Games are designed with different objectives in mind. Some primarily for entertainment, others also to educate, motivate or persuade its players. Games with the latter objective, that of persuasion, are designed not only to be entertaining, but also with the intent to shape how players think and feel about issues in reality. However, despite the growing interest in persuasive games, we still lack the design insights and strategies that support their production, particularly for those using immersive technologies. To address this gap, we organize a hands-on workshop and bring together academic and industry experts to explore persuasive game design. Through making we generate knowledge in the form of insights and examplar work, and subsequently formulate best-practises and design strategies for future design and research.
DOCUMENT
The entertainment games industry is still in its early years regarding storytelling, and the field of 'narrative design' is a growing area of attention for students, professionals, and researchers. Like many forms of 20th century media, games use many forms of communication beyond the written word to tell their stories, but they also explicitly centre on the audience's power to interact with the world. This talk gives a brief overview of a narrative designer's toolbox which has previously been shared by Prof. Haggis-Burridge at entertainment industry conferences.
DOCUMENT
There are huge opportunities to use commercial, artistic video games as educational tools. This talks about one example where a commercial artistic/entertainment video game was created that also addressed content with both societal and educational impact. The game ‘Fragments of Him’ touches on topics of gay/bisexual relationships, love, family, intergenerational conflict, mourning, and more. It has been used as a teaching tool for both the content and the processes of creation, and has been released commercially on multiple gaming platforms. It proves that, with sufficient investment and quality in the interface, art, and interaction design, commercial video games can have significant pro-social and educational applications.
LINK
There is considerable interest in leveraging video games to support students’ motivation. This involves employment of educational (serious) and entertainment games. However, while evidence indicates that games can enhance learning outcomes, doubts persist about whether they retain their enjoyable character in formal learning contexts. This study was carried out within the H2020 Gaming Horizons project, which involved a review of academic literature on the role of games in society, as well as 73 semi-structured interviews with relevant stakeholders, including players and educators, investigating their positions on game-related issues. The interviews suggested that players tend to view game-based learning – and specifically serious games at school – with scepticism. This is partly attributable to the perception that serious games have lower production values than entertainment games, and that gaming, as a voluntary, self-driven activity, clashes with the structured nature of school. Some educators reported individual and gender differences in the motivating power of games. However, the use of entertainment games to foster learning outcomes was seen favourably. Two focus groups devoted to the issue highlighted the need for carefully tailoring the gaming experience to both context and student, and the importance of developing a sustainable business model for enhancing serious games quality.
DOCUMENT
Video games clearly have great educational potential, both for formal and informal learning, and this avenue is being thoroughly investigated in the psychology and education literature. However, there appears to be a disconnect between social science academic research and the game development sector, in that research and development practices rarely inform each other. This paper presents a two-part analysis of this communicative disconnect based on investigations carried out within the H2020 Gaming Horizons project. The first part regards a literature review that identified the main topics of focus in the social sciences literature on games, as well as the chief recommendations authors express. The second part examines 73 interviews with 30 developers, 14 researchers, 13 players, 12 educators, and 4 policy makers, investigating how they perceived games and gaming. The study highlights several factors contributing to the disconnect: different priorities and dissemination practices; the lag between innovation in the games market and research advancements; low accessibility of academic research; and disproportionate academic focus on serious games compared to entertainment games. The authors suggest closer contact between researchers and developers might be sought by diversifying academic dissemination channels, promoting conferences involving both groups, and developing research partnerships with entertainment game companies.
LINK
Aging diversity in organizations creates potential challenges, particularly for knowledge management, skills update and skills obsolescence. Intergenerational learning (IGL) involves knowledge building, innovation and knowledge transfer between generations within an organization (Ropes 2011). Serious games refer to the use of computer games in raising awareness about educational topics, acquiring new knowledge and skills by enabling learners to engage and participate in situations that would otherwise be impossible to experience (Corti 2006). Although learning with the use of serious games is similar to traditional learning in several cognitive respects, there are noted differences in the learning style and structure of learning using serious games. The success of learning using serious games lies in the actual involvement of a participant playing the game, which in turn, creates increased cognitive links with real-life situations allowing the individual to make relevant associations, to use mnemonic strategies with the facilitation of multi-dimensional educational aids (e.g., visual, auditory). Some of the beneficial aspects of learning with the use of serious games include the elevation of several cognitive skills, which are directly or indirectly implicated in the learning process. Among them are attention and visuo-spatial abilities, memory and motor skills. However, several barriers have been noted that fall into two general categories: a) health issues (e.g., cognitive strain, headaches) and b) psychological issues (e.g., social isolation, emotional disturbances). Since the training conditions are learner-centered and highly determined by the individual, there is increased need for evaluating the learning outcomes using specific success indicators. Examples of games that are designed to facilitate IGL are scarce, while there are no examples of IGL games in most EU countries. The purpose of this paper is to critically evaluate the current literature of theories on learning through serious games in adults and the elderly with reference to the cognitive mechanisms implicated, benefits and barriers in learning using new technologies in different generations. Secondly, this paper reviews the existence of serious games designed to facilitate IGL in Europe, as well as the characteristics of serious games in raising awareness that could be used to facilitate IGL. In doing so, specific focus is placed on the development of success indicators that determine the effectiveness of serious games on raising awareness on IGL.
LINK
Games zijn bedoeld voor vermaak, maar we kunnen ze ook opvatten als een vorm van cultuur. Ze vertellen iets over de samenleving waarin ze zijn gemaakt: al dan niet met opzet komen er via de verbeelding van de makers opvattingen over de samenleving in games terecht. Games zetten op hun beurt aan tot verbeelding, waardoor gamers zich mogelijk gestimuleerd voelen na te denken over die samenleving. Toch is het aannemelijk dat gamers daar weinig voor voelen, omdat dit een plezierige ervaring in de weg kan staan. Maar gamers blijken wel degelijk geneigd tot reflectie op de wereld om ons heen, over het leven, over goed en kwaad. Ruim driekwart van de gamers uit dit onderzoek zegt dat wel eens te doen. Tegen de verwachting is daarbij geen verschil te zien tussen reguliere gamers en professionals, zoals reviewers en game designers. Verondersteld werd dat die laatstgenoemden zich beroepsmatig vaker aangezet voelen tot reflectie op de wereld om ons heen. Vaker dan verwacht blijken gamers een kunstervaring te ondergaan bij het spelen van games. In de context van deze studie wil dat zeggen dat die spelers ‘tussen de regels door’ commentaar op de spel- en verhaalgebeurtenissen hebben opgemerkt, dat hen aan het denken zette over de wereld. Daarbij was geen verschil te zien tussen mainstream games en indiegames. De verwachting dat de meeste gamers vooral de bijzondere vormgeving van games noemen als reden om ze als kunst te bestempelen is ten slotte wel bevestigd. Dit laat meteen ook het verschil zien tussen de gangbare esthetische kunstopvatting en wat ik in deze studie onder kunst versta: het ervaren van een betekenisproces dat stimuleert tot reflectie op het leven.
DOCUMENT
