Entertainment Computing and Serious Games

This chapter contains an introduction to this book which aims at providing guidance to people who are interested in conducting or dealing with research in the area of entertainment computing and serious games. The chapter starts with defining key terminology. It then illustrates benefits and challenges in this area of research by discussing the development of educational games, one of the most recognized subsets of serious games. Describing and characterizing the current state of the research communities involved in entertainment computing and serious games, an overview of the research landscape is presented. Finally, an overview of the structure of this book is given and the individual chapters of this book are briefly summarized.

Serious Games are now an established field of study. In this field most would attribute the rise of Serious Games to Clark C Abt’s creation of the term in 1970, or indeed Ben Sawyer’s popularization of it in 2002. However, considering the rich history of purposing non-digital games, itself preceded by discussions of purposing play that are traceable to the work of Plato, it can be said that Serious Games is a contemporary manifestation of centuries old theories and practices. In this chapter, we explore the pre-history of Serious Games, beginning with the suggested purpose, and purposing of play. Throughout this historical review we identify key in research and practice that are apparent in the contemporary Serious Games field.

In this chapter, we propose an ethical framework for serious game design, which we term the Ecosystem for Designing Games Ethically (EDGE). EDGE expands on Zagal’s categorization of ethical areas in game design by incorporating the different contexts of design and their use. In addition, we leverage these contexts to suggest four guidelines that support Ethical Stewardship in serious game design. We conclude by discussing a number of specific areas in which ethics plays a role in serious game design. These include games in (a) a military context, (b) the consideration of privacy issues, and (c) the evaluation of game design choices.

This chapter will situate academia in relation to serious games commercial production and contextual adoption, and vice-versa. As a researcher it is critical to recognize that academic research of serious games does not occur in a vaccum. Direct partnerships between universities and commercial organizations are increasingly common, as well as between research institutes and the contexts that their serious games are deployed in. Commercial production of serious games and their increased adoption in non-commercial contexts will influence academic research through emerging impact pathways and funding opportunities. Adding further complexity is the emergence of commercial organizations that undertake their own research, and research institutes that have in-house commercial arms. To conclude, we explore how these issues affect the individual researcher, and offer considerations for future academic and industry serious games projects.

A serious game needs to combine a number of different aspects to help the end user in reaching the desired effects. This requires incorporating a broad range of different aspects in the design, stemming from a broad range of different fields of expertise. For designers, developers, researchers, and other stakeholders it is not straightforward how to organize the design and development process, to make sure that these aspects are properly addressed. In this chapter we will discuss a number of ways of organizing the design and development process and various models that support specific design decisions during this process, concluding with a discussion of design patterns for serious games.

While it might seem desirable to “program” games “close to a high-level specification”, the pragmatic reality has not, until very recently, allowed this. In this chapter we discuss the fundamental aspects that define a game and show how these aspects are captured by means of the so-called game development tools. In particular, we show: (i) how the various historical tools have always been intrinsically inspired by the dominant programming languages/paradigms that were the most popular at the time when the tool was developed; and (ii) we discuss these tools by comparing their pro and cons (typically imposed by the chosen language/paradigm or the available hardware) in order to understand the most important requirements for their next generations.

Content is a key component for successful computer games and it is also one of the most labour and time intensive tasks a game developer can face. As the scale of contemporary games increases, players come to expect higher standards of fidelity and immersion, thus increasing the need to create large amounts of content. This chapter focuses on the creation of content for serious games, particularly research that can aid designers and game developers in generating large amounts of content quickly and effectively. While game developers have had many tools and methods for creating content for standard computer games, this chapter will concentrate on the types of content specific to serious games.

This chapter discusses educational aspects and possibilities of serious games. For researchers as well as game designers we describe key learning theories to ground their work in theoretical framework. We draw on recent meta-reviews to offer an exhaustive inventory of known learning and affective outcomes in serious games, and to discuss assessment methods valuable not only for research but also for efficient serious game design. The implementation and design of serious games are outlined in separated sections. Different individual characteristics that seem to be strongly affecting process of learning with serious games (learning style, gender and age) are discussed with emphasis on game development.

Health is an elementary foundation of prosperous human life. Average human life expectancy has never been as long as it is today and medical advances have greatly improved overall population health. However, modern societies are burdened by new complications in the form of lifestyle diseases which arise due to various aspects of modern life, such as sedentary behavior. The pressure on public health systems is ever increasing with the emergence of further complex and expensive treatment options, and due to the complications resulting from demographic change. The technological advancements of the industrial and information age, the computational revolution in general, and video games for entertainment specifically contribute to the prevalence of some prevalent lifestyle-related health issues. At the same time, computing devices and interactive applications also play an important role in improving all areas of individual and public health. Recent research and early commercial releases deliver convincing evidence that playful applications and games for health in particular offer approaches that can help overcome the motivational barriers which often restrain successful health treatments or preventive actions and behavior. This chapter provides an overview of the arguments that motivate the application of play and game techniques for personal and public health. It summarizes the basic promises and challenges of games for health research and development, provides starting points regarding their design and implementation, illustrates selected aspects along the lines of exemplary applications, and hints at pressing open challenges as well as promising avenues for further research and developments. A selection of quality references for further reading is included in the last section.

