Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Serious games go far beyond education, however. Online you can find many adver-
games : games designed as an advertisement to sell a product. Today, many political
campaigns commission games that make fun of their opponents, and both news
agencies and game companies have started to experiment with short games that
comment on current affairs as a new version of the editorial cartoon in newspapers.
Games have found many uses in the field of health care, from psychological and
physical therapy to training physicians and surgeons.
It is not easy to deliver a particular message in a game that offers the kind of
dynamic freedom that games of emergence create, but we are convinced that it is
possible. As we mentioned at the beginning of this chapter, playing a game (espe-
cially for the first time) is a process of enjoyable learning. There is no reason why
a game cannot be fun and meaningful at the same time. In fact, there are many
good examples of commercial games, such as SimCity or Civilization, that have been
used as part of educational programs to teach social geography or political history.
In the 1980s the U.S. State Department used Balance of Power, a game about the geo-
political struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union, as a training tool
for diplomats.
To explain how serious game designers can use game mechanics to send messages, we
turn to communication theory and semiotics, the study of signs and their meanings.
GamiFication
Gamification is the latest trend in the serious application of games. By applying gamelike
mechanics to activities not normally thought of as games, gamification seeks to change
people's behavior or to make dull, but important, tasks enjoyable. The idea is not really
new; airlines have been doing it for decades with their frequent-flier programs. By offer-
ing rewards to loyal customers, airline companies try to dissuade people from flying with
competitors. even a simple loyalty card that earns the buyer a free cup of coffee for every
ten cups purchased is a trivial form of gamification.
Gamification is not limited to manipulating consumers, however. researchers have
begun to consider ways to use gameplay to encourage other useful behaviors, taking
advantage of people's natural enjoyment of games. a recent example includes Foldit, a
crowdsourced search for useful protein molecules characterized as a series of puzzles.
another is experts exchange, an online database of solutions to computer problems.
Participants compete to provide the most useful answer to a given question, earning
points for being chosen. The points earn them badges of achievement and free access to
the site.
at the moment, few gamification efforts have created games with real strategy or com-
plexity, but they could. You can use the mechanics we discuss in this topic to analyze and
develop gamification strategies.
 
Search WWH ::




Custom Search