肃游戏的潜在可行候选者。涉及复杂系统或重大不确定性的决策，涉及具有不同观点的多个利益相关者的决策，以及在时间限制下的决策。结果发现，一些背景因素使圣劳伦斯地区成为开发支持决策的严肃游戏的潜在可行候选者。