The study contributes to IS literature by proposing a novel understanding of how time can be intentionally designed to sustain user engagement. Moreover, these temporalities can engender temporal experiences that may stimulate engagement in various ways. The findings show that game temporalities stem from the complex interaction between the design features of the game and the norms, routines and expectations that are part of the game practices. Drawing on social practice theory, which is increasingly used in Information Systems (IS) research, I conducted an ethnographic study in World of Warcraft (WoW) to understand how various temporalities are produced within a video game and the effects that they have on players' engagement. In a gaming context, ‘time’ is an important factor for engagement because game designers can design the game time to retain players in the game environment. With this aim, video games can be an insightful source of inspiration, as they are specifically designed to maximise playing time, increase players' intentions of playing during the day or enhance their willingness to replay. Researchers and developers constantly seek novel ways to create engaging applications that are able to retain their users over the long term, make them desire to spend time using the application or go back to using it after a break. By adopting concepts from the work of Holbrook on interdisciplinary communications, the article explores how game studies’ concepts are rendered useful in planning and how planning theory has dealt with untranslatability and incommensurability of concepts in the processes of establishing and sustaining communications with game studies. To shed light on why such confusions emerge, the article reflects on the nature and outcomes of communications between urban planning and games studies and explores games’ historical and current conceptions in planning. Despite the increasing interest in strengthening communications between planning and game studies, the current state is an amalgam of confusion and optimism about games’ role and added value. A wide range of games for and about urban planning is developed and tested, from data-driven games that rely on extensive modelling techniques and aim to reduce the cost and risk of real-world scenario testing, to those that seek to educate their players about the complex nature of political and social issues. The past decade has seen a gradual but steady increase in the planning scholars’ interest in outlining a functional place for games in planning.
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