Serious games (SGs) are a category of video and computer games. Serious games can be of any genre, but the main goal of a serious game is not to entertain, though they must do this. A serious game is usually a simulation which has the look and feel of a game, but is actually a simulation of real-world events or processes. The main goal of a serious game is usually to train or educate users (though it may have other purposes, such as marketing) while giving them an enjoyable experience. The fact that serious games are meant to be entertaining encourages re-use. While the largest users of SGs are the US government and medical professionals, other commercial sectors are beginning to see the benefits of such simulations and are actively seeking development of these types of tools.

Overview

Serious games are a new class of video and computer games which emerged in the early 21st century. The US government and military started looking towards game developers to create low-cost simulations that are both accurate and engaging. Game developer's experience with gameplay and game design made them prime candidates for developing these types of simulations which cost millions of dollars less than traditional simulations, which often require special hardware or complete facilities to use. Serious games are designed to run on personal computers (such as a PC running Microsoft Windows or Linux or an Apple Macintosh) or video game consoles (such as the Xbox or PlayStation 2).

Motivation

Serious games are developed to train users in a process or event. Three main benefits motivate the development of serious games versus traditional multi-million dollar simulators:

1. Development costs
2. Deployment costs
3. Entertainment

Development costs

Video and computer game developers are accustomed to developing games quickly and are adept at creating games that simulate—to varying degrees—real-world entities such as radar and combat vehicles . Using existing infrastructure, game developers can develop games that simulate battles, processes and events at a fraction of the cost of traditional government contractors. While serious games only simulate a fraction of real-world entities, they do so with a high degree of accuracy.

Deployment costs

Traditional simulators usually cost millions of dollars not only to develop, but also to deploy and generally require the procurement of specialized hardware.

SGs are meant to be run on PCs and video game consoles. SGs target popular operating systems, such as Microsoft Windows, which have a large installed base. This guarantees their programs will run on a large number of systems, which may require no specialized hardware except for perhaps a high-end 3D graphics accelerator (and even then only occasionally). Video game consoles, such as the Xbox and PlayStation 2, require absolutely no specialized hardware.

The costs of media for these systems is also very low. Instead of volumes of media or computers for high-end simulators, SGs require nothing more than a DVD or even a single CD-ROM, exactly like traditional computer and video games require. Deploying these to the field requires nothing more than dropping them in the mail or accessing a dedicated web site.

Entertainment

Finally, while SGs are meant to train or otherwise educate users, they must be fun. While the customer's aim is not to entertain users, the fact that SGs are fun guarantees that users will replay the SG often and, in turn, will become better trained.

Game developers are experienced at making games fun and engaging as their livelihood depends on it. In the course of simulating events and processes, developers automatically inject entertainment and playability in their applications.

Summary

Serious games (SGs) accurately reflect the nature of the events they simulate. In addition to accurately reflecting the nature of processes, SGs teach users as they play them. By repeating patterns over and over, the player becomes more experienced in the targetted skill. Traditional simulators also accomplish this goal, but since SGs are easier to deploy and require less specialized hardware (usually, they require no special hardware), they are far easier to deploy than traditional simulators. In addition, they are far less expensive to develop. And, since users actually enjoy playing SGs, they are played much more frequently than traditional simulators.

Some games, however, attempting to present themselves under the serious games umbrella are, in fact, political games meant to persuade users to hold a certain political view. Games from websites such as Newgaming.com are "very political games groups made outside the corporate game system" that are "raising issues through media but using the distinct properties of games to engage people from a fresh perspective," says Henry Jenkins, the director of MIT's comparative media studies program. Such games, he said, constitute a "radical fictional work."¹

Professional organizations

In 2000, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington D.C. launched a "Serious Games Initiative " to encourage the development of games that address policy and management issues. Each year they organize the Serious Games Summit . At least one session of the summit is held at the annual Game Developers Conference.

List of serious games

Since serious games are developed for private customers such as the US military and not the public at large, information on them is sometimes hard to come by. But some serious games either completed or in development are listed below.

• America's Army (Microsoft Windows): leading example of a serious game
• Convoy Simulator (Windows)
• Crate (Windows): 3D Image Generation library for creating aquatic environments featuring pixel shaders and accurate physics models
• Full Spectrum Warrior (Xbox): Began as a military training game, converted into a commerical game.
• Incident Commander
• Trex (Xbox): Tactical simulation which uses satellite data to generate synthetic urban environments.

Serious game developers

• BreakAway Games , developers of , Cleopatra and Tropico expansions and other games
• Digitalmill, Inc.
• There.com

References

1. "Playstations for Peace" from TheNation.com

External links

• The Serious Game Initiative official website
• The Serious Game Summit official website
• BreakAway Game's federal serious games site
• "Better Health Through Play" article on medical serious games
• "Games software gets very serious", serious games article originally published in the Baltimore Sun
• "Let the games begin", serious games article on WashingtonTechnology.com