What are the common components of serious games?
As I read and listened to audio discussions of serious games, I pondered which of the myriads of components of serious games I believed were "have to haves" to make them "work" in my world.
During our discussion on Tuesday night, January 21, I listened to many suggest the number of criteria be from 3 all the way to 7. After thinking about this, I decided on 9. Maybe several of them could be combined, but I really can't see any in my list that I would like to eliminate.
So, they are listed below with my justification for suggesting them.
--Reflection by players--players should not just play a game, they should be reflecting on positive and negative consequences of their choices during their involvement. This reflection opportunity allows players to learn from their mistakes and be built up by their accomplishments. It also helps them to commit things to memory.
--Build problem solving skills--one of the areas students are weak in is the ability to see a problem and be able to solve it using logic and reasoning skills. This is a skill that must be developed and used in "real life" if students are going to make much of a difference in their worlds.
--Be attractive and interesting to participate in, but educates and trains as well--if the game appears "hokey", the student's first word out of their mouth will be "stupid". If this happens, it's over. Students want games to be of the same quality as the entertaining games they play.
--Motivates students to continue learning and training--I believe serious games should encourage students to learn. I think humans have had a desire to learn since day 1 and we as educators can encourage that desire or "squash" it with boring, meaningless lessons, etc. I do agree that not all learning has to be, or will be, fun...that's life; but, I think that all that we do with our students should encourage students to want more.
--Engages students--Do the games keep students attention? Do they keep students involved? I think this is important. If students are not engaged, then they are not part of what is happening. They are not the participant, they are the observer. And...research suggests that participants learn more than observers.
--Be challenging but “conquerable”--We all want a challenge. Guys want to rescue the Princess, etc. Life is boring if there aren't any dragons to slay. But, if winning the game, or slaying the dragon is impossible, then why play? Students want to be challenged, yet, they want to be able to succeed. Why? Because our self-image improves and we feel like heroes when we face something difficult and succeed at overcoming this difficulty.
--Unsure of the outcome thus adding mystery to the game--Most of us hate it when someone gives away the ending to a great book or movie. Not knowing the final outcome keeps us interested. In a gaming situation, it even makes us believe that we have the power to change the outcome of the adventure. And, it's not an adventure if the ending is known.
--Must have learning objectives--Without predetermined learning objectives, the game may be fun, but has no real learning direction. Maybe it's my concrete-sequential personality, but I need to know that at the end of the game, my students will know this, this, and this. Everything else we do has objectives, I think that gaming is no different. Objectives give me a road map to follow.
--Must represent real world situations in order to teach students to use the skills in the real world. This one is pretty broad...what I mean is that the game must allow students to live a life that is imaginary, but possible in the real world. Having magic powers, ability to fly, etc. may be fun, but it doesn't help me to handle difficult situations in real life since I can't fly away to escape or use my awesome magical powers to conquer the bad guy.
--Build problem solving skills--one of the areas students are weak in is the ability to see a problem and be able to solve it using logic and reasoning skills. This is a skill that must be developed and used in "real life" if students are going to make much of a difference in their worlds.
--Be attractive and interesting to participate in, but educates and trains as well--if the game appears "hokey", the student's first word out of their mouth will be "stupid". If this happens, it's over. Students want games to be of the same quality as the entertaining games they play.
--Motivates students to continue learning and training--I believe serious games should encourage students to learn. I think humans have had a desire to learn since day 1 and we as educators can encourage that desire or "squash" it with boring, meaningless lessons, etc. I do agree that not all learning has to be, or will be, fun...that's life; but, I think that all that we do with our students should encourage students to want more.
--Engages students--Do the games keep students attention? Do they keep students involved? I think this is important. If students are not engaged, then they are not part of what is happening. They are not the participant, they are the observer. And...research suggests that participants learn more than observers.
--Be challenging but “conquerable”--We all want a challenge. Guys want to rescue the Princess, etc. Life is boring if there aren't any dragons to slay. But, if winning the game, or slaying the dragon is impossible, then why play? Students want to be challenged, yet, they want to be able to succeed. Why? Because our self-image improves and we feel like heroes when we face something difficult and succeed at overcoming this difficulty.
--Unsure of the outcome thus adding mystery to the game--Most of us hate it when someone gives away the ending to a great book or movie. Not knowing the final outcome keeps us interested. In a gaming situation, it even makes us believe that we have the power to change the outcome of the adventure. And, it's not an adventure if the ending is known.
--Must have learning objectives--Without predetermined learning objectives, the game may be fun, but has no real learning direction. Maybe it's my concrete-sequential personality, but I need to know that at the end of the game, my students will know this, this, and this. Everything else we do has objectives, I think that gaming is no different. Objectives give me a road map to follow.
--Must represent real world situations in order to teach students to use the skills in the real world. This one is pretty broad...what I mean is that the game must allow students to live a life that is imaginary, but possible in the real world. Having magic powers, ability to fly, etc. may be fun, but it doesn't help me to handle difficult situations in real life since I can't fly away to escape or use my awesome magical powers to conquer the bad guy.
So, those are my thoughts...I know there are "holes" in them and they will probably shift a bit as the course continues.
