Orientation to Serious Games

AN ORIENTATION TO SERIOUS GAMES Fall 2011 by Anne Derryberry Analyst, Sage Road Solu@ons Producer/Designer, I’m Serious

Table of Contents

Sec@on 1: What Is a Game? Sec@on 2: The Serious Side of Games Sec@on 3: Examples of Serious Games Sec@on 3: Essen@al Terminology

Fall 2011 Anne Derryberry, Sage Road Solu@ons, LLC 2

WHAT IS A GAME? Sec@on 1


Common Game ARributes • No single, unified defini@on of “game” •  Essen@al elements include: •  Bounded game space, including ar@facts •  End-‐state goal = winning •  Conflict(s) or challenge(s) •  Rules •  Player(s)

• No technology requirement. Most game-‐oriented learning ini@a@ves are technology-‐based.


A Game Is a Complex System •  Rules •  Variable and quan@fiable outcomes •  Content, context, goals are factors each @me game is played

• Outcomes “economy” •  Both posi@ve (harder to reach) and nega@ve (easier to reach) •  Reflected through levels, points, badges, grades

•  Player(s) and player work/effort/investment •  Players must do things (e.g. complete tasks), cannot be passive

•  Player aRached to/invested in outcome • What the player does influences outcome, not just chance

• Nego@able consequences


Adapted from Jesper Juul hRp://[email protected]/object/juul_gamectr.html Danish School of Design and NYU

A Game Is a Closed System

•  A game is self-‐contained •  It doesn’t require or rely on external input •  It doesn’t provide output (e.g., a student record) to external systems


Games Are Classified by:


Purpose

•  Entertainment •  Serious, i.e., all non-‐entertainment purposes, e.g., •  Learning (educa@on, training, lifelong)

•  Advocacy •  Collabora@on and problem-‐solving

•  Physical fitness

Genre

•  Role-‐playing •  Strategy •  Puzzle •  Simula@on •  First-‐person shooter

•  Hidden objects

Approach to Play

•  Solo •  Parallel •  Social •  Coopera@ve/ collabora@ve

•  Compe@@ve

Technology

•  Plaiorm •  Hardware •  Sojware •  Hybrid •  Augmented reality

•  Alterna@ve reality

•  Transmedia

Entertainment Games Are Changing Our Lives and Culture in the US

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Sources: US Na6onal Gamers Survey, conducted June 2011 by Newzoo (www.newzoo.com/ENG/1589-‐Infograph_ US.html), and Humana Games (www.humana.com).

THE SERIOUS SIDE OF GAMES Sec@on 2


“Entertainment Games” Make Sense. What Are Serious Games? •  “Serious games” first introduced by Clark Abt in 1970 in book of same name. (hRp://www.abtassociates.com/page.cfm?PageID=452)

•  Brought to wider use by Woodrow Wilson Int’l Center for Scholars with 2002 launch of “Serious Game Ini@a@ve” to encourage development of games that address policy and management issues. Subsequently, included Games for Change and Games for Health. (www.seriousgames.org)


Serious Games Meet Computers

• Updated defini@on by Mike Zyda in 2005*: •  a mental contest, played with a computer in accordance with specific rules, that uses entertainment to further government or corporate training, educa@on, health, public policy, and strategic communica@on objec@ves.

• NOTE: Computers were “necessary” because this defini@on was derived for use by the Ins@tute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.


* Zyda, M. 2005, From visual simula@on to virtual reality to games. IEEE Computer, Sept 2005.

Gartner Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies Includes Games


hRp://www.gartner.com/hc/images/215650_0001.gif

Many Industries and Disciplines Use Serious Games to Reach Audiences


Emergency Services

Social Goo

d

Journalism

Healthcare

Workplace/ Personal Produc@vity

Military

Corporate

Training

Poli@cs

Government

Marke@ng & Adver@sing

Educa@on

The Apply Group predicts that between 100 and 135 of the Global Fortune 500 will have adopted games for learning by the end of 2012, with the United States, United Kingdom and Germany leading the way.

Many Forms/Formats for Serious Games -‐ Known by Many Names •  Learning Games •  Educa@on games •  Training games

•  Simula@on games •  Virtual Reality Games •  Alternate-‐Reality Games •  Edutainment • Digital Game-‐based Learning •  Synthe@c Learning Environments

• Newsgames •  Immersive Learning Simula@ons •  Social Impact games •  Persuasive Games • Games for Change • Games for Good • Games for Health • Gamifica@on • Gamified [whatever] •  Augmented Reality Games


Organiza@ons Use “Gamifica@on” Techniques to Engage Audiences • Gamifica@on = game dynamics and reward systems applied to an online experience in order to: •  promote awareness, adop@on and aRachment •  induce par@cipa@on • make tedious content/ac@vi@es seem less odious

• Based on behavior management systems that give recogni@on for par@cipa@on, engagement via: •  Contests •  Badges •  Leaderboards


EXAMPLES OF SERIOUS GAMES Sec@on 3


Fall 2011

Anne Derryberry, Sage Road Solu@ons, LLC

17

Military Corporate Training

Defense Acquisi@on University uses games

and simula@ons in three different ini@a@ves: Games in Curriculum, Games in Con@nuous Learning Modules, and Mini-‐Games—each of which was created with the end result of learning in mind. hRps://clc.dau.mil/games

