Tim Marsh

Serious games continuum: Between games for purpose and experiential environments for purpose

While many categorizations and definitions have attempted to elucidate the elusive term serious games, we are still some way off formulating an agreed understanding of what serious games are and can be. This article argues that the term serious games challenges our understanding of generally accepted characteristics such as, challenge, play and fun, which are largely associated with and borrowed from video games. It is argued that key to understanding what serious games encapsulate is to look beyond these characteristics. This article proposes a definition and way to frame serious games technologies, applications and environments along a continuum of gaming characteristics or gameness. From those with traditional gaming activities and characteristics (challenge, play, fun, etc.) at one end to those with minimal traditional gaming characteristics at the other end, whose main purpose is to provide experience and emotion to convey meaning. The main advantages of the definition and continuum are to establish a shared understanding and arena for current and emerging serious games, frame and connect currently fragmented groups into a cohesive serious games movement and community and open opportunities for future collaborative research and development. In addition, it helps in identifying characteristics for the design and assessment of serious games.

Fun and Learning: Blending Design and Development Dimensions in Serious Games through Narrative and Characters

This chapter describes the development of four versions of a game for learning and comparative study carried out in a Singapore high school to shed light on the effectiveness of puzzle and narrative-based games in engaging students, their learning experience and understanding of the physics concepts of displacement and velocity. In particular, it describes the introduction of an off-screen character to help reach a synergy of fun and learning, through an optimal blend of design and development dimensions. The off-screen character achieves this through narration of an extended narrative/story intertwined with aspects of the learning topics. In this way the character’s purpose is twofold; firstly, as part of the narrative/story and secondly, as learning partner or assistant. Results from the study demonstrate that while some aspects of learning were comparable from both the puzzle and narrative versions of the game, the narrative versions provided a flexible and powerful approach to introduce technical/scientific terms and language associated with the topics of learning. In addition, players consistently rated the narrative versions as being more fun, more exciting, and more engaging. While relatively simple, it is argued that this approach is cost-effective and accessible in informing academics and teachers in schools in customizing their own virtual environments, simulations, games for learning, serious games, and commercially available off-the-shelf titles (COTS) with topics from the curriculum.

Slow serious games, interactions and play: Designing for positive and serious experience and reflection

Abstract Proposed herein are slow interactions and gameplay with serious games, referred to as slow serious games. These are slow movements intended to focus attention/concentration, and provide openings and opportunities for reflection, contemplation, and learning. Like devices used in film and theatre, this forms part of an emerging design repertoire of strategies and devices to articulate and manipulate time and space and narrative in interactions and games for the shaping of experience. To illustrate the idea of slow serious interactions and gameplay, the related interaction design, interactive art and game literature is reviewed. Next, devices and strategies for the design and development of slow serious interactions are proposed. Through example, we describe the development of a game to raise awareness of issues and threats affecting ecosystems in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. This includes novel design strategies to engage the player in interaction/play with these issues and threats, and to blend slow and fast interaction and gameplay to stimulate thought and shape experience between positive and serious experience. The design strategies outlined herein can be used to inform design and development of other interactions, games and slow serious games and art games.

Fun and learning: the power of narrative

This paper describes the results of a comparative study carried out in a Singapore High School to test four versions of our game for learning, to investigate the effectiveness of puzzle and narrative-based games in engaging students, how the games affect their learning experience and their understanding of the physics concepts of displacement and velocity. It outlines the development of four game versions and in particular, describes the introduction of an off-screen character to help reach a synergy of fun and learning through an optimal blend of design and development dimensions (e.g. constructionist and instructionist learning, hidden/incidental and direct/explicit learning). The off-screen character achieves this through narration of an extended narrative/story intertwoven with aspects of the learning topics -- displacement and velocity. In this way the characters purpose is twofold; firstly, as part of the storyline and secondly, as learning partner or assistant.

The 'interactive' of interactive storytelling: customizing the gaming experience

In this article, we define interactive storytelling as a gaming experience where the form and content of the game is customized in real time and tailored to the preferences and needs of the player to maximixe enjoyment. The primary focus of interactive storytelling should not be on the attributes of the technology or characteristics of the medium, such as the AI techniques, planning formalisms, story representations, etc. but on different interaction levels provided by computer games and basic components of player enjoyment such as difficulty levels and gaming rewards. In conducting an analysis of interactive storytelling systems, we propose a user-centered approach to interactive storytelling by defining different customization levels for an optimum gaming experience.

Immersidata Analysis: Four Case Studies

Four real-world case studies demonstrate the effectiveness of using immersidata - the normally untapped data from interchanges between users and immersive 3D environments such as computer games and virtual reality - to help understand user behavior and experiences.

Spheres and Lenses: Activity-Based Scenario / Narrative Approach for Design and Evaluation of Entertainment through Engagement

Building on A.N. Leontiev’s original activity theory, we propose extensions to bridge conceptual gaps to operationalize an activity-based scenario / narrative approach leading to a universal framework to inform design and reason about the user experience of entertainment through engagement in task-based, as well as improvised, extemporaneous and serendipitous interaction and gameplay.

Trends and Applications of Serious Gaming and Social Media

This book highlights the challenges and potential of educational learning or industry-based training using serious games and social media platforms. In particular, the book addresses applications used in businesses and education-related organizations in Asia, where the framework and experience of serious games have been used to address specific problems in the real world. The topics that will be present in this book includes future of serious games and immersive technologies and their impact on society; online and mobile games; achievement systems in serious games; persuasive technology and games for saving and money management; malware analytics for social networking; serious games for mental health interventions; educational implications of social network games; learning and acquiring subject knowledge using serious games in classrooms. The target audience for this book includes scientists, engineers and practitioners involved in the field of Serious Games. The major part of this book comprises of papers that have been presented at the Serious Games and Social Connect 2012 conference held in Singapore (October 4, 2012). All the contributions have been peer reviewed and by scientific committee members with report about quality, content and originality.

Framing Activity-Based Narrative in Serious Games Play-Grounds Through Objective and Motive

Building on previous work, we extend Leontiev’s (1959/1981) original activity theory to bridge conceptual gaps and lay the foundations towards operationalizing a framework for activity-based narrative in serious games. In particular, in this paper we propose that the relationship between the concepts objective and motive and the degree to which they coincide or merge provides an approach: (i) to frame activity (ii) for design and crafting of narrative, scenarios, interaction and gameplay in serious games (iii) for the assessment of task-based as well as experience-based purposes in serious games and (iv) framework and tool to support iterative serious games development cycle from conveying an idea through narrative, implementation, playtesting and assessment. In addition, we propose a link and connection for activity to the environment through “play-grounds”.

Game Mechanics Supporting Pervasive Learning and Experience in Games, Serious Games, and Interactive & Social Media

This workshop investigates the mechanisms for behaviour change and influence, focusing on the definition of requirements for pervasive gameplay and interaction mechanics, procedures, actions, mechanisms, systems, story, etc.) with the purpose of informing, educating, reflecting and raising awareness. By connecting various experts such as designers, educators, developers, evaluators and researchers from both industry and academia, this workshop aims to enable participants share, discuss and learn about existing relevant mechanisms for pervasive learning in a Serious Game (SG) context.