Hindawi Publishing Corporation
International Journal of Computer Games Technology
Volume 2014, Article ID 358152, 15 pages
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/358152
Review Article
An Overview of Serious Games
Fedwa Laamarti,1 Mohamad Eid,2 and Abdulmotaleb El Saddik1,2
1
Multimedia Communications Research Laboratory, School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science,
University of Ottawa, 800 King Edward Avenue, Ottawa, ON, Canada K1N 6N5
2
Division of Engineering, New York University Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, P.O. Box 129188, Abu Dhabi, UAE
Correspondence should be addressed to Abdulmotaleb El Saddik;
[email protected]
Received 12 May 2014; Revised 10 September 2014; Accepted 16 September 2014; Published 15 October 2014
Academic Editor: Daniel Thalmann
Copyright © 2014 Fedwa Laamarti et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License,
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Serious games are growing rapidly as a gaming industry as well as a field of academic research. There are many surveys in the field
of digital serious games; however, most surveys are specific to a particular area such as education or health. So far, there has been
little work done to survey digital serious games in general, which is the main goal of this paper. Hence, we discuss relevant work
on serious games in different application areas including education, well-being, advertisement, cultural heritage, interpersonal
communication, and health care. We also propose a taxonomy for digital serious games, and we suggest a classification of reviewed
serious games applications from the literature against the defined taxonomy. Finally, the paper provides guidelines, drawn from the
literature, for the design and development of successful serious games, as well as discussing research perspectives in this domain.
1. Introduction
The idea of playing a game dates to the ancient past and is
considered an integral part of all societies. For instance, Dice
appears to be among the earliest games used by humans,
the oldest known example is a 3000 year old game set in
south Iran [1]. Some of these games already served a “serious”
purpose; for example, Mancala (a game designed around
1400 BC) was used as an accounting tool for trading animals
and food [2]. However, most games were based on the
concept that the game contains and reveals knowledge that
is otherwise hidden from the player.
In recent history, several landmarks have marked the
development of serious games as summarized in Table 1
and described in this section and can probably be considered milestones in the history of serious games. The
concept of serious games was first coined by Abt [3] and
described as follows: “We are concerned with serious games
in the sense that these games have an explicit and carefully
thought-out educational purpose and are not intended to be
played primarily for amusement.” He used innovative gaming
approaches to improve education for the physical and social
sciences, occupational choice and training, and planning and
problem solving in government and industry.
Furthermore, links between the military and gaming are
far from new: during World War II, the US army general
staff were the first to use “wargames” and employed them
to improve their image with the population. The advertising
of one of the world’s first commercial home video game
consoles, the Odyssey by Magnavox (launched in the USA
in 1972), emphasized the device’s potential as an educational
tool, and thus it might be considered one of the first serious
video games. Later on, in 1973, educational games such
as The Oregon Trail [4] and Lemonade Stand [5] were
produced by the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium (MECC). Lemonade Stand, which was created in 1973,
focused on business management, while The Oregon Trail,
produced in 1974, intended to teach users about American
colonists and was very popular and is still popular today
through mobile phones and Facebook [6]. It stands as an
example of a successful serious game.
In 1981, a simulation tool known as The Bradley Trainer
[7] was developed for the American army to train new
recruits in how to operate a Bradley tank. This application
was developed by a team from Atari and was based on the
Battlezone arcade game, which is believed to be the first
virtual reality arcade game. The years 1982 and 1983 saw
the release of several arcade games such as Pole Position, as
2
International Journal of Computer Games Technology
Table 1: Milestones in the history of serious games.
Year
1970
1972
1973
1980
1981
1982/1983
1996
2002
2003
2005
2006
2009
2012
Serious game
Serious Games book by C. Abt
Magnavox Odyssey
The Oregon Trail
BattleZone
The Bradley Trainer
Pole Position/Atari VCS 2600 console
Marine Doom
America’s Army
DARWARS
VBS1
BiLAT
VBS2/Game After Ambush
X-Plane 10
well as games for the Atari VCS 2600 console, such as Pepsi
Invaders, which included elements of advertising (a type of
application that today is known as an “advergame”). In 1996,
the Marine Doom game [8] was used to train members of the
US Marine Corps.
A first-person shooter game, named America’s Army, was
developed by the US army and distributed free of charge
over the Internet in 2002. The game simulates military
training exercises and combat missions, with the goal of
promoting the American army and as a recruitment tool
for young people between the ages of 16 and 24. Sawyer
considered America’s Army “the first successful and wellexecuted serious game that gained total public awareness” [6].
Other breakthrough games were DARWARS [9] introduced
in 2003 and the VBS1 [10] in 2005.
In the last decade, serious games grew exponentially.
A recent market study showed that the worldwide serious
games market is worth 1.5 billion C in 2010, with a growth
rate, over the last two years, nearly 100% per year [11]. For
example, BiLAT, introduced and marketed in 2006, is an
immersive learning environment that teaches the preparation, execution, and understanding of bilateral meetings in
a cultural context [12]. The second generation of VBS1 was
introduced in 2009 [13], with capabilities for training, simulation, and development. In March 2012, a new version of the
flight simulator game X-Plane (X-Plane 10) was introduced
to support various mobile platforms such as Android and
webOS [14].
Some reviews were conducted in the serious games
domain, most of them in specific areas of the domain such
as education or physical well-being. In [15], a classification of
serious games is proposed following what they call the G/P/S
model. The authors observed that the existing classifications
of serious games only use one or two criteria and that they are
all based on the purpose served by the serious game and the
market for which the game was designed. But they noted that
the problem with the existing classifications is that they do
not take into account the gameplay aspect of serious games.
