Serious game

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 video games used by industries like defense, education,^[2] scientific exploration, health care, emergency management, city planning, engineering, and politics.^[3] The idea shares aspects with simulation generally, including flight simulation and medical simulation, but explicitly emphasizes the added pedagogical value of fun and competition.

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.^[4] (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.^[5])

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.^[6]

See also

• Brain fitness
• Business game
• Business simulation game
• Educational video game
• Edutainment
• Games and learning
• Game with a purpose
• Games for Change
• Gamification
• Gamification of learning
• Global warming game
• Innovation game
• Intelligent tutoring system
• International Simulation and Gaming Association
• Learning objects
• Lego Serious Play
• Serious Games Showcase and Challenge
• Serious play
• State of Play (conference series)
• Technology and mental health issues
• Transreality gaming

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. Rice, J. W. (2007). "Assessing higher order thinking in video games" (PDF). Journal of Technology and Teacher Education. 15 (1): 87.
5. "Education Update"; Back To Basics; Dr. Carole G. Hankin and Randi T. Sachs; 2002
6. Gray, J. H.; Bulat, J.; Jaynes, C.; Cunningham, A. (2009). "LeapFrog learning". Mobile Technology for Children: Designing for Interaction and Learning. By A. Druin. Morgan Kaufmann. p. 171. ISBN 9780080954097.

Further reading

• Abt, C. (1970). Serious Games. New York: The Viking Press.
• Aldrich, Clark (2009). The Complete Guide to Simulations and Serious Games. Pfeiffer. p. 576. ISBN 0-470-46273-6.
• Anderson, E. F.; McLoughlin, L.; Liarokapis, F.; Peters, C.; Petridis, P.; de Freitas, S. (2009), Serious Games in Cultural Heritage, VAST-STAR, Short and Project Proceedings, 10th VAST International Symposium on Virtual Reality, Archaeology and Cultural Heritage (Eurographics VAST '09), Faculty of ICT, University of Malta, pp. 29–48
• Baranowski, T; Buday, R; Thompson, DI; Baranowski, J (January 2008). "Playing for real: video games and stories for health-related behavior change". American Journal of Preventive Medicine. 34 (1): 74–82. doi:10.1016/j.amepre.2007.09.027. PMC 2189579. PMID 18083454.
• Digitalarti Mag #0 (2009). Serious Game (PDF). pp. 24–25.
• Egenfeldt-Nielsen, Simon. The basic learning approach behind Serious Games. April 2005
• Egenfeldt-Nielsen, Simon. Overview of research on the educational use of video games. March 2006
• Graafland, M., Schraagen, J. M., Schijven, M. P. Systematic review of serious games for medical education and surgical skills training.
• Houda Mouaheb, Ahmed Fahli, Mohammed Moussetad, Said Eljamali. The Serious Game: What Educational Benefits?. Sep 6, 2012
• Jalink, M.B., Goris, J., Heineman, E., Pierie, J.P., ten Cate Hoedemaker, H.O. The effects of video games on laparoscopic simulator skills..
• Lang, F., Pueschel, T. and Neumann, D. (2009). "Serious Gaming for the Evaluation of Market Mechanisms", Proceedings of the International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS) 2009.
• Mettler, T., Pinto R. (2015). Serious games as a means for scientific knowledge transfer - A case from engineering management education. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, 62(2), 256-265.
• Reeves, Byron; Reed, J. Leighton (2009). Total Engagement: Using Games and Virtual Worlds to Change the Way People Work and Businesses Compete. Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing.
• "Winners & Learners: Classroom Discourse Surrounding Educational Games" by Kristen Shanahan
• The International Journal on Serious Games, a scientific Open Access Journal, first issue January 2014.
• Thompson D, Baranowski T, Buday R et al. Serious Video Games for Health: How Behavioral Science Guided the Development of a Serious Video Game. Simulation Gaming August 2010 vol. 41 no. 4 587-606.
• Zyda, M. (September 2005). "From visual simulation to virtual reality to games". IEEE Computer.