On the Future of Serious Games in Science and Industry

摘要

The availability of high-performance commodity graphics hardware at low cost allowed the convergence of two historically distinct application areas of Computer Graphics - video games and interactive visual simulation. The result is the newly emerging R&D area of Serious Games at the nexus of videogame design, pedagogy, human-computer interaction, simulation, AI and digital storytelling. It is aimed at exploring the opportunities and challenges of using entertaining game play for real-world applications beyond mere entertainment towards for instance education, training, motivation, rehabilitation, persuasion and decision making.rnTrue success of Serious Games depends on consumers' realization of the inherent value of those products for various self-efficacy applications in life. Additionally, there exist numerous challenges for Serious Games developers including smaller consumer audiences, higher development cost, the need for embedded evaluation and assessment functionality, as well as insufficient business models and distribution channels. Those challenges make it traditionally hard to compete against popular entertainment titles in the consumer retail market. It might, however, well be this additional value that has the potential to give Serious Games - if well designed and properly targeted - a competitive edge over mere entertainment titles in the current recession-plagued industry.rnThis paper is providing the rationale behind the corresponding keynote presentation and aims at giving an overview on the field of Serious Games from an application industry perspective. It further aims at discussing and identifying requirements for Serious Games R&D towards effectiveness as well as consumer acceptance and adoption.