Serious game
Under Serious Games (English for serious games ) refers to digital games that are not used primarily or exclusively of entertainment, but rather may contain such elements. Serious games - as well as educational games - have in common the concern to convey information and education ; this should be done in as balanced a relationship as possible with entertainment aspects. An authentic and credible, but also entertaining learning experience is the focus of interest. Genre , technology , platform and target group , however, vary. A formal differentiation from pure entertainment games is difficult because the way in which they are used by the consumer is always decisive for fulfilling these criteria.
history
Serious games first developed in the field of flight simulations . The first mechanical attempts were made at flea markets around 1910. The first digital flight simulation took place in a specially built cockpit in 1958. In the course of development, Clark C. Abt published his book on serious games in 1968 , at that time with a focus on simulations .
In the following years, the area of digital learning games in particular developed further. With the onset of computer hype in the 1980s, the private sector opened up for serious games. In 2002 the American army brought out the game " America's Army ". This game was the most expensive of its kind until then. Today it hardly differs from other " shooters ". The American Serious Games Initiative was founded in the same year. In March 2009 the first international IEEE conference for serious games and virtual worlds took place.
Benefits and goals
Serious games try to bridge the gap between education and the application of knowledge . They fall back on the knowledge that people learn more easily and sustainably by applying knowledge. By bringing together different subject areas, the player can gain comprehensive, cross-subject experience. The learning effect is supported by the fun of the game . The player is not necessarily aware of the transfer of knowledge, so he learns passively through active action. Social and local restrictions of people can be overcome through serious games. They support individual learning by applying and acquiring knowledge and experience through changing conditions. When acquiring knowledge, social, cultural and linguistic interaction is a particularly critical factor in consolidating knowledge. These can be simulated by serious games.
Areas of application
health
The health sector includes, on the one hand, digital games for the professional sector of doctor training, e.g. B. to train an operation or to impart specialist knowledge and on the other hand they address the private end user who uses them, for example, as a motivational tool for a healthier lifestyle, nutrition or for rehabilitation purposes. In addition, serious games can be used as a training measure for patients, who use them to acquire knowledge about their clinical pictures and possible therapy options. ("Health Game")
Exercise therapy
These include serious games that the player to sport animate and exercise. For example, hand-eye coordination and upper body muscles can be trained with the help of Wii Sports , regardless of age and physical disabilities, alone or with others. Even simple jump-'n'-run games can have an educational purpose, depending on the user. These are sometimes used in rehabilitation therapies to restore finger mobility, reaction speed and eye-finger coordination in the user.
Politics, culture and advertising
Persuasive Games are designed for advertisers, policy makers, news organizations and cultural institutions. They are politically and socially motivated games that serve social communication. They cover areas such as politics, religion, the environment, urban planning and tourism. The aim is to lead to new ways of thinking through experience. See also: advertising game and business simulation (computer game)
safety
Serious games in the field of security are aimed at civil protection, the defense sector and recruitment. Public, private and municipal institutions such as fire brigade, police, the Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW), DRK as well as crisis centers and NGOs benefit from them. Scenarios such as natural disasters, acts of terrorism, security and emergency supply are simulated. Challenges such as acting under time and pressure to succeed can be tried out realistically with fewer resources and costs. This area formed the second focus. An example of serious games from this sector is the Emergency game series .
Military games
Games like America's Army are training simulations that are used in training and recruiting soldiers. The games try to represent warfare as realistically as possible in order to bring the dangers, strategies, weapons, tactics and vehicles closer to the users.
Recruiting games
The kind of serious games should bring the user closer to areas of activity that are otherwise less in the spotlight. Companies try to present and profile themselves through games like this in order to attract trainees and applicants. Future tasks are presented and carried out in a larger context, for example “ TechForce ”, in which various technical areas are combined into an end product with the aim of winning a race.
Product education games
The aim is to bring the company's products closer to the user. The user can test the products in a simulation under real conditions and convince himself of their functionality. Technical basics, handling and security risks can be conveyed to the user.
Adult education
Real simulations and business games give the user the opportunity to gain experience. Actions generated from knowledge can be tested here according to the trial and error principle . Theoretical knowledge can either be acquired beforehand or is imparted during the game, which can then be tested in a virtual practice. There is an educational policy interest in the professionalization of corresponding offers. With the research project NetEnquiry, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research is funding a corresponding research project for training and further education, implemented here with the focus on mobile learning.
