This paper addresses the integration of training content into serious games. Many possibilities exist for how to approach this process, but there are also many opportunities and consequences afforded by these various approaches. Prior literature in the field gives us some sense about how to approach them, but much of this literature is based on theory in instructional systems or game design sep...

The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the historical origins of Serious Games to try to understand where the current wave of “Serious Games” comes from. We first review the origins of the “Serious Games” oxymoron. We will then analyse digital games designed for serious purposes before the 2000’s. Such games can be traced back to the beginning of the history of video games. We will use all t...

This study investigates to what extent serious games support learning processes. We compared the abilities of two groups of high school students to answer questions on a subject that they were recently instructed on. The first group received its instructions by means of a serious game, the second group by means of a text. We discovered that the group that received its instructions via a serious...

Although educational games have revealed to be a very effective focus in diverse situations, their use in education is still very limited. In this paper we analyse the main challenges concerning educational games that, from our perspective, have to be approached so that the use of this kind of games can be widespread. These challenges are classified in three main dimensions: socio-cultural, edu...

Over the last few years the idea of using video games for serious purposes such as education, training or health has gained widespread popularity. These games are, in contrast to their commercial counterparts, often meant to be played by single players. However, it has been shown that playing in groups trains social skills, supports collaborative learning and increases motivation. Multiplayer g...

This report discusses some issues concerning serious games, that is, (digital) games used for purposes other than mere entertainment. The starting point is the serious games concept itself, and what the actually means. Further, serious games allow learners to experience situations that are impossible in the real world for reasons of safety, cost, time, etc., but they are also claimed to have po...