Serious Games for Guidance

1
Serious Games for Guidance

• Dr Andreas Oikonomou
• Ms Siobhan Neary-Booth

2
Topics

• The Games industry
• Size
• Trends
• Serious Games
• Simulation
• Education
• Marketing
• Current Game technologies
• Future Game trends technologies
• Conclusions Summary

3
The Games industry today

• "You'd never know that the U.S. economy was under
  distress by looking at the video games industry
  sales figures" NPD analyst Anita Frazier, April
  2008.

Source NPD Group ESA MPAA BoxOfficeMojo.com
RIAA IFPI
4
Game industry trends
Source PricewaterhouseCoopers
5
Serious Games Simulation

• A simulation game is a game that contains a
  mixture of skills, chance, and strategy to
  simulate an aspect of reality, such as a stock
  exchange, a battlefield or a race
• Simulation games have been predominantly used for
  training and educational purposes
• The first ever client for a simulation game was
  the government of the United States (1965)
• Simulation games have been used extensively as an
  effective way to generate new and more complex
  behaviour among players (e.g. to engender courage
  among participants exposed to fearful conditions)
  
• When deftly used, simulation gaming can produce
  results which eclipse many other forms of
  training
• An example of a modern, multiplayer, simulation
  game by Microsoft

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Serious Games Education

• An educational computer game has intended
  educational outcomes targeted at specific groups
  of learners
• Video games can aid the development of
  proficiency by allowing users to interact with
  objects and manipulate variables
• Simple types of games can be designed to address
  specific learning outcomes such as recall of
  factual content
• Examples of educational games include the Nobel
  Prize Foundation website which uses on-line games
  to aid children in understanding the discoveries
  made by its laureates by embedding the scientific
  knowledge as part of the game environment
• An example of how an educational game is made

7
Serious Games Marketing

• Viral Marketing
• Gives away valuable products or services
• Provides for effortless transfer to others
• Scales easily from small to very large
• Exploits common motivations and behaviors
• Utilises existing communication networks
• Takes advantage of others' resources
• Viral Marketing with games
• Game available on a website
• Players are allowed to send links to it
• Can be played by a small or large number of
  people simultaneously
• Exploits the needs to compete and have fun
• Utilises the Internet
• Promotion is done by the player rather than the
  marketer
• An example of a viral marketing game

8
Current Game Technologies

• Home Entertainment
• Sony PS3
• 11.79M units worldwide
• Hands on example
• Microsoft XBOX 360
• 18.24M units worldwide
• Hands on example
• Nintendo Wii
• 23.89M units worldwide
• Hands on example
• PC
• 822.15M (2005)
• Hands on example
• Mobile

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Games in the next 10 years

• Will be social
• Clans will compete in ladders and leagues
• Professional gamers will one day entertain
  millions of fans
• Will arouse all 5 senses
• Hardware devices will reach beyond the simple
  view screen and speakers to stimulate the other
  senses as well
• Eventually, there will be some type of hardware
  display revolution that visually immerses the
  gamer
• Such a device, once developed, standardised, and
  mass produced, will provide the level of realism
  needed to attract large numbers of consumers to
  the electronic gaming playground
• Will be affordable
• One of the factors that allowed PC sales to
  explode in the 80s was the low cost
• Consoles are affordable today and will be even
  more so in the future as technology evolves
• Advertising slogans will be Keep your little
  ones off dangerous streets and out of a filthy
  environment. Try our safe and clean 3D gaming
  environment or
• Teach your children family values in a our
  Father/Son Classic Capture the Flag Tournament.

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Games in the next 10 years

• Will be customizable
• User maps, skins and 3D models trading will grow
  on the Internet
• 3D holography files will be a lot bigger and more
  detailed than the current 3D variety
• Broadband speed will increase between 2-20 times
  with the use of ADSL2 Fiber Optics
• Will be educational
• Knowledge in future generations will be instilled
  through games and gaming platforms
• Every child will demand/have access to them
• Educational support will be integrated
• The didactic power of games will begin to be
  fully realised
• The necessity for government regulation will
  increase

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Conclusions Summary

• The Games industry
• As big as the music and film industries
• Further growth is expected
• Serious Games
• Simulation
• Education
• Marketing
• Current Game Technologies
• Home entertainment
• Mobile entertainment
• Games in the next 10 years
• The 5 predictions

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The UK games industry

• In 2004 the UK computer and video games industry
  recorded sales in excess of 2 billion for the
  3rd year running (Source Chart-Track)
• The UK games industry is one of the fastest
  growers in the entertainment sector (Source
  Chart-Track)
• In contrast the UK film and TV industries
  recorded negative balances of 282m and 553m
  respectively (Source Screen Digest)
• The UK continues to be the largest market in
  Europe and is the third largest individual market
  in the world, after the US and Japan
• In 2004 there were 20.8 million consoles and
  games handhelds in UK homes
• Between 1994 and 2004, more than 335 million
  units of leisure software were sold in the UK,
  which equates to over five titles per head of
  population (Source Office of National
  Statistics/Screen Digest/Chart-Track)

13
Games as an educational tool

• There is no reason that a generation that can
  memorize over 100 Pokémon characters with all
  their characteristics, history and evolution
  can't learn the names, populations, capitals and
  relationships of all the 101 nations in the
  world.
• Marc Prensky 2001. Digital natives, digital
  immigrants.
• Characteristics of Game Based Learning (GBL)
• GBL uses competitive exercises, either pitting
  the players against each other or getting them to
  challenge themselves in order to motivate them to
  learn better
• Games often have a fantasy element that engages
  players in a learning activity through a
  storyline
• In order to create a truly educational game, the
  designer/s needs to make sure that learning the
  material is essential to scoring and winning
• Attributes of GBL
• More fun
• Motivates players to learn
• Immerses them in the material so they learn more
  effectively
• Encourages them to learn from their mistakes

They are actually 194
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Good Game design principles

• Continuous Challenge
• Clear, short-term goals appropriate to the level
  of the player and the context of the game
• Each challenge should satisfy at least part of a
  learning objective
• Interesting Storyline
• Encourage players to use games to escape into the
  information or studies intended
• Flexibility
• Allow many different ways to accomplish each goal
• Let each player (or team) work out their own
  strategy to the endpoint
• Immediate and Useful Rewards
• Reward successful players with new capabilities,
  a new part of the game to explore or even a new
  task rather than just points
• Such rewards are surprisingly motivating, as the
  point of the game is not just to win it, but to
  keep playing
• Combining Fun and Realism
• A simulation without goals and challenges is not
  a game
• Excessive realism can also be boring