Youth education
The user is given tasks and missions that they can only solve with knowledge that they gradually discover during the game. The theoretical aspects of the game are taught in small quantities, always at the right time, so that the next task can be solved and the theoretical approaches can be tested in practice.
art
An art game or type game uses the medium of computer game, in order to create interactive and multimedia art. The term was first scientifically described in 2002 to highlight games that place more emphasis on art than game mechanics. Mostly they convince with a special aesthetics and atmosphere and use the interactivity for creativity and thought-provoking the player. Art that is created through or through computer games is also known as game art . Examples of art games are Journey , The Stanley Parable and Abzû . Games with a special graphic style can also be seen as artistic.
journalism
So-called news games try to convey information about current events and to encourage critical thought about them. Through the immersion in the game, the player should feel more in the action and better empathize with the situation. In order to build an emotional connection to the characters and conflicts, and to raise moral questions, the events are often presented from the perspective of individual people and offer freedom of decision and exploration. One example is the computer game Global Conflicts: Palestine , in which the player slips into the role of the reporter and thus reveals the background to the Middle East conflict . Another example is The Amazon Race , which is supposed to represent the everyday life of a warehouse employee at Amazon.com . Games can also indirectly allude to a conflict like the game Orwell , which alludes to the surveillance state criticized by Edward Snowden .
Newsgames can also report on a historical event that took place a long time ago (e.g. JFK Reloaded ). In some games, however, entertainment can be more in the foreground and more emphasis can be placed on gameplay than on historical accuracy (e.g. Assassin's Creed ), which makes the game less of a serious game. If it is an alternative world story, the historical character cannot always be clearly separated from the fiction without background knowledge.
Furthermore, news games can treat a topic in a satirical and humorous way. In addition to publishers, news games are also developed on behalf of editors and websites (e.g. Google Doodle ). However, the production is expensive and time-consuming, which is why there are few professionally produced news games. In addition, care must be taken to ensure that the games do not appear too superficial and that they retain the fun factor in conveying information. Above all, a young target group should be addressed that is less interested in traditional print media. Furthermore, news games should adhere to journalistic standards . News games are also not suitable for every topic and are never closed for current topics and are therefore more of an accompanying report on the classic media. Likewise, games that represent a traumatic experience and allow the player to slip into the role of a perpetrator without treating the crime critically with any hints can be classified as morally reprehensible and disrespectful. Examples are Super Columbine Massacre RPG! , which refers to the school massacre in Littleton , 1378 (km) , which shows the situation on the border between the GDR and the Federal Republic of Germany and the concentration camp manager , who makes it possible to run a concentration camp . The mere purchase can also be viewed as critical in sales. So was z. For example, the game Endgame: Syria was rejected by Apple's App Store , which has addressed the civil war in Syria since 2011 .
In 2004 the New York association Games for Change was founded, which deals with social aspects in computer games. In 2008 the media institute J-Lab held a workshop on news games for the first time . The use of interactive and immersive technologies such as computer games, augmented reality and virtual reality is also described as immersive journalism .
Demarcation
Serious games use different elements of these concepts in different ways. They can be played together with others and the exchange of knowledge can arise in active communication. Contents can be conveyed as preliminary information for an upcoming task or collected while playing.
E-learning
E-learning includes all electronically supported methods for imparting knowledge. E-learning is primarily about the provision of theoretical knowledge on electronic media. Which includes:
- the virtual classroom in which the teacher offers teaching materials for self-study and the video transmission of the frontal teaching,
- virtual learning groups, knowledge exchange via forums and communities ,
- Content sharing platforms that make prepared teaching materials available.
No playful aspects are included in e-learning. The transfer of knowledge is active and in the foreground.
Edutainment
Edutainment is a genre of education and entertainment that conveys content in a playful and entertaining way. These include computer and video games, television programs and other electronic, multimedia communication options that specialize in cross-topic knowledge transfer. The content is not imparted while playing, but playing is a kind of reward for learning.
Game-based learning
Game-based learning uses games as a source of motivation to achieve learning effects and thereby tries to reduce the pressure to perform when learning. This concept relates to educational games that have been specifically developed for age groups and under educational aspects. In game-based learning, acquired theoretical knowledge can be directly tested in practice.
Trends and developments
Formal education
Serious games are also increasingly being used in schools and universities . Especially in the natural and economic sciences as well as in architecture , learning can be ideally combined with entertainment. The palette now ranges from the virtual chemistry laboratory, in which experiments can be simulated, to the construction of buildings such as bridges , the statics of which can be put to the test in a playful way.