Serious games are developed with the goal of having a certain impact on players which goes beyond mere entertainment. This purpose-driven design is immanent to serious games and can be stated as the key characteristic that distinguishes serious games from other digital games. Hence, verifying that a serious game has the intended effect on the players needs to be an essential part in the development process. This and the following chapters are therefore dedicated to give a guidance how evaluation procedures can be planned and realized. The main focus is on aspects which are particularly distinctive to the evaluation of serious games, while methods and principles related to the evaluation of digital games in general will not be covered in detail. The structure of this chapter is as follows: After emphasizing the specific importance of evaluation for serious games, we describe a set of challenges which might occur in this context. In order to enable the reader to face these challenges, we present a framework of evaluation-driven design which offers guidance in the evaluation process. Other models which address different challenges are described before three examples of commendably evaluated serious games are discussed. These examples are intended to demonstrate how the presented abstract models can be applied in concrete evaluation procedures.

This chapter aims to provide the reader with basic knowledge about the experiment as a general method that can be applied towards serious games research and evaluation. It explains the main terms and rules of the experimental design, as well as points out the main risks and difficulties to avoid. The chapter also explains the differences in possible conclusions between true experiments, quasi-experiments, and correlational studies.

This chapter deals with the operationalization and measurement of evaluation constructs, an important and challenging part of the serious games evaluation process. Hereby, advices will be given on what has to be measured and how to quantify an abstract concept. Thus, the chapter makes two main contributions. First, general data gathering methods are described and discussed in terms of advantages and disadvantages. Second, main psychological concepts and evaluation constructs relevant in the context of serious games, as well as their theoretical foundations, are introduced. In order to support the reader on planning future serious game evaluations, a list and description of concrete techniques and questionnaires addressing concepts like motivation, player experience, learning outcomes, health, well-being, and attitudes are compiled.

Personalization and adaptivity can promote motivated usage, increased user acceptance, and user identification in serious games. This applies to heterogeneous user groups in particular, since they can benefit from customized experiences that respond to the individual traits of the players. In the context of games, adaptivity describes the automatic adaptation of game elements, i.e., of content, user interfaces, game mechanics, game difficulty, etc., to customize or personalize the interactive experience. Adaptation processes follow an adaptive cycle, changing a deployed system to the needs of its users. They can work with various techniques ranging from simple threshold-based parameter adjustment heuristics to complex evolving user models that are continuously updated over time. This chapter provides readers with an understanding of the motivation behind using adaptive techniques in serious games and presents the core challenges around designing and implementing such systems. Examples of how adaptability and adaptivity may be put into practice in specific application scenarios, such as motion-based games for health, or personalized learning games, are presented to illustrate approaches to the aforementioned challenges. We close with a discussion of the major open questions and avenues for future work.

Being able to automatically recognize and interpret the affective state of the player can have various benefits in a Serious Game. The difficulty and pace of a learning game could be adapted, or the quality of the interaction between the player and the game could be improved – just to name two examples. This Chapter aims to give an introduction to Affective Computing with the goal of helping developers to incorporate the player’s affective data into the games. Suitable psychological models of emotion and personality are described, and a multitude of sensors as well as methods to recognize affect are discussed in detail. The Chapter ends with a number examples where human affect is utilized in Serious Games.

Based on the emerging popularity of social network services like Facebook, Online Social Network (OSNs) have found an increasing playership in the last years. Their proliferation is supported by an easy accessibility which enables even non-gamers to make use of these games. A main characteristic of these games is the utilization of already existing networks of social ties. At least in theory these foster communities of interest, which are considered a vivid source of learning. Summarizing these facts and considering the comparably low efforts for development of such games makes Social Network Games (SNGs) a remarkable instrument for serious games, especially educational games. For this reason we describe in this chapter unique characteristics of SNGs. Underlying theoretical models and concepts are presented. Example cases illustrate potential usages. The bridge to pedagogical and didactic use is illustrated by connecting theories from both worlds and naming best practice examples. Furthermore, specific aspects in the design and development of SNGs are discussed. Examples are establishment of deep learning and critical issues as monetarization strategies of developers or toxic behavior of players.

Pervasive games are bridging the physical and digital worlds through the use of mobile devices, positioning technology, and mobile networks. They received an uptake since the Global Positioning System (GPS) became available for public use in May 2000. Since then, pervasive games have been studied in a number of research projects and have reached the mass market by now. Furthermore, their concepts have been applied to mobile augmented learning experiences which makes them very relevant also for the design of serious games. This chapter provides a historical introduction and highlights aspects of pervasive games illustrated by examples. It continues with a discussion of what pervasive games are made of, how they are built, and which recurring issues have to be considered when building and deploying them. The chapter concludes with considerations about how pervasive games went from research to application and how that relates to budget and marketing efforts. Finally, it provides recommendations for further reading and some research questions towards using pervasive games in mobile educational research.

This chapter about storytelling and interactivity in storytelling first explains on various serious games examples foundations of storytelling. Then storytelling in Interactive Media with regard to serious games is described. Further the current state of the art on Interactive Digital Storytelling is presented including example experiences, authoring tools and challenges in the field combined with examples of serious games. This chapter closes concluding with open storytelling challenges and opportunities in serious games development and recommending further literature on the subject.