Serious gaming is used in various fields such as education, healthcare, marketing and other businesses and industries. The power of serious games lies in their ability to be entertaining, engaging and immersive. Serious games combine learning strategies, knowledge and game elements to teach specific skills, information and attitudes. Serious games are designed to address problems across different areas, presenting challenges and rewards while leveraging the entertainment and engagement that comes from gameplay.
Where serious games are used
Serious games are used in a variety of fields since they can be applied to address a broad range of problems or challenges. A few fields where serious games are particularly prevalent:
- Education: Serious games are used to teach specific subjects through gamified exercises and simulations. This way, students can learn math or a new language amongst others. This application is one of the most recognized uses of serious games, often referred to as educational games.
- Healthcare: In the healthcare sector, games are utilized in rehabilitation by translating physical exercises into in-game actions. Another use in healthcare is to train medical procedures in a simulated environment. Learn more about this on grendelmedical.com
- Training and consultancy: An increasing number of consultancy agencies make use of serious games to explain and train teamwork, as well as to navigate social and logistical dynamics within businesses.
These examples highlight only a few areas where serious games are applied. They are also used in the military for training purposes, in marketing to acquire and retain customers, by governments to raise social awareness and in several research initiatives. We are just starting to discover the potential of games with a purpose and more applications are likely to emerge in the future.
What are the advantages of serious games?
So why are more and more companies using games to reach serious goals? What’s wrong with a good old book or e-learning module? While there’s nothing wrong with the old methods, games offer a new and effective way to transfer information and knowledge. Here are some key advantages of serious games:
- Higher engagement and immersion: Games are designed to motivate players to keep playing through rewards, story progression, and various feedback systems. Coupled with a beautifully crafted environment, games can fully immerse players in the subject matter.
- A safe space to experiment: In the real world your actions have consequences, sometimes this can lead to damaged material or hurt feelings. Games provide a safe, virtual environment where players can experiment freely without the risk of real-world repercussions.
- Positive emotions improve learning: Serious games are fun! Studies have shown that students who use games to learn, experience more positive emotions. This leads to an improved learning experience compared to traditional learning methods and video tutorials.
These advantages make serious games a valuable tool for education and training.
How do serious games work?
So how does it work? Why are people more engaged when they are playing a game? And how does this improved engagement enhance learning? Below are four core elements commonly found in games. These elements contribute to both the entertainment value and the effectiveness of their serious purpose.
Interactivity: gameplay
At the core of all games is the concept of ‘gameplay’. This can be described as the decisions and actions a player must take to overcome challenges. For example, in the Super Mario series, the player needs to learn how to control Mario to jump over tortoises and gaps to reach the end of the level. The interactive element is what makes games fun.
Unlike books, films or other one-way learning experiences, games allow players to interact with the subject matter. This enables players to experiment and explore different outcomes based on their actions. This mirrors how humans naturally learn. Children learn by interacting and experimenting with the objects around them, sometimes resulting in small injuries from touching a hot stove or falling down a couple of steps. Games provide a safe space for players to experiment with real-life situations without the risks, consequences, or physical damage associated with the real world.
The metaphor: story and setting
Explaining divisions is always more fun when it involves pie or pizza. A metaphor can help visualize complex subjects. Similarly, games use metaphors to provide context for the actions and decisions players must make. The story and setting of a game are powerful tools for creating an immersive experience. Players become more engaged with the characters and their journeys when they care about them. Often, these games also feature vast and beautiful worlds to explore, appealing to our fundamental desire to discover and gain new experiences.
In summary, beyond merely using metaphors to explain complex ideas, the story and setting of a game significantly enhance player engagement, immersion, and retention of knowledge or skills.
Progression and feedback: challenges and rewards
An important aspect of learning is that the challenge presented aligns with the student’s current skill level. If an 8-year-old has to learn advanced mathematics, they likely won’t have the required background knowledge, which can quickly result in frustration and loss of motivation.
Games use many different progression systems to engage and retain players from all skill levels. Most games have a difficulty setting for example. Some games even adapt the difficulty automatically based on the player’s performance.
In addition to aligning challenges with skill levels, games are also very rewarding. When a player overcomes a certain challenge, it triggers the release of endorphins which enhances their mood and self-esteem. This feeling encourages players to continue playing in pursuit of that endorphin rush. Have you ever experienced a rush of endorphins from learning Pythagoras’ theorem?
Social aspect: multiplayer
Learning in groups is generally more effective than learning alone. Multiplayer games allow players to interact with each other, whether online or in person. The ability to play or compete against other players is a significant motivation for many gamers, encouraging them to continue playing. The interaction creates unpredictable situations, which in turn can create interesting challenges or funny situations. Being able to compete or cooperate with other players, improves both learning and engagement.
Successes and examples
Serious games have been successfully applied to several fields. Here are some notable cases that highlight the impact of serious gaming:
- Sea Hero Quest: This innovative game collects data to detect dementia at an early stage. Remarkably, data that would typically take 176 centuries to gather was collected in just a few months through this game.
- Assassin’s Creed: Origins Discovery Tour: Although the title suggests otherwise, this special game mode focuses exclusively on exploring ancient Egypt, functioning as a virtual museum. A unique aspect of this example is that it serves as an addition to an existing entertainment game, making it accessible to a broad audience.
- Underground: This is one of the first publicly available games designed for the WiiU to train surgical procedures using a custom-made game controller. This controller simulates the movements of expensive hardware, providing an affordable and effective training tool. We have learned much of this experience and are now creating Laptitude, a complete platform with custom hardware and software that teaches laparoscopic core skills.
These are just a few examples of serious games. What defines these examples is that they all have a very strong entertaining component as well as a serious purpose. The more entertaining a serious game is, the more effective it becomes as a tool for training, education, or achieving other objectives.
Learn more about serious games
Now that you have a basic understanding of serious games and their applications, you might be interested in learning more about the topic. There has been extensive research on using games for purposes beyond entertainment. A good starting point for delving deeper into this subject is to explore terms closely related to serious games, such as gamification, game-based learning, and applied games.
Closely related to serious games are gamification, game-based learning, and a range of other terms to describe similar practices. If you want to know the differences between these terms, read our article on the differences between gamification, game-based learning and serious games.
