Serious game

For the team, see Serious Gaming.

A serious game or applied game is a game designed for a primary purpose other than pure entertainment.[1] The "serious" adjective is generally prepended to refer to products used by industries like defense, education,[2] scientific exploration, health care, emergency management, city planning, engineering, and politics.[3]

Definition and scope

Serious games are simulations of real-world events or processes designed for the purpose of solving a problem. Although serious games can be entertaining, their main purpose is to train or educate users, though it may have other purposes, such as marketing or advertisement. Serious game will sometimes deliberately sacrifice fun and entertainment in order to achieve a desired progress by the player. Serious games are not a game genre but a category of games with different purposes. This category includes some educational games and advergames, political games, or evangelical games.[4] Serious games are primarily focused on an audience outside of primary or secondary education.

Overview

The term "serious game" has been used long before the introduction of computer and electronic devices into entertainment. Clark Abt discussed the idea and used the term in his 1970 book Serious Games,[5] published by Viking Press. In that book, his references were primarily to the use of board and card games. But he gave a useful general definition which is still considered applicable in the computer age:

Reduced to its formal essence, a game is an activity among two or more independent decision-makers seeking to achieve their objectives in some limiting context. A more conventional definition would say that a game is a context with rules among adversaries trying to win objectives. We are concerned with serious games in the sense that these games have an explicit and carefully thought-out educational purpose and are not intended to be played primarily for amusement.

It is not a new idea. Military officers have been using war games in order to train strategic skills for a long time. One early example of a serious game is a 19th-century Prussian military training game called Kriegsspiel, the German name for wargame.

Mike Zyda provided an update and a logical approach to the term in his 2005 article in IEEE Computer entitled, "From Visual Simulation to Virtual Reality to Games". Zyda's definition begins with "game" and proceeds from there:

Long before the term "serious game" came into wide use with the Serious Games Initiative in 2002, games were being made for non-entertainment purposes. The continued failure of the edutainment space to prove profitable, plus the growing technical abilities of games to provide realistic settings, led to a re-examination of the concept of serious games in the late 1990s. During this time, a number of scholars began to examine the utility of games for other purposes, contributed to the growing interest in applying games to new purposes. Additionally, the ability of games to contribute to training expanded at the same time with the development of multi-player gaming. In 2002, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington D.C. launched a "Serious Games Initiative" to encourage the development of games that address policy and management issues. More focused sub-groups began to appear in 2004, including Games for Change which focuses on social issues and social change, and Games for Health which addresses health care applications.

Other authors, though, (as Jeffery R. Young) consider that Serious Games didn't obtain the success that was expected, and new theories, like "Smart Gaming" have appeared to replace it.

There is no single definition of serious games, though they are generally held to be games used for training, advertising, simulation, or education. Alternate definitions include the application of games concepts, technologies and ideas to non-entertainment applications. This can also include specific hardware for video games, such as exergaming.

Serious games are aimed for a large variety of audiences, including primary or secondary education, professionals and consumers. Serious games can be of any genre, use any game technology, and be developed for any platform. Some may consider them a kind of edutainment; however, the mainstay of the community are resistant to this term.

A serious game is not a simulation alone. It may be a simulation combined with elements of game-play, specifically a chance to win. All have the look and feel of a game, a chance to win, but correspond to non-game events or processes from the real world, including business operations and military operations (even though many popular entertainment games depicted business and military operations). The games are made to provide an engaging, self-reinforcing context in which to motivate, educate and train the players. Other purposes for such games include marketing and advertisement. The largest users (unsubstantiated by business intelligence) of serious games appear to be the US government and medical professionals. Other commercial sectors are actively pursuing development of these types of tools as well.

History

The use of games in educational circles has been practiced since at least the twentieth century. Use of paper-based educational games became popular in the 1960s and 1970s, but waned under the Back to Basics teaching movement.[6] (The Back to Basics teaching movement is a change in teaching style that started in the 1970s when students were scoring poorly on standardized tests and exploring too many electives. This movement wanted to focus students on reading, writing and arithmetic and intensify the curriculum.[7]) With the proliferation of computers in the 1980s, the use of educational games in the classroom became popular with titles that included Oregon Trail, Math Blaster, and Number Munchers. Though these games were popular among teachers and students, they were also criticized due to the fact that they did not provide the player with new kinds of learning, and instead provided a "slightly easier-to-swallow version of drill-and-practice" learning.[8]

