Serious Games

Die enge Verbindung von Spielen und Lernen geht evolutionsgeschichtlich der Ausbildung menschlichen Lebens voraus. Mit der Digitalisierung erreicht sie nun ganz neue Qualitäten: Computerspiele treten in Konkurrenz zu den älteren narrativ-audiovisuellen Medien wie Theater, Film und Fernsehen; Touch- und Gestensteuerung leiten zudem eine Verkörperlichung interaktiver Spiel- und damit Lernerfahrungen ein.
Der Band verfolgt die Frage, wie und warum wir mit digitalen Medien und insbesondere mit Serious Games und Exergames lernen. Zu den internationalen Beiträgern aus Theorie und Praxis gehören u.a. Ian Bogost, Linda Breitlauch, Chris Crawford, Simon Egenfeldt-Nielsen, Henry Jenkins, Jörg Müller-Lietzkow, Rolf F. Nohr und Isabel Zorn.
473 Seiten. Das pdf enthält Inhalt und Vorwort.
Der Band ist bei transcript im Druck wie als pdf-E-Book erschienen.
Mehr Informationen und Leseproben finden sich auf www.bildundbit.com.

For medieval Icelanders, horses were among the most important animals. It should come as no surprise, as they were used for transport, in pagan rites (hippomancy, funerals, sacred horses), eating, and also for sports. These sports were the horse-fights (hestavígs) and horse-racing (skeið). Reading the sagas, one can find a lot of references to horse-fighting. This sport was considered of such importance among medieval Icelanders that laws have been written down regarding this entertainment, yet there is no exact description of how such events were organized. Only by putting all the references together can one endeavor to explain what these horse-fights may have actually been like. In my paper I would like to present the basis for these horse-fights. Their terminology has been frequently misinterpreted, and no critical investigation yet exists into the staging and organization of such events, which would shed light on the meaning and role of this sport to medieval Icelanders. It will be shown that horse-fighting functioned not only as brutal entertainment in itself, but also played a social role in the broader context of inter-district assemblies.

Negli ultimi anni il videogioco ha raggiunto una maturità che viene oggi riconosciuta sempre più anche a livello istituzionale e che gli ha permesso di entrare nelle scuole e nei musei. La musealizzazione del videogioco propone una serie di opportunità di analisi. Il saggio intende analizzare il tema da due punti di vista per suggerire alcune considerazioni: in primo luogo verrà affrontato il ruolo del museo nel videogioco e cioè come esso è stato rappresentato, analizzando casi studio di particolare interesse tra cui Tomb Raider: Legend (2006), GTA 4 (2007), Uncharted 2 e 3 (2009, 2011), Bioshock 2 e Bioshock Infinite (2010, 2013) o The Last of Us (2013). In secondo luogo sarà affrontato il tema della presenza del videogioco nel museo, da intendersi su tre livelli: il suo ingresso è infatti attestato in un primo momento grazie all’utilizzo che ne hanno fatto gli artisti a partire dagli anni ’90 e fino a oggi in esperienze raccolte sotto diverse etichette (tra cui quella di “game art”); un secondo livello è rappresentato dall'allestimento di mostre dedicate e dall'acquisizione di videogiochi nelle collezioni dei musei; infine l’utilizzo del videogioco come tool didattico e strumento di marketing da parte del museo stesso. Il contributo proverà a evidenziare alcuni aspetti che videogiochi e musei inaspettatamente condividono in quanto dispositivi, come il tema della costruzione di percorsi e narrazioni, il collezionismo e la costruzione dell’esperienza.

In videogames, classical buildings and objects are usually tarnished and collapsed. This chapter surveys how different styles of videogame from the 1980s to the 21st century depict antiquity. Four versions can be identified: its original freshness, its modern traces, and the moments of its destruction are three. The fourth is that ancient Greece and Rome were already made of ruins. This range reflects the nature of games themselves, as well as the tastes of modern audiences.

Pervasive games defy Johan Huizinga’s classic definition of play as being something “outside ‘ordinary life’” with its “own proper boundaries of time and space according to fixed rules and an orderly manner” (Huizinga, 1955, p.13).

