1. SERIOUS GAMES

2. What are serious games?
 1968 Clark Abt book “Serious Games”

3. continued

4. No agreed defintion,
but consensus on

5. objectives
 to inform
 to communicate
 to educate
 to train

6. Classification?

7. Why serious games?

8. Learning in Games
 Active Involvement/ Experience Stories
 With Emotion
 Situated learning (=relevance, reference to reality/life)
 Fun
 Problem solving
 Interction with others, cooperation (multiplayer games)
 Extreme cocentration ->
FLOW = being fully immersed in activity, ignoring the environment
Costructivism
 knowledge is acquired through the interactions between a learner and his environment

9. Economic Model
 prominence of sponsors
 (Entertainment video are funded by publisher, hoping to
make a profit through sales)
 the sponsor takes the risk of financing a serious game,
owns the game and is responsible for its dissemination.

10. Market
 2.35 billion spent annually on serious games
 Growth rate 30 %
 main sponsors are governments
 US:,although private foundations (HopeLab…) are launching serious
games projects, they are primarily produced at the request of the
Department of Defense, which is spending large sums (about 10
million dollars per year).
 Companies
 In France (the second largest serious games producer in the world in
2010), more than half of CAC 40-Euronext companies have already
sponsored serious games at this point.
 multinational companies such as Cisco, IBM, or Shell Within these
firms, keenest interest comes from human resource departments.

11. Strategy
is cooperation between government,
industry and academia

12. Games for Change :
Catalyzing Social Impact Through Digital Games
a network committed to social change through gaming
members represent hundreds of non-profit directors, game developers,
artists and academics
AND
An organization which is building the field
by providing support,
visibility,
and shared resources
to individuals and organizations using digital games for social change
 http://www.gamesforchange.org/

13. Games for Change Festival
“the Sundance of Video Games”
biggest gaming event in New York City

14. Games for Environmental
Education?...!
Many games focus on the environment and sustainabable development
for the future,
challenges often addressed are climate change and energy supply

15. “Climate Challenge is a really terrific game
for change. Climate Challenge confronts
you with European Union policy choices at
all levels from national to household. It
very clearly shows how choices such as
new energy sources compete with choices
supporting unsustainable fossil industries;
that eventually humankind must move to
new alternatives. The clock is ticking. “
User Review
Just one example . . .
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/hottopics/climatechange/climate_challenge/

16. List of references
 http://de.slideshare.net/helenaxe/learning-theories-
and-serious-games
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serious_games#Research_
and_education
 http://www.paristechreview.com/2013/03/26/serious-
games-the-revenge/
 http://www.gamesforchange.org/