Mobile devices
At least since the breakthrough of the smartphone , serious games have no longer been played exclusively on the home computer. Products such as Android smartphones / tablets and Apple's iPhone can do almost what portable game consoles were previously required for. The devices usually now have a mobile Internet connection , are equipped with a camera and GPS , which opens up the possibility of creating a direct reference to the actual environment and current reality. One speaks of " Augmented Reality ".
Social networks
With the advent of applications in social networks , serious games have also found their way there. A very decisive factor here is the existing community , namely your own circle of friends. Networks like Facebook enable their users to measure themselves against their contacts within the applications and, for example, to share successes with friends via their own pin board. A kind of competition can arise, a popular example of which is "Brain Buddies". Individual skills in the areas of memory , logic , arithmetic and optics are trained in a playful way and compared with one's own friends using the abstract size of the brain mass. From the developer's point of view, a positive side effect is the multiplier effect of the user.
advertising
Advertising has long since found its way into digital games, and now companies even have their own games developed to market their products. The area of serious games is particularly suitable for this, after all, you can also achieve a learning effect for the user with regard to the advertised product and its features. It can certainly be discussed to what extent seemingly informal entertainment with a learning effect is morally compatible as an incentive for consumption, but the desired effect is undoubtedly achieved relatively successfully in the interests of the company.
literature
- Jutta Blume: How would I act if I were the Israeli Prime Minister? On telepolis, August 8, 2006.
- Danny Kringiel: No more fun. In: GEE No. 26, October 2006. Online version at geemag.de
- Hilmar Schmundt: Daddling instead of demonstrating. In: Der Spiegel No. 41/2007, October 8, 2007. Online version at spiegel.de
- Marc Motyka: Persuasion and knowledge acquisition through serious games in politics class . Kassel University Press.
- Jens Uehlecke: Fight against the killer cells. In: Die Zeit No. 2/2008, January 3, 2008. Online version at zeit.de
- Marc Beutner: NetEnquiry. Innovative approaches to serious mobile learning for training and further education . ISBN 978-3-946826-00-2 .
Web links
- SeriousGames.de
- seriousgames-berlin.de
- Gamification and Serious Gaming Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics IML
- NetEnquiry (cevet research project 2013-2016) mLearning via serious games in training and further education (funded by the BMBF )
- International Journal of Serious Games
Individual evidence
- ↑ Serious Games - historical key data ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Digital Simulators ( Memento of the original from April 8, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Serious Games Initiative - About ( Memento from September 9, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ VS-Games'09 - Games and Virtual Worlds for Serious Applications ( Memento of the original from February 19, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Bit Innovation 28 - Serious Games .
- ↑ The played seriousness of life .
- ↑ project page Netenquiry . Website of the project coordinator cevet - center for vocational education and training. Retrieved November 7, 2013.
- ↑ Serious Games: Serious Opportunities ( Memento of the original from August 13, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ http://hypertext.rmit.edu.au/dac/papers/Holmes.pdf. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on April 20, 2013 ; accessed on March 8, 2019 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Chris Schilling: Art house video games . July 23, 2009, ISSN 0307-1235 ( telegraph.co.uk [accessed March 8, 2019]).
- ↑ Newsgame shows the daily work of the Amazon warehouse workers. Retrieved August 19, 2019 .
- ↑ Orwell Review - 2017 is 1984. January 5, 2017, accessed August 19, 2019 .
- ↑ Mike Treanor, Michael Mateas: Newsgames: Procedural Rhetoric meets Political Cartoons . ( psu.edu [accessed August 19, 2019]).
- ↑ Newsgames - Consume news in a playful way. Retrieved on August 19, 2019 (German).
- ↑ a b Playing with the News: Newsgames - Journalism to Play. Retrieved August 19, 2019 .
- ↑ Eike Kühl: Newsgames: The Civil War to click yourself . In: The time . January 11, 2013, ISSN 0044-2070 ( zeit.de [accessed August 19, 2019]).
- ↑ Newsgames: News about the game. Retrieved on August 19, 2019 (German).
- ↑ Cornelia Wolf: Newsgames | Journalism. Retrieved on August 19, 2019 (German).
- ^ Süddeutsche de GmbH, Munich Germany: Newsgames: The game with the news. Retrieved August 19, 2019 .
- ^ Kai von Lewinski: Immersive Journalism: Technology - Effect - Regulation . transcript Verlag, 2019, ISBN 978-3-8394-4669-0 ( google.de [accessed on August 19, 2019]).
