Preface

摘要

The second GALA Conference was held during October 23-25 at the Dassault Systemes (Paris). The Serious Games Society supported and organized the conference along with the Games and Learning Association, the Network of Excellence on Serious Games funded by the European Union under the Seventh Framework Programme. The conference has been devoted to Serious Games (SGs) and aimed at gathering, building, and nurturing an expert community on SGs which involves academic, industrial developers, teachers, and corporate decision makers, to promote knowledge share, technology transfer, and business development. SGs aim at improving learning processes by providing attractive, motivating, and effective tools. So far, effectiveness of SGs has been shown by recent studies (e.g.,), but the potential of SGs in education is still far to be fulfilled. Furthermore, there is a growing need for scientific and engineering methods and tools for efficiently building games as means that provide effective learning experiences (e.g.,). An effective application of SGs for education and training demands appropriate metrics, analytics, tools, and techniques for in-game user assessment. This can be achieved in particular by measuring elements such as learning outcomes and engagement, considering the twofold nature of SGs as compelling games that achieve precise educational goals (e.g.,). Recent technological advances have brought what was once expensive, specialized Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) equipment located in research labs, to our family rooms and classes at an affordable cost. Devices such as stereo cameras, eye trackers, tablets and smartphones, pointing devices, motion sensors, sensors related to the central and peripheral nervous systems (e.g., galvanic skin response, heart rate, neuronal activity), amongst others, not only provide innovative interaction methods and techniques, but also present opportunities to develop innovative solutions for continuous user monitoring and assessment (e.g.,). All in all, design of SGs is a very complex activity, involving different constraints, targets, and disciplines, which is being investigated but is still far from maturity. This book reports the studies presented during the conference, addressing the above-mentioned call for paper indications. The book is divided into two parts. The first and main part includes three SG research tracks: design, technology, and application. The second part reports the results of the Workshop "Acquiring 21st Century Skills: gaining insight in the design and applicability of a serious game with 4C-ID" and presents short papers describing the posters exhibited during the conference.