Pervasive games form a distinct category of games or forms of play that have broached the confines of the magic circle and left the board or, perhaps more accurately, make use of the natural or the built environment as the play-space in a distinct overlap with the real world. Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman suggest that the magic circle is a boundary between the real world and the game world, while other game theorists argue that gaming isn’t separate from the real world at all and, far from being “magic”, has become ordinary.

This paper will look at some example of games that have broken away from the board, and will offer some definitions and examples of some popular pervasive games, tracing the evolution of treasure hunts, assassination games, live action role play and alternative reality games.

Software assets are key output of the RAGE project and they can be used by applied game developers to enhance the pedagogical and educational value of their games. These software assets cover a broad spectrum of functionalities – from player analytics including emotion detection to intelligent adaptation and social gamification. In order to facilitate integration and interoperability, all of these assets adhere to a common model, which describes their properties through a set of metadata. In this paper the RAGE asset model and asset metadata model is presented, capturing the detail of assets and their potential usage within three distinct dimensions – technological, gaming and pedagogical. The paper highlights key issues and challenges in constructing the RAGE asset and asset metadata model and details the process and design of a flexible metadata editor that facilitates both adaptation and improvement of the asset metadata model.

Public consultation and engagement on housing development and neighbourhood change can be so controversial and at times alarmist such that NIMBY (“Not in my back yard”) and even the more extreme BANANA (“Build absolutely nothing anywhere near anyone”) attitudes often prevail. Public engagement as currently conceived and practiced by most governments is faced with high expectations but low satisfaction among many involved. This article reports the findings from a group-based role-playing experiment in Canada involving local residents discussing and evaluating a hypothetical proposal for a new housing development for currently homeless individuals. The results find that those who were randomly assigned a role to play with attitudes different from their own were more likely to report higher satisfaction with the group discussion and recommendation than those who were not assigned a role different from their own identity and attitudes. The study finds no relationship between role-playing and the self-reported sense of one’s influence on the process or how much they learned about the issues. The findings point to new frontiers of public engagement that involve playful role-playing or other “games” as a means to create space for mutual understanding and tolerance for decisions among citizens in these fraught debates.

Internet es un espacio de aprendizaje que fomenta nuevas prácticas educativas en las cuales el uso de los medios de comunicación se vuelve una forma de alfabetización. Los alumnos del siglo XXI han crecido con Internet, con nuevos medios y con juegos, lo que ha revolucionado la forma con la cual interactúan y aprenden. Reconociendo a los juegos serios, la simulación y la gamificación como las principales tendencias aplicadas en el ámbito de la educación, este artículo desarrolla su implicación teórica en la alfabetización mediática, evidenciando cómo la mediatización digital está incluyendo juegos en su ecosistema de enseñanza-aprendizaje. Mediante un meta-análisis fundamentado en la revisión sistemática de la literatura científica, se concluye que la incorporación de las experiencias lúdicas en la alfabetización mediática se genera principalmente en la educación formal donde se logra promover actividades colaborativas que repercuten en el desarrollo creativo de los estudiantes.

Based on preliminary research, game-based treatments appear to be a promising approach to post-traumatic stress
disorder (PTSD). However, attitudes toward this novel approach must be better understood. Thus, the objective of
this study was to determine if video game self-efficacy mediates the relationship between expectations and
reactions to a game-based treatment for PTSD. Participants played the serious game ‘‘Walk in My Shoes’’
(Novonics Corp., Orlando, FL) and completed a series of scales to measure attitudes toward the intervention.
Video game self-efficacy was found to be a partial mediator of expectancies and reactions. These results suggest
that enhancing attitudes via self-efficacy in a clinical setting may maximize treatment effectiveness.

