Transcript Serious Games

Serious Games
Triinu Jesmin
What are serious games?
• Serious Games (SG) are games designed for a primary purpose other
than pure entertainment, but have other and more “serious”
purposes.
• The "serious" adjective is generally appended to refer to products
used by industries like defense, education, scientific exploration,
health care, emergency management, city planning, engineering,
religion, and politics.
• Serious games have an explicit and carefully thought-out educational
purpose and are not intended to be played primarily for amusement.
History of SG
• 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. In that book, his references were
primarily to the use of board and card games.
• 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 war-game.
• 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
• 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.
Classification
• Advergames
• Edutainment
• Games-Based Learning or "Game
Learning"
• Edumarket Games
• Newsgames
• Simulations or Simulation Games
• Persuasive Games
• Organizational-dynamic games
• Games for Health
• Exergaming:
• Art Games:
• Productivity game
• Training and Simulations
• Games with a purpose
Framework for SG-s
• Single player VS group or multiplayer
• Visual support
• Narrative and storytelling
• Debriefing as the most critical part of serious game experience
• Motivation (challenge, curiosity and fantasy, control of avatar
decisions)
• Scaffolding (Fine Tuning Systems)
• Feedback
The „I`s“: SG design framework by Leonard A.
Annetta (2010)
Annetta constructed a framework for serious educational game design.
It consists of six I`s:
• (unique) identity
• immersion (flow)
• interactivity (nonplayer characters)
• increased complexity (pleasurable frustration)
• informed teaching (feedback and embedded assessments)
• instructional
The 6-11 Framework (Dillon, 2013)
• The 6-11 Framework is an alternative approach to analysing serious
educational games. It suggests that games can be so engaging at a
subconscious level because they successfully rely on a subset of basic
emotions and instincts which are common and deeply rooted in all of us.
• Specifically, the framework focuses on six emotions and eleven instincts
shortlisted from those in psychology. The six emotions are: fear, anger,
joy/happiness, pride, sadness, excitement.
• The eleven core instincts are: survival, self identification, collecting, greed,
protection/care/nurture, aggressiveness, revenge, competition,
communication, exploration/curiosity, colour appreciation.
For a little exercise
• In groups of 3, discuss and pick one of your
subjects
• Using some of the frameworks mentioned here,
try to think of a game(like) scenario that will
teach your subject
• Present the scenario as playfully as possible 