Serious Games:  Applications to Management, Health Care, Education

• Applying Game Theory (first:  what exactly is game theory?)
  • Idea from Dave:  Met Larry and Robin Holland at TAB Xmas party yesterday. Great people!  He is an archeologist who started building games 20 years ago. Very broad and deep thinker who thought your UH program sounded great. Company is Totally Games www.totallygames.com They are now branching out out and even doing work for DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Program Agency). Have you heard about “serious games” concept that is evolving?  Could be right up your alley. Go to www.seriousgames.org  They have conferences/Summits. Larry said another one is coming up in March. Go to www.seriousgamessummit.com for info on Fall05 Summit
  • Idea is that game theory is applied to management models.  This provides many interesting suggestions to management principles.
     
• In the Classroom:  Simulations increase learning?
  • Games in the classroom:  Could immersive ‘computer simulations’ or ‘games’ be used as an instructional tool in the classroom to increase learning levels?  Many kids today prefer video games to books.  How could this be leveraged in the classroom to increase learning?  (Draw from work done in CIS 703, ICS 699)
     
• War Training:  Give battle experience?  Reduce human 'conscience'?
  • How video games are affecting war training:  how the ‘realness’ is the closest way to show combat, and develop quick reflexes.  Does the game / simulation remove some of the sting of battle?  Does it remove the human factor:  we are killing other people?  Killing in a game… no big deal.  In real life it is a big deal- maybe if we pretend we’re playing a game while in combat it might help relieve the pain of killing others.

Introduction to General Area:

"The Serious Games Initiative is focused on uses for games in exploring management and leadership challenges facing the public sector. Part of its overall charter is to help forge productive links between the electronic game industry and projects involving the use of games in education, training, health, and public policy. " -- http://www.seriousgames.org/maillist2.html

Game Theory:

Game Theory foundations:  Theory of Games and Economic Behavior (von Neumann, 1944)
- blends mathematics and economic principles:  can analyze political races, strategies, expressed in / using formulas

Basics of Game Theory (rational thinkers making strategic decisions):  http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~osborne/cgt/INTRO.HTM
- we treat game theory not as a branch of mathematics but as a social science whose aim is to understand the behavior of interacting decision-makers; we do not elaborate on points of mathematical interest. From our point of view the mathematical results are interesting only if they are confirmed by intuition.

Games involve players that are given perfect or imperfect information, and use it to strategize solutions they are presented- and can be one player (non-cooperative) or collaborative (cooperative).

Theory of Competitive Equilibrium:  (economics) players take into account other players' behavior when strategizing
- competitive reasoning:  the idea that player only strategizes based on environmental parameters

Specific Areas of Interest:

http://www.seriousgamessource.com/

http://www.re-mission.net/  A game that teaches about cancer, human body, etc- watch trailer
- Games that teach about health
- "Re-Mission is a challenging, 3D "shooter" with 20 levels that takes the player on a journey through the bodies of young patients with different kinds of cancer. Players control a nanobot named Roxxi who destroys cancer cells, battles bacterial infections, and manages realistic, life- threatening side effects associated with the disease."

http://muzzylane.gameinstitute.com/courses.php?coursedisplay=115
- Games in the classroom
- Integrating games with the classroom, student
- Lesson Plan Here (PDF)

CBS video:  Dance Dance Your Way To Health | March 30, 2006 14-16-49
- phys. ed / after school supplement- to increase exercise of middle-school kids (gaming brings out competitive nature, while exercising kids)

Questions I want to Investigate:

Can games increase learning / productivity in the classroom?

Can games be used as a tool for health systems in patient rehabilitation?

Research Methods to use when Investigating:

- quantitative analysis:  formal research study, standardized testing, etc.

- qualitative / subjective analysis:  interview students or patients, rate fun factor, etc.

Faculty at UH that could support this topic:

...

Who are the big players in this field, and what topics are they researching?

...