In the coming decades, the platforms and formalisms scholars employ to display, transform, and transmit information will continue to evolve. Innovations in information management did not stop with the codex. They will not stop with the PC. The purpose of this paper is to explore a specific implication that new paradigms of computing—especially those pertaining to 3D objects and 3D environments—will present for the discipline of history. Put simply, this study suggests historians will need to re‐think the aesthetics of their discipline. Drawing on the experience of the<it> 3D Virtual Buildings Project</it>, it suggests there are two possibilities historians can and ought to explore. The first is to test the efficacy of 3D objects as cognitive tools, tools designed to assist student realization that historical works are models, models that must be distinguished from the objects they represent. The second is to explore the use of 3D‐immersive environments as platforms to display research findings. If Virtual Reality is to emerge as a viable medium for the historical discipline, scholars will need to transform their practice. Assumptions regarding the constitution of narrative, authorship and the scholarly work will all require modification.

Due to the increasing life expectancy in the world, the number of elderly people is also augmenting. Thus, society will have to offer more and more products and services that meet the specific needs and desires of these people, who seek alternatives for entertainment, social interaction and learning. Serious games are an option to provide them learning combined with entertainment. In Brazil, it is known that a small part of the elderly has access to computers, and that a larger part already uses mobile phones. Therefore, we carried out a survey to identify the features that serious mobile games should have, so that older people could feel pleasure and desire to use them. This survey was based on a literature review and also on a case study with a group of seniors who evaluated five serious games for smart phones. From the data collected we compiled a list of guidelines for developing mobile serious games that meet the needs, interests and motivations of older players.

Japan is a super-aging society, one marked by a steadily silvering population and shrinking birthrates. Social effects range from a decline in intergenerational homes to new tensions between the generations as elders delay retirement or return to work. Towards improving relations between the generations, two versions of an inclusive, intergenerational game employing "shared action," or time-movement synchrony, were developed: a finger-based version inspired by medical exercise technology from gerontology and a smart shoe-based version as a familiar form factor. A series of three exploratory studies were conducted with young Japanese adults and elders. Findings suggest that the foot version was most suitable overall and reveal initial, complex effects of age and gender on empathy measures that can inform affective computing initiatives within and beyond the cultural milieu of modern Japan.

As a sign of the maturing game medium, critical games have grown to provide meaningful critique. Where once a critic might write an article, some have taken to making critical games. These games critique the conventions of digital experience to provide social commentary, examination of gameplay assumptions or simply create playful design. This paper provides a simple topographical view of critical games, proposing formal attributes for analyzing games made through critical design practices. The result is a formal two axes description. The first spectrum is the dichotomy between social critique and game mechanics critique, described as reflective and recursive respectively. The mechanics of these play experiences are further explained as either continuous or discontinuous, as executed through the rhythmic structure of the game. From this perspective, any critical game can be described by the apex between mechanic and social critique, continuous and discontinuous delivery. The result is a useful framing for game designers and game researchers.

The Occupy Istanbul game engages several topics pertaining to the relationship of the individual and the political sphere, including civic obedience, resistance against state power and citizen media. The project allows players to develop and test different strategies of (non)engagement, from being a passive by- stander to violent activism. At the same time this decision is complicated by divergent goals in the public and the private sphere and by ambiguous decisions whose consequences become apparent only at later points in the game narrative. The paper presents the game’s design, initial user reactions, and plans for later modifications.

Diese schriftliche Arbeit habe ich als meine Vertiefungsarbeit in meinem ersten Nebenfach Informatik unter der Betreuung von Prof. Hilty im Fachbereich Informatics and Sustainability Research geschrieben und sie widmet sich dem Thema Nachhaltigkeit und Information und Kommunikationstechnologien (IuK-Technologie).

Game online (disponível até 2021) + Site de Apoio ao Educador - Resultado de projeto com Ceart/UDESC, selecionado no Edital Universal CNPq, para re-design de jogo recomendado pela Secretaria de Educação Básica do Ministério da Educação, através do Guia de Tecnologias Educacionais (SEB-MEC, 2009 e 2011).

Serious games are games with a purpose beyond entertainment and are widely acknowledged as fruitful tools for learning and skills development across multiple domains, including specifically educational enhancement. ‘How To Fail Your Research Degree’ is a serious game developed to deliver knowledge and understanding of research processes and techniques, within the context of a postgraduate training programme at Glasgow School of Art which guides students transitioning from undergraduate to Masters. Development focussed on encouraging creativity and risk-taking within a safe game environment and learning by (potentially) failing. Intended learning outcomes (ILOs) are to: highlight various risks of research projects and suggest their impact on projects; reinforce dependencies between tasks at different stages of research; directly reinforce the interrelations of different risks with the activities taken to negate or ameliorate them; and replicate the time-critical nature of short resea...