So they suggested a classification that uses three criteria: first,
the gameplay which is based on the rules of the game and
Application
Academic book
Education
Education
Training
Training
Training
Military
Military
Military
Military
Interpersonal communication
Military
Training
which was inspired from a classification of entertainment
video games; second, the purpose of the game; and third, the
scope which takes into account the market, the audience, and
so forth. The authors use this classification for the educational
field to help teachers find games suitable for education.
In [16], the authors emphasize the importance of a taxonomical approach to the scientific treatment of any subject, in
particular the science of digital games with a focus on serious
games. The taxonomy they propose is three-dimensional. The
first dimension is that the digital game is computer software.
The second dimension considers the genre of the game,
whereas the third has to do with the interaction of players
with the game. Another classification was proposed in [17],
where the authors examined a database of serious games and
defined four dimensions to classify serious games. The first
one is the “primary educational content” delivered by the
game, such as academic and social change and health. The
second one is based on the “primary learning principles,” such
as practicing skills or problem solving. The third dimension
is the age group targeted by the game, and the fourth one
concerns the platform on which the game is played.
In contrast to existing classifications as discussed previously, in this work, we propose a multidimensional classification that examines serious games more closely by looking
into the characteristics that are important in their design and
that have the potential to make a significant difference in
the success of a serious game. These criteria are based on
conclusions drawn from the study of different serious games
articles and applications, by analyzing their characteristics
including the interaction style they offer to the player, the
activity, the modalities, the environment, and the application
area, as will be explained in a later section. Hence, we believe
that the new classification we are proposing will allow a more
detailed categorization and analysis of serious games.
The rest of this paper is organized as follows. Section 2
gives an overview of the growth of serious games over the
years. Section 3 focuses on the terminology and contributes
a definition of digital serious games. In Section 4, we suggest
a taxonomy for digital serious games. We then review some
relevant applications of serious games in different areas in
2. Growth of Serious Games
2.2. Growth of Serious Games in Industry. The graph in
Figure 2 was drawn from data collected by [6] as well as our
collection of industry-based serious games statistics from the
Serious Games Association industry directory [18]. Figure 2
shows that, similarly to the research field, the growth in
industry was exponential over the last decade. It is also
estimated that the serious games market will keep growing
quickly to reach a value of 10 billion Euros in 2015 [19].
3. Terminology and Definition
To start with, a game is defined as a physical and/or mental
contest that is played according to specific rules, with the sole
goal of amusing or entertaining the participant(s). On the
other hand, a video game is a special type of games where
the game is played with a computer according to certain rules
with the goal of amusement, recreation, or winning a stake.
There are several perspectives of defining serious games
as seen from the academia and the industry. For example,
some industry figures believe a serious game must include
a genuine entertainment element combined seemingly with
a practical dimension [20]. Some researchers argue that all
games have a serious purpose such as gambling, fortune
telling, or politics. In this case, the term may be used
to refer to any application produced using development
software from the gaming industry, which means a majority
of simulators would be considered serious games [21]. Others
2013
2010
2007
Years
Figure 1: Serious games growth in the research field based on
surveyed papers in ACM digital library and IEEE Xplore.
2012
2008
2004
2000
1996
1992
1988
1984
400
300
200
100
0
1980
Estimated number
of serious games
in industry
2.1. Growth of Serious Games in the Research Field. The field
of serious games has been growing rapidly for over a decade.
To have a closer look at the trend of research in this domain,
we carried out a survey of published articles related to serious
games. We used online archives, covering the years from 1995
to 2013, of two major publishers: The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Digital Library and the Institute
of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Xplore Digital
Library. The obtained results are illustrated in the graph of
Figure 1, which provides an estimation of the number of
research articles in the field of serious games for the last two
decades. We tried to eliminate double findings; that is, listing
the same publication in both libraries was considered one hit
only. The graph in Figure 1 reveals an exponential growth in
the number of research papers published in the field, starting
from the late 90s until 2013, which shows the growth in
interest of the research community in serious games. This is
accompanied by an important growth in industry as well, as
shown in the next section. The estimated number of papers
presented in Figure 1 was calculated based on the usage of the
following keywords: “serious games,” “serious game,” “serious
gaming,” edutainment, gamification, and “serious play.”
2004
2001
1998
Serious gaming growth in academia
1995
1600
1200
800
400
0
1992
Section 5 and propose a classification of some of the reviewed
applications based on the defined taxonomy. In Section 6, this
paper provides guidelines drawn from the literature, for the
design and development of successful serious games. Finally,
Section 7 concludes with perspectives for future research.
3
Estimated number
of serious games
in research
International Journal of Computer Games Technology
Years
Figure 2: Serious games growth in industry.
argue that a serious game is simply a computer game and that
the classification is nothing more than a marketing technique
[22].
Probably, the most common definition of serious games
is “games that do not have entertainment, enjoyment, or fun
as their primary purpose” [23]. Following this definition,
serious games can be distinguished from video games by
their design objectives in that serious games have a primary
design objective other than entertainment. However, basing
the definition of a serious game on its design objective causes
a problem [24]. This problem is that if one wants to decide
whether a specific game is a serious game or not, one would
necessarily need access to the objectives or intentions of
the game designer while designing that given game, which
is far from practical. As put by the authors in [16] “. . .
serious games are determined by some developers intentiona highly esoteric and impractical conceptualization. Developers’ intentions are rarely accessible.”
In this study, we contribute a definition of serious games
following our review of the literature. We found that most definitions encountered either in research or industry agree that
serious games include entertainment dimension [20, 24–26].
