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Civil servants played the graphic video game Grand Theft Auto to explore Britons' 'everyday lives'.
Policy Lab, which was founded in 2014 to apply 'design thinking' to government policy, said it was 'crucial' for policymakers to use virtual worlds to learn about British people's 'hopes and dreams'.
Popular games including GTA, Fortnite and World of Warcraft were all earmarked as relevant to the policy process.
In a 2024 blog post, Policy Lab said its civil servants had used GTA - a violent video game featuring car theft and shootouts - to interview gamers.
It said gaming helped 'explore their everyday lives' and allowed researchers to 'appreciate people's hopes and dreams, through the things that they chose to do — often these weren't available in the rest of their life, such as running a successful in-game business'.
One gamer said they found it much easier to talk while driving in GTA, while another said they 'enjoyed spending time at their nightclub business or on their yacht' in the virtual world.
Researchers said meeting people online could be useful for those working remotely or who struggled to speak face-to-face.
The GTA initiative ran from January to August 2024.
Civil servants played Grand Theft Auto, a violent video game, to interview gamers
A person walking in the video game while being interviewed by a Policy Lab worker
Players told the Policy Lab scheme, which said playing video games would help civil servants understand Brits' 'hopes and dreams', that they enjoyed spending time in their virtual worlds
Policy Lab is funded by paid commissions and is hosted by the Department for Education, though any government department is able to use it.
One of the 400 schemes it has run included working with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to explore 'radical imagination' and 'bring a voice of non-human species into our meetings, boards and design processes'.
Across the two days of the scheme, 80 people - including Defra staff - joined an 'interspecies council' where participants role-played as animals such as earthworms, kingfishers and eels.
The scheme aimed to 'reimagine decision-making for the freshwater system post 2043'.
Policy Lab said it had worked with more than 7,000 civil servants to form policy through practical projects, building skills and knowledge and inspiring new thinking.
A government spokesperson said: 'We are reforming the civil service to create a cost-conscious culture that relentlessly roots out waste, drives efficiency, and protects taxpayers' money. We are currently looking into this initiative.'
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