Teaching computer science, algorithms and other programming subjects can be stressing and difficult. Students motivation might drop due to the difficulty of learning how to program. To deal with this matter, this paper presents Wanda, a simple framework created to build specific card-based games that can be used as educational tools. With Wanda, professors can create educational electronic card games that require students to create virtual agents to play them. These games can help teachers and tutors to motivate programming students.

The education on the software engineering discipline is based on the use of models that provides assistance to the management and development of software project. SERPG (Software EngineeringRole-playing Game) appears as a pedagogical proposal that intents to support the learning process through the simulation of software company environment, challenging the students with the activities and problems from the development process management. A classroom validation evidenced SERPG as a tool capable to minimize the gap between theory and practice in the learning process as well as being a stimulating resource. Resumo. O ensino da disciplina de engenharia de software é fundamentado na utilização de modelos que fornecem subsídios para o gerenciamento e desenvolvimento de um projeto de software. O SERPG (Software Engineering • Role-playing Game) surge como uma proposta pedagógica de apoio ao aprendizado através da simulação do ambiente de uma empresa de software, confrontando o acadêmico com as atividades e desafios do gerenciamento do processo de desenvolvimento. Uma validação em sala de aula evidenciou o SERPG como ferramenta capaz de minimizar a lacuna existente entre a teoria e a prática no aprendizado constituindo-se, também, em um agente motivador.

As serious games are emerging as a new educational paradigm, it is increasingly important to understand how to integrate educational content into the games, and what elements of the game make learning more effective. This research proposes to add to the work in the area by examining whether learning objectives delivered through the game narratives as text, or learning objectives delivered through game mechanics provide a more effective way of integrating educational content in a game. In order to investigate this question, we designed a study to evaluate two types of participants that were divided into two groups to take part in complementary versions of the game. Participants are asked to play a game in which learning objectives are delivered either through text or game mechanics. An evaluation was performed with 60 participants. The results show that for one of the learning objectives, the participants learn more when the educational content was integrated through the game mechanics and that the difference between the group that learns through text and the one that learned through the game mechanics is statistically significant. For the rest of the learning objectives covered, no statistically significant difference was obtained between the two ways of integrating the learning objectives.

As an emergent medium capable of telling complex stories, the video game gives us unique insight and challenges to established critical theory. This chapter will examine the ways ‘the gaze&#39; is expressed and utilized in video games, particularly the “survival horror” genre. It will discuss some of the ways ‘the gaze&#39; has been shaped by literary and filmic studies before turning to Outlast (2013) by Red Barrels Games as an example of the way the medium can rearticulate our understanding of watching and being watched. Through its player-driven diegesis, immersion and phenomenologically-situated avatar body, and an ability to stimulate emotional response through game mechanics, the video game gaze might be capable of engendering emotional sympathy rather than constructing hierarchical positions of mastery. With its narratives of state control and institutionalization, journalistic distance, and medical invasiveness, Outlast uses critical understandings of ‘the gaze&#39; to ask q...

This presentation was designed for the EU's Joint Research Centre Knowledge for Growth (KfG) Unit. It provides an overview of recent foresight gaming projects undertaken by CPPFS and HRCFS in Hawaii, Singapore, Tonga, Macedonia, and Iceland.

In May 2019, A Night in the Forum videogame was published in the Sony PlayStation store, for PS VR. It was the final result of the REVEAL EU project, whose goal was to identify strategies, features, and tools to develop educational titles in a more efficient, cost-effective, and valuable way, exploiting their educational, cognitive, and engaging potential for schools and cultural tourism. Environmental Narrative videogames was chosen as a genre suited for this purposes. This article presents how known issues in the production of videogames have been faced, the solutions identified, and results obtained