A serious game also has the potential to enhance the user’s
experience through multimodal interaction [27, 28]. This can
be in different contexts such as education, training, health,
or interpersonal communication. Most research agrees that
digital serious games contain different media, which can be
a combination of text, graphics [29], animations [30], audio
[31], haptics [27, 32], and so forth. Furthermore, we believe
that the “serious” term in serious games comes from their role
of conveying some message or input, be it knowledge, skill,
or in general some content to the player. This means that the
player is exposed to an environment which delivers a content
emanating from a know-how or experience. This experience
is related to the specific context of the serious game such as
4
International Journal of Computer Games Technology
Experience
Training
simulation
Serious
game
Sports and
board game
Computer
game
Entertainment
Multimedia
Figure 3: Definition of serious games.
well-being, education, and health. Hence, we define serious
games as an application with three components: experience,
entertainment, and multimedia, as shown in the diagram
of Figure 3. The diagram demonstrates also the differences
between serious games and several terminologies such as
training simulation, computer game, and sports.
4. Taxonomy of Serious Games
Given the significant growth of serious games and even more
future growth expected [19], we need to define a foundational
taxonomy to classify and characterize the considerable work
dedicated to this domain.
In an attempt to classify serious games, we try to define
here the characteristics that are important in their design and
that have the potential to make a significant difference in
the success of a serious game. We thus suggest the following
criteria that are based on information derived from the study
of different articles and applications related to serious games.
4.1. Activity. The first characteristic that we define here is
the type of activity performed by the player as required by
the game. This is the function performed by the player as
a response and/or input to the game. Activity types can be
physical exertion, for example, in games for well-being such
as in [33, 34] or games for health to fight childhood obesity
[35]. The activity type can also be physiological such as in
games for rehabilitation [36] or for the detection of some
health conditions [37]. It can also be mental, for example, in
games for education [29, 38], training [39], or interpersonal
communication [12].
4.2. Modality. Another criterion that is of importance is the
modality, which is here the channel by which information is
communicated from the computer to the human(s) participating in the game. This characterizes the sensory modalities
the player experiences in the game. The most common
modalities include visual, auditory, and haptic. There are
also some smell attempts that were contributed such as an
application of using the sense of smell in therapy [40]. It is
important to use modalities to the advantage of the game’s
purpose. Indeed, a study was conducted for UbiFit Garden
and compared the performance of participants who had a
display in their mobile phone’s background that is visualized
several times a day to the performance of those who used the
same game but were not provided with such a display. The
study showed that players who had the visible display were
able to sustain their activity level, at the same time when those
without the visible display experienced a decrease in their
performance [29]. This study shows that using a display that
provides visible feedback to players throughout the day can
be a success factor of mobile serious games.
It is also important to include the right modalities in
order to enhance the user’s experience and thus to increase
the successfulness of the game. For example, if we consider
the auditory modality, an investigation was conducted in [31]
in order to define properties that make a well-being serious
game successful. One of the most important properties found
was music incorporation in the game, which helps increase
players motivation to exercise using the game in question.
Also, integrating haptic feedback in serious games has, among
others, the potential to enhance the learning experience
through a tactile perception of objects [27] and to provide
more realism in rehabilitation games for stroke patients [32].
4.3. Interaction Style. The interaction style defines whether
the interaction of the player with the game is done using
traditional interfaces such as keyboard, mouse, or Joystick or
using some intelligent interfaces such as a brain interface, eye
gaze, movement tracking, and tangible interfaces. Choosing
the right interface during the serious game design may have
an impact on the success of the game. For example, for some
games, it is important to use intelligent interfaces instead
of traditional interfaces. Such games include movement
tracking such as the one provided by Microsoft Kinect or the
use of a remote such as the Nintendo Wii remote which allows
the player to feel more freedom and realism while playing the
game. An example showing that using the right interface can
be a determining factor in the success of serious games was
explored in [41] using a system called Sensor Network for
Active Play (SNAP). SNAP aims at getting players physically
active and uses a set of sensors attached to the players limbs,
which allow the system to make sure that the players are
International Journal of Computer Games Technology
moving their body as required by the game. This allows
overcoming shortcomings in systems such as the Wii Fit
where players can sit on a couch and move the Wii remote
and still be able to get through the game without getting the
desired physical exercise. So the interface used in a specific
context may actually determine whether or not the game can
serve its main goal and how well it serves it.
Additionally, for some games, it would not be useful to
use traditional interfaces, for example, if the game needs as
input a kind of biological data such as heartbeat rate, which
is in this case collected from the player’s body by means of
biosensors and sent directly to the game without the user’s
interference. In other areas, it is actually critical to integrate
the right interface in the game, as is the case, for example, in
the rehabilitation domain. Indeed, a game for stroke patient
seeking help with rehabilitation process will not be useful
unless the appropriate interface between the user and the
game is chosen carefully following the specific need of the
targeted users [42].
4.4. Environment. This criterion defines the environment of
the digital game and can be a combination of several criteria.
(i) 2D/3D: the environment of the serious game can
be either 2D (two-dimensional) or 3D (threedimensional) or a combination of the two.
(ii) Virtual or mixed reality environment: virtual reality refers to a completely synthetic world. It is a
computer-generated immersive environment that can
either represent the real world or be purely imaginative. Virtual reality is widely used in serious games
such as in [29, 31, 39]. A mixed reality, such as used in
[35], includes both augmented reality and augmented
virtuality. It refers to an environment that merges real
and digital worlds, allowing objects from each world
to interact in real time.
(iii) Location awareness: it depends on whether or not the
game allows the determination of the player’s current
location.
(iv) Mobility: it determines whether the game is mobile or
not.
(v) Online: it determines if the game can be played over
a computer network, usually the Internet.
