Serious Games

Abstract

Serious games are computer games that train, educate and inform while entertaining. The serious games industry has been developing since 2000 but has only gained momentum since 2004. The lucrative games industry promised to bring their advanced technology to serious games and that serious games will not provide for developing skills needed in the workplace, not the rote memorization provided by the edutainment industry. Serious games are geared towards the adult learner, and include games played on computers, handheld devices, arcade games and video games. Serious games will use the best simulations and the lessons learned from the edutainment industry.

Adult learners have different needs from children, and serious games should be able to fulfill these needs. The most successful form of teaching is one-on-one tutoring. It is estimated that serious games will be able to mimic this or come closest to the success of this form of teaching. In the corporate world fast, effective training that provides a satisfactory return on investment is required. Serious games will up the latter as it has been proven more effective than other methods of training. The net –generation thinks and behaves differently from other generations. Serious games will provide the stimulus that they require to accommodate their learning.

There are challenges ahead though for the serious games industry mostly in changes consumer attitude that regards games in general as frivolous. The serious games industry on the other hand might provide developers with much needed work between contracts, and ensure business of the independent developer. The games industry will bring their very sophisticated technology to serious games. This will include hardware developed for the games industry, complex artificial intelligence algorithms, highly developed middleware and a plethora of peripheral devices. Serious games can also make use of the already developed network technology and especially the internet.

Serious games already developed can be divided into categories such as games for military, business, health sector, government, higher education, K-12 education and non-governmental agencies. The wide variety of games coupled with many examples where serious games proved to be not only successful but provide an acceptable return on investment, the demands of the net-generation and the technology of the games industry indicates a very successful future for the serious games industry.