 

Serious Games Emails:

Pete,

One text that I'd highly recommend is "Engaging Learning" by Clark Quinn. It makes a very good argument that what makes highly engaging experiences (like a good game) is the same as what makes highly educational experiences. And, that the combination of the two has tremendous potential. Besides the content and concept of the book being valuable, it is one of the most well written books I've come across lately. There's a web site at:
http://www.engaginglearning.com/

Best wishes with the course! - John

John Anthony Purdy == VP & COO, InSite Interactive == jpurdy@insite.net


> From: Pete Border <border@mail.physics.umn.edu>
> Reply-To: "[Serious Games]" <seriousgames@listserver.dmill.com>
> Date: Mon, 24 Apr 2006 12:37:46 -0500
> To: "[Serious Games]" <seriousgames@listserver.dmill.com>
> Subject: [seriousgames] serious games textbook
>
> Hi:
>
> I need some advice from the SG community: I have managed to get a
> contract teaching a course on "Edutainment, or Serious Games" at the
> Minneapolis College of Art and Design, and I would like to ask if
> anybody out there has any good ideas for a textbook, or, actually,
> whether there is a course like this somewhere else. The course is part
> of the BS:Visualization department, which is sort of a more technical
> version of Art School. MCAD students are usually quite hard-working,
> and I have been told that I can count on some of them knowing their
> way around Flash and possibly UnrealEd. there may be a few with some
> programming experience, but better not depend on it.
>
> I think I will spend some time on these 3 parts:
> -education (How People Learn, NSES)
> -game design and game play (Salen+Zimmerman, Huizinga, Glassner and
> Murray) -games and education (Prensky, Aldritch and Gee)
>
> There will also be a "edu-game of the week" in which we take a look at
> a game and critique it. Classes are from 1-5 Friday afternoons. The
> course is 3 credits, and will probably have about a dozen students.
>
> Does anybody know of a good text, or is there a similar course
> somewhere else?
> Thanks;
> Pete
>
 

This is exactly the approach that we need for blending learning and game environments. For those who believe this to be merely a thought experiment, I would suggest that this is exactly what COMMERCIAL games do already.

Game designers do not sit down and lament the fact that in order to succeed in a new console game, they are going to have sacrifice the game to "teach" the player everything they need to know about how to interact with the game and solve the problems within it. Rather, the game cannot move forward without input from the player who is modeling their current knowledge about the game and its various goals by formulating hypotheses, testing and revising them, and repeating this cycle. The game, for its part, provides immediate, relevant, and contextually situated feedback for every response. Game designers recognize that these events need not be artificial such as text popping up that says "No. Try again." Rather, the feedback takes the form dictated by the world, characters, environments, and stage of progress within the game (hitting a door produces a thump rather than a lock clicking and squealing hinges, for instance).

Games succeed BECAUSE they teach effectively through things like cognitive disequilibrium (discontinuities prompted by a disparity between what is believed to be true and what is actually true), problem-based learning, and situated cognition and learning. We have to stop thinking of learning and game worlds as separate activities; game designers already have! --Rick

>>A good educational game will be a delicate balance between rules that
>>promote engagement and a storyline that allows the player
>>to immerse himself in the identity of the actor he will be playing
>>within the gaming environment. The task is not simple, it requires a
>>delicate balance between knowing your audience, knowing your games and
>>their various >>rules and putting them together in harmony. It is possible, but not easy.

This is a good description of the balance between Ludology and Naratology.
Without starting a debate between the two, what are some examples where this delicate blend has worked successfully?

One that comes to mind is Doom 3. The engine (which I loosely interpret as the rules) doesn't allow for many enemies on screen at once. The story emphasized baddies jumping out of dark corners to surprise me, the player.

The same engine, when used for Quake 4, was not as successful. I believe this is because it got the balance between the rules and the story wrong.
The story was about invading the home planet of the Strogg, which featured hordes of enemies attacking in wave after wave counter to the engine's rules of a few enemies at a time.

Are there any examples of Serious Games that got this blend right or wrong?

Kenton
 

Heya,

I understand that it CAN be done. But, why the focus on MMOs? I agree that it is possible, but I don't want the advocates for Serious Games to end up on a path like folks did with VR. I see ideas of how a serious MMO might be created or designed. But, I see little argument to why putting massively multiplayer in a serious games makes it any better.

Heck, even the MMO companies are only peripherally aware of the types of things their massive, persistent worlds are teaching. What they understand is fun, addiction, and server populations. So, if not in the corporate world, then what about in the academic world? I would argue that even there, folks are just beginning to understand the deep effects that MMOs have on learning, cultures, families, and life.

So, the question is: what part of 'massively multiplayer' makes it a more effective teaching tool that single or networked gameplay? Would such a concept even be viable in practice?

Curtiss.