(vi) Social presence: it depends on whether the game
is single or multiplayer. This can be an important
criterion to be taken into consideration, as shown in
[43], where some research was conducted specifically
for exercise games and concluded that multiplayer
collaborative exercise games are more motivating and
engaging than single-player exercise games.
4.5. Application Area. The application area refers to the
different applications domains relevant to serious games.
There are many possible application areas. If we consider the
importance of areas in terms of their share in the market,
educational games were clearly dominant up to 2002 with
a market share of about 66% [6]. However, this market
5
dominance decreased to about 26% from 2002 to 2009, while
games for advertising increased from about 11% to 31% in
the same period of time [6]. According to these statistics,
education and advertising are dominant, occupying about
57% of the whole serious games market, while the rest of it
is shared between other areas. These include, among others,
health care, well-being, cultural heritage, and interpersonal
communication.
Based on the set of characteristics defined above, we
propose the following taxonomy for serious games, as shown
in Figure 4.
5. Review of Serious Games Applications in
Multiple Areas
Many serious games were proposed in research. This section
reviews some examples of relevant serious games applications
that have recently been developed in different domains,
including education, training, well-being, advertisement,
cultural heritage, interpersonal communication, and health
care. In each application area, we tried to cover a variety of
available serious games examples. We first give the reader
an overview of the game’s main goal and describe briefly
how the game goes about serving its purpose, and then
we use some of the games discussed here to propose a
classification of serious games. In this classification, the
applications used are described in detail following each of
the criteria of the taxonomy that we defined previously, to
allow for the comparison of some existing serious games and
to contrast them in terms of their key characteristics. This
has the potential to help bring to light where research in
this domain is missing and direct new efforts in the right
way. The description of games in this section, as well as the
classification that will follow, also serves to give the reader an
idea of how new technology can be applied in different serious
game areas in order to achieve their goal in a more effective
way.
5.1. Education and Training. Many research contributions are
directed towards taking advantage of the success of video
games and using them to benefit the educational domain. The
addictive nature of game play and obsession of the players
with digital games is attempted to be used to facilitate the
learning process of players. As a growing number of young
people spend hours playing video games, Quest to Learn, a
middle school that opened in September 2009 in New York
City, is based completely on a game-like learning model.
In this school, students spend their day learning by playing
games and designing them.
Some educational games are developed for classroom
use, and the areas taught by them can vary widely. An
example of such game is Skills Arena [38] that was designed
specifically for classroom use. Skills Arena uses Nintendo
Gameboy and teaches students arithmetic skills at varying levels of difficulty. A study was conducted involving
elementary school students and concluded that playing a
technology-based game increased students’ performance in
mathematics. Another example of educational games used
6
International Journal of Computer Games Technology
Application area
Activity
Modality
Education
Physical
exertion
Visual
Interaction style
Environment
Keyboard/mouse
Social presence
Movement
tracking
Mixed reality
Well-being
Auditory
Training
Physiological
Tangible
interfaces
Virtual
environment
Haptic
Advertisement
2D/3D
Brain interface
Interpersonal
communication
Mental
Smell
Eye gaze
Health care
Others
Others
Location
awareness
Joystick
Mobility
Others
Online
Figure 4: Taxonomy of serious games.
in the classroom in a case study is Making History [44]. It
was used to evaluate its effectiveness in teaching high school
students about World War II. This case study was conducted
for a history class where the teacher used the game for this
particular subject instead of traditional learning methods.
The study resulted in the students being more interactive
and more engaged in the learning process [44]. Another
educational game can be used by computer science teachers
to teach computer programming skills to university students
[45]. It is a multiplayer strategy game with the objective to
help students overcome the many difficulties they face while
learning programming. Also, in the context of classroom use
of serious games, the research in [46] is focused on the design
of tools that allow teachers who have no knowledge of games
programming to build educational games for use in their
classroom teaching.
Other educational games are rather used for independent
learning. A good example is in the area of language acquisition. For example, Lost in the Middle Kingdom [47] helps
the players in learning a second language. Other areas covered
in the educational domain are social awareness and teaching
players about poverty. In this area, the 3rd World Farmer
[48] is a simulation and management game, whose goal is
to sensibilize players to the hardships of maintaining a farm
in developing countries. Here, another example to consider
is IBM CityOne or IBM INNOV8 [49], a city-building
simulation game introduced in 2010, to educate players
about problems facing today’s cities related to transportation,
energy infrastructure, and water management in order to
design smarter cities that can sustain and encourage the
growth of a prosperous population in the future. Clean World
is a 3D game that also educates about today’s environmental
challenges [50]. It was developed using a design methodology
that aims at prioritizing the fun aspect of the game, by using
different learning mechanisms that are related to the game
but that do not directly interfere with the main gameplay.
In [51], a model of assessment of the player’s motivation
was proposed. It was used in the objective of adapting the
educational game to the players’ abilities and to keep the
challenge element balanced depending on the assessment
performed by the game engine.
A game using the haptic technology to teach players
about artefacts is Roma Nova [27]. It is a multimodal game
that uses an affordable off-the-shelf haptic device, Novint
Falcon, which allows players to feel properties of the 3D game
environment such as texture and shapes of artefacts. Some
educational games efforts are also directed to the medical
domain. A serious game for training was designed for surgery
residents, with the purpose to train and educate them on
the total knee replacement procedure [39]. The game uses a
background sound captured during a real knee replacement
surgery for more realism.
Another interesting type of serious games to consider
here is data games, which are games that allow learning from
and exploration of real world data. An example of such games
is Foldit [52], a puzzle game that allows players to learn about
International Journal of Computer Games Technology
proteins and contribute to scientific research with innovative
ways of protein folding.