In the 1990s, newer games such as The Incredible Machine and the Dr. Brain series were introduced to challenge kids to think in new ways, apply their current skills, and learn new ones, but these games were unpopular among teachers because it was difficult to map these newer games to their curriculum, especially in a high school setting where in-class time is at a premium. The 1990s also saw the Internet being introduced to schools, which with limited computer resources took precedence over playing games.[8]

The early 2000s saw a surge in different types of educational games, especially those designed for the younger learner. Many of these games were not computer-based but took on the model of other traditional gaming system both in the console and hand-held format. In 1999, LeapFrog Enterprises introduced the LeapPad, which combined an interactive book with a cartridge and allowed kids to play games and interact with a paper-based book. Based on the popularity of traditional hand-held gaming systems like Nintendo's Game Boy, they also introduced their hand-held gaming system called the Leapster in 2003. This system was cartridge-based and integrated arcade–style games with educational content.[9]

In 2001, Henry Jenkins, Director of Comparative Media Studies and Randy Hinrichs, Group Research Manager for Learning Science and Technology group were co-principal investigators working on a project known as Games-to-Teach. Games-to-Teach inspired the serious gaming initiatives that followed. The partnership between MIT and Microsoft developed conceptual prototypes for interactive serious gaming, with Kurt Squire, now professor at University of Wisconsin as principal PhD candidate working on the project. The MIT iCampus project lasted for six years. During this time, serious games were created with several faculty members using role playing techniques, mobile technologies, physics based racing games to teach physics, and other experiences. Topics included media in science, engineering education, education in media, complex system dynamics, and collaboration. Hephaestus was a massively multiplayer Xbox online mechanical engineering game. Environmental detectives used handheld PCs to investigate health problems in the city of Boston. Biohazard was codeveloped with Carnegie Mellon University, MIT and Microsoft Research. Players worked collaboratively with first responders to a chemical attack in a subway. This was a multiplayer RPG designed for the PC/Xbox in which sources of epidemic outbreaks were investigated to determine how to control crowds and deliver decontamination treatments and manage resources efficiently. Hinrichs began the award winning company 2b3d.net to build serious games in health, business, education and created the first Certificate in Virtual Worlds at the University of Washington to build curriculum around how to engage avatars in serious game environments. Henry Jenkins joined USC as Professor of Communication, Journalism, Cinematic Arts and Education. Jenkins has played a significant role in demonstrating the importance of new media technologies in educational settings.

In 2002 another movement had started outside of formal educational sector that was coined as the "serious game movement," which originated from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, where David Rejecsk and Ben Sawyer started the initiative. The primary consumer and producer of serious games is the United States Military, which needs to prepare their personnel for enter a variety of environments, cultures, and situations. They need to understand their surroundings, be able to communicate, use new technologies and quickly make decisions.[8] The first serious game is often considered to be Army Battlezone, an abortive project headed by Atari in 1980, designed to use the Battlezone tank game for military training.[10] Two other well known serious games that were commissioned by the Army are America's Army (2002) and Full Spectrum Warrior (2004).

Outside of the government, there is substantial interest in serious games for formal education, professional training, healthcare, advertising, public policy and social change. For example, games from websites such as Newsgaming.com are "very political games groups made outside the corporate game system" that are "raising issues through media but using the distinct properties of games to engage people from a fresh perspective," says Henry Jenkins, the director of MIT's comparative media studies program. Such games, he said, constitute a "radical fictional work."1

Development

In recent years, the US government and military have periodically looked towards game developers to create low-cost simulations that are both accurate and engaging. Game developers' experience with gameplay and game design made them prime candidates for developing these types of simulations which cost millions of dollars less than traditional simulations, which often require special hardware or complete facilities to use.

Advantages to this include:

Research and education

Health education is a particular area where results have been observed by the use of serious games "Video games, enhanced by behavior-change technology and motivating story lines, offer promise for promoting diet and physical activity change for diabetes and obesity prevention in youth." (Thompson). Additionally, games designed specifically for use in rehabilitation efforts have been shown to have positive impacts on patients undergoing therapy for strokes, cerebral palsy, and more. These games, assisting in Gaming rehabilitation, prove that the serious gaming environment can have a more serious impact on the health of a person and their life than a regular gaming system could.

