Even though co-occurrence of the terms ‘serious’ and ‘game’ sounds odd, serious games aim to cover a significant issue in an immersive environment. When the players engage with this environment, they are not only exposed to the concepts of the issue, but also they live through the experience of managing that issue in a safe environment.
The topic of a serious game may vary from cancer to healthy eating habits, from urban planning to social movements, from ecology to ancient Rome history.
A serious game does not have to be designed for education; commercial games that are already available can also be used as a serious game. Naturally, if the game is designed specifically for education, its audience centered approach boosts the game’s learning potential.
Sometimes You Just Have to Say F**k It
8 years ago
So would you say God of War is a "serious game" since it presents mythology and roman history to the player?
ReplyDeleteor Cooking Mama, since it sorta, kinda illustrates "healthy eating habits"?
Were they designed as serious games, no. Can they be used as serious games, yes.
ReplyDeleteTake "Return to Mysterious Island" for instance. The game is not essentially about physics or chemistry, but the player needs to use physics and chemistry knowledge to play the game.
It is a matter of how the player thinks about the game. Sometimes with some direction (usually from a teacher that is) serious potential of a game can be revealed.
Are games the BEST ways to learn about history/healthy eating/chemistry? Well, we are still working on figuring that out.