5.2. Well-Being. A sedentary lifestyle is a well-known contributing factor not only to obesity, but also to many diseases
such as diabetes and heart disease. Increasing physical activity
works as prevention against these problems. Serious games
for well-being aim at motivating players to be physically
active by the means of an entertaining and engaging game
play. The authors in [53] explored how the intention element
of players may affect how they will benefit from the exercise
game. They used a popular game for Xbox Kinect and found
that players who were primed with the intention to use the
game primarily for health benefits and who received health
feedback while playing the game ended up using the exercise
game for longer periods of time than other players who were
not.
Another example of an exercise game is a mobile game,
Heartlands where players walk around an area of their choice,
wearing a heart-rate monitor and carrying a Pocket PC
with GPS. A landscape is built on the Pocket PC screen
as the player moves around. The resulting landscape is a
representation of the player’s heart performance as well as
his location [54]. Another mobile fitness game also uses
a wearable heart-rate monitor and a GPS device, called
Monster and Gold, and includes a set of rules to motivate
players to jog outdoors at their optimal heart-rate level [33].
UbiFit Garden is another mobile application that turns the
background screen of a mobile phone into a virtual garden.
This garden flourishes following the amount of daily physical
activity of the individual, which is collected using a worn
fitness device. A three-month experiment concluded that the
background display had a positive effect on participants and
helped them sustain their level of activity [29] during the
winter months when the physical activity tends to decrease
[55]. Life is a Village is an example of how two players with
different fitness levels can collaborate to play an exercise game
at the same time [31].
In another multiplayer exergame, Fish’n’Steps, players
wear a pedometer, which provides the account of their daily
footsteps. The game can also be played both competitively
and cooperatively as a way to further motivate the players.
A fourteen-week study showed that participants developed
healthier daily activity patterns [30]. Sensor Network for
Active Play (SNAP) is an exergame system where players have
sensors attached to different parts of their body to make sure
their whole body is moving. In a game using this system,
players have to reproduce a set of dance positions, and their
performance is then evaluated by the sensor network. A
comparative study was carried out and showed that SNAP
outperformed some commercial games such as the Wii in
terms of energy expenditure as well as heart-rate adjustment
[41]. The study also showed that the fun factor was rated
high. The authors in [56] designed a cycling-based game for
children with cerebral palsy. Based on a year-long study, they
found that, despite their motor disabilities, these children
were able to enjoy and benefit from a fast-paced action
exercise game.
7
5.3. Advertisement. Serious games designed for advertising
aim at promoting a particular brand, product, or a service to
the users while they play a game, a term commonly known
as advergames [20]. Examples of commercial advergames
include advergames funded by Pepsi, 7 Up, NFL, Formula
One, and Burger King [57]. Even though America’s Army
game is intended mainly for military training, it also intends
to boost recruitment for the United States Army and thus can
be considered an advergame [20].
The authors in [58] found that 35% of players could recall
advertised brands in a controlled study of car racing games,
thus promoting adverting within the game itself. For instance,
an Adidas billboard is displayed in the foreground of the 2011
video game FIFA International Soccer (also, the electronic
board that appears with every goal scored sometimes reads
“Panasonic”).
5.4. Cultural Heritage. Advances in gaming technologies
allow the real-time interactive visualization/simulation of
realistic virtual heritage scenarios, such as reconstructions
of ancient sites and virtual museums, while using basic
consumer machines (such as mobile phones or personal
computers). Although games for cultural heritage provide
some cultural education, they differ from other games for
education in that they aim at supporting the preservation of
artifacts and their reproduction. They also promote cultural
awareness and allow for the appreciation of artifacts.
This section provides an overview of recent work in
cultural heritage, which can be classified into three types
of applications: reconstruction of history, virtual museums,
and cultural demonstrations. The most popular commercial
examples of serious games for cultural heritage come from
the nineties “Cultural Entertainment” wave, including The
Amazon Trail from Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium (MECC) in 1993, Museum Madness from Appaloosa
Interactive (formerly Novotrade International) in 1994, Versailles 1685, Egypt 1156 BC Tomb of the pharaoh, and China
the Forbidden City by Cryo Interactive in 1997, 1997, and 1998,
respectively, Byzantine: The Betrayal by Discovery Channel
Multimedia in 1997, Pilgrim Faith as a Weapon by Axel Tribe
in 1998, Vikings by Index+ in 1998, and Rome: Caesar’s Will
by Montparnasse Multimedia in 2000.
Cultural demonstrations educate people about tradition,
beliefs, and social values via techniques such as folktales
and storytelling. For instance, the authors in [59] presented
the design and development of a mobile game, named mMyTale, based on popular Malaysian folktale stories (such
as “The Princess of Mount Ledang”) to promote children
education about their culture and heritage. However, no
evaluation of the game was presented in the paper. Another
interesting work involves teaching Thai sword dance as a
presword fighting match tradition [60]. The game is designed
by combining acquired animations with gesture recognition
(supported by the Nintendo Wii controller).
An online multiplayer serious game called ThIATRO that
helps students learn art history is proposed in [61]. The game
is part of a big project “The Virtual 3D Social Experience
Museum” that seeks to develop an instrument to support
8
the bidirectional interaction between museums and visitors
using Web3D. Another game introduced by [62] aims at
improving cultural heritage awareness during the museum
visit. The game, called Solis Curse, uses multimodal interaction (audio, video, 3D graphics, etc.) and presents a series
of questions with progressional levels of difficulty where the
player score is calculated accordingly and compared with a
global ranking ladder.