Intrinsic motivation is another feature provided by serious games that facilitates education. To produce motivation four characteristics are provided by serious games "challenge, curiosity, control and the imagination / imaginary (fantasy)" (Mouaheb). These four characteristics create a particular advantage "in an educational context the game is likely to make the learning process interesting in itself to obtain the greatest motivation in the learner" (Mouaheb).

The dynamic nature of virtual environments also causes "active participation by the player" (Mouaheb). Active participation leads to "a fertile ground for the generation of real cognitive conflicts ensuring a personal and solid build of knowledge" (Mouaheb). Another researcher confirms this view "computer games are more engaging, motivating and interesting by virtue of their interaction, rich universes, challenges and safety" (Egenfeldt-Nielsen).

The combination of all these factors leads to significant benefits "retention increases when using computer games compared to other teaching" (Egenfeldt-Nielsen). The use of reward in a behavioral sense is also a powerful tool in serious games "the video game will ask a question and the player will answer. When students link the question and the answer enough times, reinforced by a reward, learning will occur" (Egenfeldt-Nielsen).

Limited studies have been performed to compare the effectiveness of serious games to other learning formats. One such study comparing games to an educational video found that "The children playing the video game expressed more enjoyment and learned the same as those watching the television program" (Egenfeldt-Nielsen). Studies have shown that games can have a strong effect on day-to-day health management. In one study, children who played a game about healthy living principles had "a 77 percent drop in visits to urgent care and medical visits in the experimental group compared with the control group" (Egenfeldt-Nielsen).

Research on how to design authentic, role based serious games for mobile learning, that are running in real working enviroinments are funded by the German ministry of education (BMBF). An example is the research and development project NetEnquiry[11] (2014-2016).

The use of serious games in information security education has also been investigated.[12][13] Early results showed an increase in student motivation to learn, but actual information security knowledge was not shown to be significantly improved.[14] However, related work using the classical children's game of snakes and ladders to teach young children about cyber safety was shown to be much more effective.[15]

Classification

The classification of serious games is something that is yet to solidify, there are however a number of terms in reasonably common use for inclusion here.

Advergames
The use of games for advertising. The approach can include numerous different ways of advertising more or less well-known from other media. You can have product placement, banners in-game or just traffic triggers.
Edutainment
A combination of education and entertainment.
Games-based learning or "Game learning"
These games have defined learning outcomes. Generally, they are designed in order to balance the subject matter with the gameplay and the ability of the player to retain and apply said subject matter to the real world.[16] For example, games like Merchants and Triskelion offer training in soft skills (negotiation and time management).
Edumarket games
When a serious game combines several aspects (such as advergaming and edutainment aspects or persuasive and news aspects), the application is an Edumarket game. For example, Food Force combines news, persuasive and edutainment goals.
Newsgames
Journalistic games that report on recent events or deliver an editorial comment. Examples include September 12th.[17]
Simulations or Simulation games
Games used for the acquisition or exercise of different skills, to teach effective behavior in the context of simulated conditions or situations. In practice, are widely used simulation driving different vehicles (cars, trains, airplanes; e.g. FlightGear), simulation of management of specific industries (e.g. Transport Tycoon), and universal business simulation, developing strategic thinking and teaching users the basics of macro-and microeconomics, the basics of business administration.
Persuasive games
Games used as persuasion technology.
Organizational-dynamic games
Teach and reflect the dynamics of organizations.
Games for health
Such as games for psychological therapy, cognitive training, emotional training,[18] or physical rehabilitation uses.[19] Technology and mental health issues can use serious games to make therapy accessible to adolescents who would otherwise would not find a psychotherapist approachable.
Exergaming
Games that are used as a form of exercise.
Art games
Games used to express artistic ideas or art produced through the medium of video games.
Productivity game
Games which reward points for accomplished real-world tasks using to-do lists.
Training
See Gamification.
Games with a purpose
Try to solve various tasks that require common sense or human experience in an entertaining setting.

