Serious Games and Related Concepts...

This post focuses on the domain of serious games. There are, however, related and sometimes overlapping domains, such as e-learning, edutainment, game-based learning, and digital game-based learning.

E-learning is a rather general concept that refers to computer enhanced learning, computer-based learning, interactive technology, and commonly, distance learning.

Edutainment – education through entertainment – was popular during the 1990s with its growing multi-media PC market. In general, edutainment refers to any kind of education that also entertains even though it is usually associated with video games with educational aims. The primary target group was preschool- and young children, with focus on reading, mathematics, and science. However, edutainment software failed success since it resulted in what has been described as “boring games and drill-and-kill learning”.

Computer video games for non-entertainment purposes were developed long before the edutainment era, however, and as edutainment failed to prove profitable – and technical advancements in providing realistic settings grew, and multiplayer gaming developed – the concept of serious games was re-examined during the late 1990s. With the U.S. Army’s release of the video game America’s Army in 2002, the serious games movement got started. The same year the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholar in Washington, D.C. founded the Serious Games Initiative, and the term “serious games” became widespread.

In general terms, serious games are associated with ‘games for purposes other than entertainment’. Serious games encompass the same goals as edutainment, but extend far beyond teaching facts and rote memorization, and instead include all aspects of education, teaching, training, and informing and at all ages.

Game-based learning (GBL) is described as “a branch of serious games that deals with applications that have defined learning outcomes”. Others consider game-based learning and serious games more or less the same. GBL has the potential of improving training activities and initiatives by virtue of, e.g., its engagement, motivation, role playing, and repeatability.

Digital game-based learning (DGBL) is closely related to GBL, with the additional restriction that it concerns digital games. DGBL is the “newest trend in e-learning”

Also please have a look at the following image taken from University of Skövde, Sweden School of Humanities and Informatics report on Serious Games which clearly describes the differences between Serious Games and Entertainment Games.