Abstract

In Digital Game-Based Learning (2007), Marc Prensky defines the generation as " digital natives " , who spent time using computers and smart-devices and grew up mostly in a human-computer interaction. In addition, Prensky claims that that interaction changed the way of cognition and learning of digital natives by presenting information in a visual-based information network, allowing students to gather data by hyperlinking this information, and rewarding them as a response to their performance. On the contrary, the conventional education system presents a stable, text-dominant information stream which disregards the needs of pupils.Consequently, Prensky suggests that the conventional education system should be adapted to the evolution of digital natives as recent learners. Moreover, he states that the digital game-based learning approach and video games are significant opportunities for this adaptation process and recent research and experimental studies approve the idea of using video game for educational purposes. This research aims to develop a virtual learning environment to facilitate and motivate the learning of landscape construction and grading topics by performing tasks in a video game-like environment. For that purpose, a three-dimensional virtual environment was set up using the OpenSimulator software. Afterwards, a learning scenario was created in accordance with the curriculum of these topics and simulated in this virtual environment by using 2D and 3D visual representations of tex-tual information. The learning scenario was based on a series of tasks beginning with introductory missions and progressively getting more difficult and requiring more specific information to assist students in developing their knowledge and skills. Moreover, a feedback module was programmed for simulating the effects of their decisions and providing essential information and guidance to students for producing and optimizing solutions in encountered problems. In conclusion, an experimental study was conducted to measure the instructional and motivational effects of the proposed virtual learning environment with 16 undergraduate students as part of " Landscape Construction 1 " course in Istanbul Technical University. The findings showed that the proposed virtual learning environment increased the learning motivation of subjects and raised the learning rate of subjects by 53.14 percent.

Özet
Marc Prensky, Digital Game-Based Learning (2007) kitabında bilgisayar teknolojileri ve akıllı ci-hazları kullanarak ve yoğun olarak bilgisayar-insan etkileşimi içerisinde büyüyen nesli " sayısal yerliler " (digital natives) olarak tanımlamaktadır. Prensky, bu neslin bilgisayar arayüzü ile kur-dukları etkileşimin beyin ve algı yapısının yanı sıra, bireylerin öğrenme yollarını tümüyle değiş-tirdiğini belirtmiştir. Bu değişimin neticesinde, bu neslin yazılı bilgiden ziyade görselleştirilmiş bilgiyi okuyarak, bilgi ağları arasında köprüler yardımıyla seçimler doğrultusunda ilerleyerek ve öğrenme sürecinde ödüllendirilerek öğrenmeye yatkın olduklarını belirtmiştir. Ayrıca, yazı odaklı bilginin baskın olduğu, durağan ve öğrencinin pasif rol aldığı mevcut eğitim sisteminin bu neslin ihtiyaçlarına cevap veremediğini ve bu değişime uyum sağlamasının gerekliliğini savunmuştur. Bu araştırmanın amacı, peyzaj mimarlığı eğitim müfredatında yer alan peyzaj konstrüksiyonu ve tesviye konularının öğrenimini teşvik eden ve kolaylaştıran işbirlikçi çalışmaya elverişli bir sanal öğrenme ortamı oluşturmaktır. Bu amaçla, OpenSimulator yazılımı kullanılarak bir üç boyutlu sanal ortam kurulmuştur. Sanal ortam içerisinde, peyzaj mimarlığı eğitiminde önemli role sa-hip peyzaj konstrüksiyonu ve tesviye konularının öğrenilmesini kolaylaştırmak amacıyla eğitim müfredatı bilgilerinin iki ve üç boyutlu görsel temsilleri oluşturulmuştur. Ardından, öğrencile-rin öğrenme sürecindeki hakimiyetinin arttırılması ve öğrenime teşvik edilmesi amacıyla eğitim müfredatı basit ve göreceli tanımlamalardan başlayarak kademeli olarak zorlaşan oyun-tabanlı görevlere dönüştürülmüştür. Bu sayede öğrencilerin karmaşık kavram ve problemleri algılamak için yeterli bilgi ve beceri birikimini kazanmaları amaçlanmaktadır. Araştırmanın diğer bir amacı da, öğrencileri konu hakkında bilgilendirip, ardından bilgi düzeyini ölçmekten ziyade, öğrenci-lere gerekli uzmanlık alanı hakkında sağlam bir bilgi yapısı oluşturmaktır. Bu amaçla, öğrenciler sanal ortamda verilen görevleri tamamlarken, verdikleri kararlara ilişkin geribildirimler aracı-lığıyla hem bilgilendirilmekte hem de çözüm önerisi geliştirme veya iyileştirme sürecinde öğ-rencilere rehberlik eden bir modül programlanmıştır. Son olarak, araştırma kapsamında geliş-tirilen model önerisinin güdüsel ve öğretici etkilerini değerlendirmek amacıyla İstanbul Teknik Üniversitesi'nde peyzaj konstrüksiyonu 1 dersi kapsamında lisans düzeyindeki 16 öğrencinin gönüllü katılımı ile bir deneysel çalışma yürütülmüştür. Bulgular doğrultusunda, tez kapsamın-da geliştirilen model önerisi katılımcıların sorularını doğru yanıtlama ortalamasını 53,14% art-tırmıştır. Anahtar Kelimeler: Peyzaj mimarlığı eğitimi, bilgisayar destekli eğitim, sanal öğrenme ortamları, oyun-tabanlı öğrenme.