Additionally Julian Alvarez and Olivier Rampnoux (from the European Center for Children's Products, University of Poitiers) have attempted to classify serious games in 5 main categories: Advergaming, Edutainment, Edumarket game, Diverted game and Simulation game.[20]

Examples

See also

References

  1. ↑ Djaouti, Damien; Alvarez, Julian; Jessel, Jean-Pierre. "Classifying Serious Games: the G/P/S model" (PDF). Retrieved 26 June 2015.
  2. ↑ Scott, Michael; Ghinea, Gheorghita (6 March 2013). Integrating Fantasy Role-Play into the Programming Lab: Exploring the 'Projective Identity' Hypothesis (pdf). Proceedings of the 44th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education. ACM. pp. 119–122. doi:10.1145/2445196.2445237. Retrieved January 1, 2016.
  3. ↑ "Serious Games". cs.gmu.edu. Retrieved 26 June 2015.
  4. ↑ Ernest Adams (2009-07-09). "Sorting Out the Genre Muddle". Gamasutra. Retrieved 2009-05-23.
  5. ↑ "Abt Associates Inc. History, 1970-1974". Abt Associates Inc. Retrieved 2009-07-18.
  6. ↑ Rice, J. W. (2007). Assessing higher order thinking in video games. Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, 15(1), 87.
  7. ↑ "Education Update"; Back To Basics; Dr. Carole G. Hankin and Randi T. Sachs; 2002
  8. 1 2 3 Klopfer E. Augmented Learning : Research and Design of Mobile Educational Games [e-book]. MIT Press; 2008. Available from: eBook Collection, Ipswich, MA. Accessed July 26, 2011.
  9. ↑ Gray, J. H., Bulat, J., Jaynes, C., & Cunningham, A. (2009). LeapFrog learning. Mobile Technology for Children: Designing for Interaction and Learning, , 171.
  10. ↑ Macedonia, M. (2001). Games, simulation, and the military education dilemma. Internet and the University, , 157-167.
  11. ↑ NetEnquriy (official project website) NetEnquiry. Official project website by the University Paderborn
  12. ↑ Arachchilage, Nalin; Love, Steve; Scott, Michael (June 1, 2012). "Designing a Mobile Game to Teach Conceptual Knowledge of Avoiding 'Phishing Attacks'". International Journal for e-Learning Security (Infonomics Society) 2 (1): 127–132. Retrieved April 1, 2016.
  13. ↑ Scott, Michael; Ghinea, Gheorghita; Arachchilage, Nalin (7 July 2014). Assessing the Role of Conceptual Knowledge in an Anti-Phishing Educational Game (pdf). Proceedings of the 14th IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies. IEEE. p. 218. doi:10.1109/ICALT.2014.70. Retrieved April 1, 2016.
  14. ↑ Monk, Thomas; Van Niekerk, Johan; Von Solms, Rossouw (2010). "Sweetening the medicine: educating users about information security by means of game play". SAICSIT '10 Proceedings of the 2010 Annual Research Conference of the South African Institute of Computer Scientists and Information Technologists: 193–200. doi:10.1145/1899503.1899525.
  15. ↑ Reid, Rayne; Van Niekerk, Johan (2013). "Back to Basics: Information Security Education for the Youth via Gameplay". Information Assurance and Security Education and Training: 1–10. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-39377-8_1.
  16. ↑ The book 'Digital Game-Based Learning' by Marc Prensky was the first major publication to define the term, The Official Site of the book 'Digital Game-Based Learning' by Marc Prensky
  17. ↑ Gonzalo Frasca of newsgaming.com which denounces the use of violence to resolve the problem of terrorism.
  18. ↑ Rizzo A., John B., Sheffield B., Newman B., Williams J., Hartholt A., Lethin C., Buckwalter J.G., Virtual Reality as a Tool for Delivering PTSD Exposure Therapy and Stress Resilience Training, In Military Behavioral Health, volume 1, 2012.
  19. ↑ Rego, P., Moreira, P.M., Reis, L.P., Serious games for rehabilitation: A survey and a classification towards a taxonomy, In Information Systems and Technologies (CISTI), 2010 5th Iberian Conference on , pp.1,6, 16-19, 2010.
  20. ↑ Alvarez J., Rampnoux O., Serious Game: Just a question of posture?, in Artificial & Ambient Intelligence, AISB'07, Newcastle, UK, April 2007, p.420 to 423
  21. ↑ Marcel Gebbe (2015-05-06). "Serious Mobile Learning". Retrieved 2015-05-20.
  22. ↑ Lisa Grossman (2010-11-30). "Computer Game Makes You a Genetic Scientist". Wired.com. Retrieved 2012-10-24.

Further reading

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