5.5. Interpersonal Communication. Good communication
skills are very important in all aspects of life. We communicate all the time, and the efficiency with which we communicate highly influences our success whether it is in personal
relationships or professional career. A number of cultural
learning systems that take advantage of serious games can
be found in the literature. The Tactical Language and Culture
Training systems provide a mission practice environment that
enable learners to explore a virtual town while speaking to
locals in Arabic, learn how to make culturally appropriate
gestures, and accomplish goals such as getting the names of
contacts and/or directions [63]. VECTOR is another cultural
learning system that provides similar training in foreign town
but uses English language and American culture [64].
The Enhanced Learning Environments with Creative
Technologies for Bilateral negotiations (BiLAT) is a serious
gaming immersive learning environment that teaches the
preparation, execution, and comprehension of bilateral meetings in a cultural context [12]. An intelligent tutoring system
that focuses on face-to-face meetings between learners and
virtual characters to teach cultural social conventions is
introduced in [65]. StoreWorld is an educational game that
teaches students business principles and explores how social
interaction can improve simulation in business games [66].
Another management game facilitating interpersonal communication is SimParc [67]. It is a game prototype designed to
support intercultural participatory management of protected
areas in order to promote biodiversity conversation and social
inclusion. DeLearyous is a serious game that focuses on the
improvement of interpersonal communication skills [68].
The game is an attempt to substitute for personal coaching
which can be costly. Furthermore, using a virtual environment to work on communication skills has the advantage of
allowing players to safely make mistakes, without fearing the
consequences.
5.6. Biomedical and Health Care. We limit health care applications to a simple definition that requires being free from
illness or injury (note that a broader definition includes
well-being application that was discussed earlier in this
section). The main goal of games for health care is to pass
on knowledge and/or skill to players and to serve a medical
purpose by simulating a situation to avoid risk, safety, budget,
and so forth. Accordingly, we classify serious games for health
care into four categories: (1) health monitoring, (2) detection
and treatment, (3) therapeutic education and prevention, and
finally (4) rehabilitation; we provide a summary of related
work in each of these classes. Comprehensive reviews for
serious games in health care can be found in [69, 70].
International Journal of Computer Games Technology
Several serious games for health monitoring can be found
in the literature. The Home Automated Telemanagement
(HAT) system is proposed in [71] to help patients with
congestive heart failure (CHF) monitor their symptoms,
weight changes, and quality of life while teaching the patient
the characteristics of their disease. The system runs on the
Nintendo Wii console and requires Internet connection to
execute. A similar medical diagnostic gaming system, which
is used to gather information about the patient’s condition in
a causal, nonintrusive manner that is relaxing for the patient,
is introduced in [72]. Another u-health monitoring system
with a Nintendo DS is presented in [73]. The system displays
the biosignals onto a monitor of personal computer and LCD
of a Nintendo DS using a biosignal measurement device.
The research and development related to the detection
and treatment of various health conditions using serious
games have grown significantly in the last few years. 21 Tally
is a collection of 2D games used to detect divided attention
unobtrusively, using a game designed to force players to
attend to different dimensions simultaneously in order to
succeed [37]. Two EEG-based concentration games, namely,
Brain Chi (2D) and Dancing Robot (3D), were developed for
concentration level control [74]. Match-3 is a serious game
designed to combat childhood obesity using the Wii-mote
[35]. Other examples include a medical gaming environment
for diagnosis and management of Parkinson’s disease using a
Novint falcon haptic interface [75] and a 3D game that can
analyze the behaviour and promote certain social skills (such
as conversation and negotiation) of people with neurological
development disabilities [76].
The area of therapeutic education and prevention also
benefits from the use of serious games for health. Therapeutic
education games can educate either patients themselves or
the people around them about therapy for a specific illness.
For example, Elude [77] is a game that targets relatives or
friends of patients suffering from depression. This game is
designed to inform them about this illness and allows them
to be involved in the therapy process of the patient.
One of the health areas where serious games can have a
pronounced positive impact is rehabilitation. The National
Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
estimates that neurological disorders affect about 50 million
people every year in USA alone [78]. Many patients afflicted
by such disorders need rehabilitation to help them regain control over their motor skills. Using games for rehabilitation has
been proved to be a good solution to the lack of motivation
that results from the repetitiveness of exercises in traditional
physical therapies [79]. The Rehabilitation Gaming System
(RGS) [36] was designed in this context, to help with the
recovery of patients who suffer from brain legions. The RGS
uses data gloves to detect finger movement, as well as a video
camera to follow the movements of the wrists and elbows, and
the system can be used by patients either in clinic or at home.
A 12-week study of the use of games in falls rehabilitation at
home concluded that games were used with more consistency
comparing to conventional rehabilitation [80].
5.7. Putting It Together. Table 2 suggests a classification of
examples of serious games examined earlier in this section.
