Serious game: Difference between revisions
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Serious games have a long history. A good example are military games. Today (since the late nineties), "serious game" most often related to ''a kind'' of educational computer game or a ''kind'' of educational computer simulation. | Serious games have a long history. A good example are military games. Today (since the late nineties), "serious game" most often related to ''a kind'' of educational computer game or a ''kind'' of educational computer simulation. | ||
We suggest the following definition: A serious computer game is a [[computer simulation]] or a [[microworld]] that is designed and implemented | We suggest the following definition: A serious computer game is a [[computer simulation]] or a [[microworld]] that is designed and implemented according to [[gameplay and playability|gameplay]] principles. In addition, a serious computer game may use game technology. | ||
The main purpose of serious games is education and training. Other areas of use include advertizing, political and religious propaganda. | |||
See also: | See also: | ||
Revision as of 09:01, 5 October 2012
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Introduction
Serious games have a long history. A good example are military games. Today (since the late nineties), "serious game" most often related to a kind of educational computer game or a kind of educational computer simulation.
We suggest the following definition: A serious computer game is a computer simulation or a microworld that is designed and implemented according to gameplay principles. In addition, a serious computer game may use game technology.
The main purpose of serious games is education and training. Other areas of use include advertizing, political and religious propaganda.
See also:
History
Serious computer games go back to the 1970's (Abt, 1970), and mainly appeared under names like "educational game", "business game", "gaming and simuluation", "simulation", "edutainment", political games. However, there are subtle differences with respect to modern main-stream serious games, for example:
- The "fun" aspect usually was less developed in simulations
- Older serious games did less often use so-called gaming engines
- Educational games did often just implement a rewards system and were probably not as engaging as real video games
- Edutainment refers to games that (maybe) would develop cognitive skills with younger children, mainly commercial CDs
Recently, so-called gamification gained attention in some circles. "Gamification" mainly uses simple reward systems that are supposed to engage users in activities. It's inspired by "boy scout" badges and actually implements badgin systems.
Examples
- 1066 (by Channel4)
Links
Overviews
- Serious game (Wikipedia)
Indexes of serious games
- Serious game (Wikipedia), includes a longer list at the end of the article
- Jeux pédagogiques List of entries in french made by our students
See also:
Acknowledgment
The first drafts of the article are strongly based on the Serious game article.