Innov8, the IBM Business Process Management (BPM) simula@on game, gives both IT and business players a beRer understanding of how effec@ve BPM impacts an en@re business ecosystem. hRp://www-‐01.ibm.com/ sojware/solu@ons/soa/innov8/index.html

Anne Derryberry, Sage Road Solu@ons, LLC


MarkeAng

Dunkin’ Donuts uses its Facebook page to put up games to promote their brand. Winners win coupons to purchase... Dunkin’ Donuts food items. hRp://www.facebook.com/ DunkinDonuts?sk=app_116533491769429

Workplace/Personal ProducAvity

Based on social intelligence research conducted at McGill University, MindHabits presents stress bus@ng, confidence boos@ng games designed to help players develop and maintain a more posi@ve state of mind. hRp://www.mindhabits.com/index.php


Government

As part of its outreach efforts to kids, the CIA has included a number of games on its website. Games “test” players’ intelligence-‐gathering abili@es. hRps://www.cia.gov/kids-‐page/ games/index.html

Emergency Services

With the services of the University of Maryland CATT LAB, the I-‐95 Coali@on has designed and developed a virtual traffic-‐incident management training system for first responders. hRp://www.caRlab.umd.edu/ index.php?page=research&a=00028


PoliAcs Social Good

Campaign Game is a poli@cally-‐themed turn-‐based tac@cal combat game. You choose a candidate, pick your staff, and literally fight it out with the opposi@on — slinging mud, launching aRack ads, and holding rallies to capture states and earn funds. www.kongregate.com/games/ thup/campaign-‐game

EVOKE was developed by the World Bank Ins@tute as a “10-‐week crash course” in changing the world. It is free to play and is open to everyone, everywhere. The goal of the game is to help empower people all over the world to come up with crea@ve solu@ons to our most urgent social problems. hRp://www.urgentevoke.com/


Journalism Healthcare

Budget Hero, produced by American Public Media, provides an interac@ve experience involving policy op@ons that have been extensively researched and veRed with non-‐par@san government and think tank experts to enable players to objec@vely evaluate candidates. hRp://budgethero.publicradio.org/ widget/widget.php#

Humana’s Famscape is an online experience that rewards players for improving their real world health and lifestyle. An online community of family and friends mo@vates, encourages and challenges each other to strive for and sustain healthy living and a balanced life. hRp://www.myfamscape.com/


Problem-‐solving Charity

Foldit, developed at the University of Washington, aRempts to predict the structure of a protein by taking advantage of humans’ puzzle-‐solving intui@ons and having people play compe@@vely to fold the best proteins. hRp://fold.it/portal/

Wetopia is a social game on Facebook. Players build a town, and use the Joy points they earn to donate to children’s chari@es around the world. hRps://www.facebook.com/WeTopiaOfficial

ESSENTIAL TERMINOLOGY Sec@on 4


Essen@al Terminology Alternate-‐reality game – an interac@ve narra@ve that uses the real world and game elements as a plaiorm to tell a story that may be affected by par@cipants' ideas or ac@ons. Ojen involves mul@ple media, in which case can be referred to as “transmedia games” Augmented-‐reality game – games relying on a live direct or an indirect view of a physical, real-‐world environment whose elements are augmented by computer-‐generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data Casual game – a single-‐player game that can be completed in 10-‐20 minutes Console – a non-‐PC compu@ng device used to play a variety of games. Can be handheld using no Internet connec@vity (e.g., Nintendo DS), or connected to a TV or monitor to take advantage of larger screen (e.g., PS2) or to enable Internet access (e.g., Xbox Live). Edutainment – a game category that emphasizes fun, yet purports to offer some educa@on value. This type of game has fallen out of favor since there is typically no educa@onal rigor involved in the game’s design. Flash game – any kind of game that is built in Flash and is accessed via web browser. Since Flash penetra@on is nearly 100% in web browsers, this is the common denominator in the developer community.


Terminology (p.2) Game theory – an economic theory to describe investor decision-‐making Game layer – alternate term for gamifica@on Game mechanics/game dynamics – the interac@ons between players and the game Gamer – a frequent player of videogames. Carries some nega@ve stereotyping. GamificaAon – the prac@ce of applying behavior mo@va@ng techniques from tradi@onal games to non-‐game experiences Gaming – gambling (although increasingly used for nonbe~ng games) Immersive environments -‐ characterized by

Persistent Mul@-‐par@cipant 3D Online/virtual

n.b., Not all immersive environments are games, and not all games employ immersive environments. Mobile game – requires mobile device to play


Terminology (p.3) Mod – short for modifica@on. Some commercial @tles have made a “kit” available to enable development of addi@onal content that is compa@ble with that game’s system. Mods can be extensions of the original game design or can take a game in an en@rely new direc@on, e.g., teaching/learning purpose. Online game – a game that requires an Internet connec@on to play Serious game – a non-‐entertainment game SimulaAon – a facsimile of RW event(s) without RW consequences. Most simula@ons include game dynamics, although this is not essen@al to the category. Social game – a casual game played by many people using a common plaiorm (e.g., Farmville on Facebook) Videogame – a non-‐browser based online game Virtual world – a persistent, 3D, digital environment (e.g., Second Life). Applica@ons include training/educa@on, small-‐ to large-‐group collabora@on, virtual social, pornography, sales and marke@ng… Games may or may not be included.