Environment
Game
Application area
Heartlands
Life is a Village
Activity
Modality
Physical exertion Audio/visual
Well-being
Physical exertion Audio/visual
Monster and Gold
Physical exertion Audio/visual
Sensor Network for
Active Play (SNAP)
Physical exertion Audio/visual
Fish “n” Steps
Physical exertion Visual
UbiFit Garden
Physical exertion Visual
Rehabilitation
Gaming System
HAT
Physiological
Audio/visual
Mental/physical
Audio/visual
21 Tally
Mental/physical
Audio/visual
Match-3
Physical exertion Audio/visual
Making History
Mental
Audio/visual
Mental
Audio visual and
haptic
Ayiti: The Cost of
Life
Mental
Audio/visual
3rd World Farmer
Mental
Audio visual
Roma Nova
Health care
Education and
cultural heritage
Lost in the Middle
Kingdom
Skills Arena
Mental
Audio/visual
Mental
Audio/visual
IBM CityOne Game
Mental
Audio/visual
Interaction style
Pocket PC and
heart-rate
monitor
Exercise bike and
Wii remote
Mobile phone
and heart-rate
monitor
Sensors
(accelerometers)
Pedometer
Mobile phone
and fitness device
Data gloves and
camera
Nintendo Wii
Biofeedback
sensors
Wii-mote
Traditional
interfaces
Traditional
interfaces and
haptic device
Traditional
interfaces
Traditional
interfaces
Traditional
interfaces
Gameboy
Traditional
interfaces
Real/virtual/mixed Mobility Single/multiplayer
2D/3D
Location
awareness
Online
Virtual
Yes
Single- and
multiplayer
2D
Yes
No
Virtual
No
Single- and
multiplayer
3D
No
No
Virtual
Yes
Single
2D
Yes
No
Virtual
No
—
No
No
Virtual
No
2D
No
—
Virtual
Yes
Single
2D
No
No
Virtual
No
Single
3D
No
No
Virtual
Yes
Single
3D
No
No
Virtual
Yes
Single
3D
No
No
Mixed
No
3D
No
No
Virtual
No
Single
Single- and
multiplayer
3D
No
Yes
Virtual
No
Single
3D
No
Yes
Virtual
No
Single
2D
No
Yes
Virtual
No
Single
2D
No
Yes
Virtual
No
Single
3D
No
No
Virtual
Yes
2D
No
No
Virtual
No
Single
Single- and
multiplayer
2D
Yes
Yes
Single- and
multiplayer
Single- and
multiplayer
International Journal of Computer Games Technology
Table 2: Classification of serious games.
9
10
Table 2: Continued.
Game
Application area
Activity
Modality
Environment
Interaction style
Real/virtual/mixed Mobility Single/multiplayer
DeLearyous
Audio/visual
Mental
Audio/visual
VECTOR
Mental
Audio/visual
StoreWorld
Mental
Audio/visual
SimParc
Mental
Audio/visual
BiLAT
Interpersonal
communication
Traditional
interfaces
Traditional
interfaces
Traditional
interfaces
Traditional
interfaces
Traditional
interfaces
Location
awareness
Online
Virtual
No
Single
3D
No
No
Virtual
No
Single
2D
No
Yes
Mixed
No
Single
2D
Yes
Yes
Virtual
Yes
Multiplayer
2D
No
Yes
Virtual
Yes
Multiplayer
3D
Yes
No
International Journal of Computer Games Technology
Mental
2D/3D
International Journal of Computer Games Technology
The classification is done following the taxonomy proposed
in Figure 4 which is based on the set of criteria discussed in
the previous section.
6. Success Factors in Serious Games Design
and Development
In the following, we present some success factors drawn
from the literature review that compile together a number of
research efforts, and we recommend that they be considered
for the design and development of successful serious games.
An investigation was conducted in [31] in order to define
properties that make a well-being serious game successful.
One of the suggested properties is music incorporation in the
game, which will help motivate players to exercise using the
game in question. The focus was also made on the importance
of providing guidance to players within the game. We can
generalize this last requirement to different areas of serious
games such as education, interpersonal communication, or
health care, since providing guidance to players especially in
the early stages of playing the game provides them with the
necessary knowledge and prevents them from feeling “lost”
or confused.
Another important success factor is avoiding negative
consequences in the game, as results of the player’s low
performance. In Fish’n’Steps [30], negative outcome of the
player not performing enough physical exercise includes their
virtual pet fish displaying sad emotions. This negative effect
did not encourage all players to perform better. It actually
discouraged some of them to interact with the game and to
check the display on the screen in order to avoid visualizing
the crying pet fish [30]. This conclusion, although drawn
from an experience that uses an exercise game, could also be
recommended for serious games in general. This is because
it is related to the psychological effect that negative outcome
had on players, rather than the physical aspect of playing the
exercise game.
A study was conducted for UbiFit Garden and compared
the performance of participants who had a display on their
mobile phone that is visualized several times a day and
performance of those who were not provided with such a
display. The study showed that players who had the visible
display were able to sustain their activity level at the same
time when those without the visible display experienced a
decrease in their performance [29]. This study shows that
using a display that is visible to players throughout the day
can be a success factor of mobile serious games.
Another guideline was drawn from a research conducted
in [43], which concluded that multiplayer collaborative
exercise games are more motivating and engaging than
single-player exercise games. The study did not find any
differences in players’ motivation when the game was played
in distributed or colocated environments. This suggests
that the game can be played collaboratively online without
diminishing the enjoyment of the game. We have to note
that the study was conducted for collaborative rather than
competitive multiplayer games. We suggest, in the design of
serious games, providing an option for the game to possibly
11
be used in a collaborative environment, given the important
role that this can have in increasing players’ motivation.
The next guideline is specific to educational games that
are designed for classroom use. It is to be taken into
consideration when designing such games that conventional
teachers are concerned about the curriculum and are also on
a limited time schedule. Educational games that are based
on the curriculum have higher chances to be accepted and
integrated in the class program by teachers [81].
In a 6-week study performed in [82] using a social game,
it is shown that offering challenges in the game was found
to be of significant importance to children. The study results
showed that challenge is the game element that increased
children’s immersion the most. This property can be used
for serious games design by trying to keep the challenges
levels neither too high which would result in demotivation
nor too low which would lead to perceiving the game as
uninteresting. Keeping the challenges at the right level is key
in keeping the players interest in the game.