Ülkemizde her on yılda büyük bir sıçrama ile yükselen dijital oyun dünyası, sadece kodlamadan ve programlamadan ibaret değil. Bu bağlamda 90’lı yıllardan buyana başta Amerika ve Avrupa olmak üzere akademik bir çalışma alanı olarak ortaya çıkan Oyun Çalışmaları, ülkemizde de giderek gelişen ve birçok akademisyenin araştırma yaptığı bir başlık haline gelmiştir.
Kitap içerisinde yedi tanesi Türkiye, yedi tanesi de global odaklı toplamda 14 farklı bölüm bulunmaktadır. 18 yazarın katkıda bulunduğu bölümler arasında, Rol Yapma Oyunlarından, Kutu Oyunlarına, Çizgi Romandan, Sanal Gerçekliğe kadar uzanan, bir anlamda oyun kültürünü oluşturan ve oluşturmaya devam eden birbirinden farklı başlık sıralanmaktadır. Editörlüğünü Dr. Ertuğrul Süngü ve Doç. Dr. Barbaros Bostan hocaların üstlendiğin kitabın, kapak tasarımı da Murat Kalkavan tarafından yapıldı. Kitap Nobel Yayınevi tarafından basıldı.

This paper proposes the interpretation of video games as discourse (in the explanation of discourse commonly used in linguistics and studies of natural language, not as understood in semiotics or cultural studies) to explore further the dynamics through which video games can propose structured meaning and articulate an argument. Such topic is especially relevant for video games with an agenda, whose goal is not just to produce an engaging game experience, but also to convey a message and have some control over the desired outcome (persuasion, information, expression, aesthetic experience). The notion of discourse can help classify serious games according to their specific aim, and can help understand how meaning production in procedural rhetoric takes place.

Os métodos tradicionais de ensino, focados no educador, giz e quadro negro, cada vez mais dão lugar às inovações e às novas tecnologias, como os jogos eletrônicos educativos. Com este intuito, o presente artigo propõe o desenvolvimento de um Serious Game, batizado de "Joy e as Letrinhas", com proposito de auxiliar professores no processo de ensino/aprendizagem da alfabetização de crianças em início escolar. De forma a avaliar da melhor maneira a qualidade do Serious Game, o mesmo passou por avaliações seguindo os métodos quantitativos e qualitativos. Na etapa quantitativa, foram mensuradas as habilidades das crianças, utilizadas no estudo, antes e após a utilização do Serious Game, assim como a análise estatística, teste t, e a estatística descritiva de modo a organizar resumir e exibir os resultados alcançados. Na etapa qualitativa, foram avaliadas, por intermédio de pedagogas, as usabilidades técnicas e pedagógicas a fim de se ter opiniões quanto à facilidade de aprendizagem e de utilização. Os resultados obtidos permitem apontar que o Serious Game "Joy e as letrinhas" contribui para a evolução das habilidades das crianças, proporcionando um aprendizado lúdico, divertido, despertando o interesse, interação e realização das atividades.