Sources added 1/25/2014 (I forgot to list them with my initial blog : ( )
EdGamer Episode 10: Games and Learning with James Gee. http://edreach.us/2011/05/04/edgamer-episode-10-games-and-learning-with-james-gee/
Gee, James. Good Video Games and Good Learning. http://www.academiccolab.org/resources/documents/Good_Learning.pdf
Sisler, V., Brom, C., Jaroslav, C., Kamil, C., Jakub, G. Stories from the History of Czechoslovakia, a serious game for teaching history of the Czech lands in the 20th century – notes on design concepts and design process. http://artemis.ms.mff.cuni.cz/main/papers/StoriesFrom-Sisler-Brom2012.pdf
Frank, A. Balancing Three Different Foci in the Design of Serious Games: Engagement, Training Objective and Context. http://denis.kraynov.2009.homepage.auditory.ru/2006/Ivan.Ignatyev/DiGRA/Learning/Balancing%20Three%20Different%20Foci%20in%20the%20Design%20of%20Serious%20Games_Engagement,%20Training%20Objective%20and%20Context.pdf.
Sources added 1/25/2014 (I forgot to list them with my initial blog : ( )
EdGamer Episode 10: Games and Learning with James Gee. http://edreach.us/2011/05/04/edgamer-episode-10-games-and-learning-with-james-gee/
Gee, James. Good Video Games and Good Learning. http://www.academiccolab.org/resources/documents/Good_Learning.pdf
Sisler, V., Brom, C., Jaroslav, C., Kamil, C., Jakub, G. Stories from the History of Czechoslovakia, a serious game for teaching history of the Czech lands in the 20th century – notes on design concepts and design process. http://artemis.ms.mff.cuni.cz/main/papers/StoriesFrom-Sisler-Brom2012.pdf
Frank, A. Balancing Three Different Foci in the Design of Serious Games: Engagement, Training Objective and Context. http://denis.kraynov.2009.homepage.auditory.ru/2006/Ivan.Ignatyev/DiGRA/Learning/Balancing%20Three%20Different%20Foci%20in%20the%20Design%20of%20Serious%20Games_Engagement,%20Training%20Objective%20and%20Context.pdf.
Gary,
ReplyDeleteGreat post! You pointed out many of the same components I found to be important. I also liked how you organized your thoughts. I think that through our collaboration with the rest of team two we can come up with a well rounded list of essential components. It is also wonderful that we all think in similar ways. Makes for smoother collaboration.
Gary,
ReplyDeleteGreat job narrowing down the list for what are the components of a serious game. What I think I like most is the component that motivates students to learn. In all reality I think that all the other components add to this which in turn causes students to want to learn. I am becoming a believer in games in the classroom. What is your take? Do you think it will be easy to incorporate games? I am thinking it will be a task, but well worth the efforts.
Gary,
ReplyDeleteI agree with many of your components of serious game and I think we're on the same page? Have you used any of these games that we've learned about so far in class? Have you had any personal experience with these games? I'm cautiously excited by some of this but aksharos made a great comment about how much work it might be, I would be interested in your experience and thoughts if you share!
Gary,
ReplyDeleteWow! You explained each component very clearly. I hadn't thought of reflection as a key component in video games. However, reflecting on the "positive and negative consequences of their choices" will certainly help students learn from their mistakes. I think this will help students transfer the information they learn from the game into real life situations or as you mentioned it "will help them commit things to memory"; then they can retrieve this information when they need it in day to day life.
Another thought, perhaps if we are asked to shorten our lists you could combine a few. Maybe you could put motivate and engage together. I guess I always think of these to components as going hand in hand. I think students are more likely to be motivated if they are engaged. I tried to find some research about motivation and engagement in particular, here is a little excerpt from one article. This particular article is a literature review (I am assuming by a graduate student), I think he brought up some interesting points. He also discusses several different serious games that I would like to research a bit more. Mark Floryan argues that freedom within a game elicits motivation and engagement. "The theory is that student motivation will rise when the sense of freedom within a game is increased. This is because students can quickly judge how much there is to discover within a system. When they detect a vast and interesting world, they wish to explore it, and freedom within a game allows them to do just that," (Floryan, 2009).
Gary, maybe we should be exploring freedom as a component, if in fact freedom results in motivation and engagement? I am not much of a "gamer" but I do enjoy games like Minecraft where I can do what I like and don't always have to do exactly what someone tells me to do to move forward. I am okay with completing tasks, but I like the freedom to complete them my way.
Great post, Gary!
Floryan, Mark. (2009). A Literature Review of the Field of Serious Games.
Retrieved January 26, 2014 from https://people.cs.umass.edu/~mfloryan/publications/Floryan_LitReview_Final.pdf
Sara,
ReplyDeleteYour thoughts on player autonomy are interesting and demonstrate your Bartle's gamer personality as an Explorer. http://goo.gl/iDp7Pr How do you think personality factors into game engagement?
Nicole, I just noticed this post. I will have to look into this. I am certain personality plays a role. Honestly, prior to these classes I hated video games. I didn't really mind other people playing them, though honestly I viewed them as a waste of time. I think my view is changing somewhat. I am trying. I will look at the link you posted and get back with you.
Delete-Sara
Gary, I agree with your components. We have many in common in our blogs. One that really stands out is having it be challenging enough to keep students engaged and make sure they are learning. I found this video very interesting, it is really short and he talks about the balance of challenge in serious games. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PM-Z20MTkcY
ReplyDeleteOOOO!!! I like that concept of not knowing the outcome! That's goooooood! You're right, that does keep you interested... and that's part of life too! Games that give you a simulation where you can reflect upon your consequences are of great value!
ReplyDelete