Another set of design guidelines is drawn from [83],
where the link is made between successful commercial games
and good accepted pedagogical theory. The focus in [83] is
made on educational games, and it is suggested that, for them
to be successful, their design has to take into consideration
sound instructional models as already done, intentionally or
not, in successful commercial games. The instructional model
that was focused on in [83] is the nine events of instruction
by Gagné et al. [84]. These are briefly the following.
(1) Gain attention.
(2) Inform learners of the objective.
(3) Stimulate recall of prior learning.
(4) Present stimulus material.
(5) Provide learning guidance.
(6) Elicit performance.
(7) Provide feedback.
(8) Assess performance.
(9) Enhance retention and transfer.
For more details on each of these steps, we refer the
reader to [84]. If the use of such steps has led to success in
commercial games, then making use of them in serious games
seems like a promising approach towards serious games
effectiveness.
7. Conclusions and Research Perspectives
The field of serious games has been exponentially growing
during the last decade as discussed in the first section of
this paper. Many different definitions of a serious game were
proposed and argued in literature. We have discussed some
of the existing ones, and then, based on our review of the
serious games literature, we suggested a definition that is open
to discussion and improvement.
With the growth of serious games, a need emerged for
a taxonomy for a better foundation of the considerable and
growing effort being put into the field. In this paper, we
12
International Journal of Computer Games Technology
have contributed a taxonomy and then provided a review of
relevant serious game applications related to various domains
including education, well-being, advertising, cultural heritage, interpersonal communication, and health care. We also
used some of the reviewed serious game applications from the
literature to propose a classification.
Serious games have huge potential as a means of improving achievements in a variety of domains including education, advertising, and health care; however, not all of them
are successful. For serious games to serve their purpose,
special attention should be paid during their design and
development. For this purpose, we have drawn guidelines
from literature for serious game design and development. In
this context, it is also important to discuss critical factors that
will be key in accelerating the move of serious games towards
mass adoption. Some of these factors are the following.
(i) User-centred software engineering: an important element for the success of the serious games industry is
the perspective that the designers contribute to the
development teams. Indeed, in order to develop an
effective serious game, in-depth understanding of the
experience that the end users will get while playing
the game will provide the development teams with
a sensibility that is a must for the success of the
technology.
(ii) Multimodal serious games: in order for a game in general and a serious game in particular to be convincing
to the user, multiple modalities should be incorporated. For example, integrating the haptic technology
in a serious game can add a hands-on element to the
learning experience in educational games, as well as
providing tactile and force feedback in rehabilitation
games in the health care domain [32]. However, some
researchers have already proved that in some cases
multimodal interaction might be distracting to the
user, and thus the overall performance drops. Such
cases need to be investigated and clearly identified.
(iii) Social well-being: stimulating a feeling of virtual
presence or connectedness that can contribute to
social well-being in real life is a key success factor
for serious games. In this context, the development of
novel forms of social communication would promote
serious games.
(iv) Adaptive gaming: a serious game should adapt to a
particular player’s capabilities, needs, and interests.
For instance, the game contents may be adapted
according to the player age group, gender, profession,
and physical and psychological state among others.
(v) Standardization of evaluation: in order for the serious
game domain to acquire higher credibility by the
general public, heuristic evaluation standards must
turn into a reality. Nowadays, there is a lack of
standardized means to indicate whether a game is
indeed “serious” or how “serious” a game is. If serious
games are made entertaining and fun, this could
facilitate their adoption by children and adults alike.
So the question that we think should be addressed
by the research community is, how can we model
entertainment from a user experience perspective?
What are the elements that make up “fun” design
and how can the effectiveness of this design be
measured? Currently, many developers/researchers
are proposing various types of serious games. Some
of these are powerful and provide value to the player,
but, unfortunately, many are boring and therefore
useless. Formal evaluation methods are certainly
welcome not only by the research community, but
also by potential users of serious games. However,
various challenges arise and have to be overcome for
an effective evaluation. For example, motivation of
players evaluated in an artificial environment may not
be accurate. Motivation also needs to be measured in
the long run, as some games may seem as attractive
in the beginning, but if the player loses interest in the
short term, there will not be any real benefit from the
game for the player. Another difficulty arises when
evaluating a game for clinical use or for classroom
use which can be hard to access. But evaluation
remains definitely essential both for measuring the
effectiveness of a given serious game and for allowing improvement of serious games by pointing out
particular weaknesses. A performance metrics that
defines how serious games are evaluated is definitely
welcomed by the research community.
(vi) Sensory-based simulations: serious games can be
created based on real world sensory data in order
to accurately reconstruct real world scene. To get to
this point, methods and techniques are required to
transform and process raw sensory data to create fully
functional game worlds. Other sensory information
can be read about the human physiology and integrated into the gaming environment.
Several researchers have investigated the potential of
tangible and/or intelligent interfaces as means of interaction
for serious games. There is a need for more natural interfaces
between the user and the game environment. For example,
using a real physical cup or a stress ball or a dumbell as
a game controller would benefit serious game design and
development. More research in this area is needed.
For a serious game to be successful, an important element
is for the game designer to achieve a balance between the fun
element and the main purpose of the game which is obviously not entertainment. This means that the entertainment
element of the game should not be sacrificed in an attempt
to reach the main goal of the game, whether the latter is
teaching or improving a health condition and so forth. It
may be tempting and even sound logical to give priority to
the serious element of the game over the stimulation and
engagement that the game is supposed to provide. However,
the enjoyment of the game is the very means by which the goal
can be reached. Thus, the game, serious as it may be, should be
kept enjoyable, or the serious goal would not be reached even
though it was given the highest attention in the development
of the game. How this balance can be achieved is an area open
to research.
International Journal of Computer Games Technology
Conflict of Interests
The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests
regarding the publication of this paper.
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