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serious games
New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:
Serious games use instructional and video game elements for nonentertainment purposes. Serious games attempt to create instructionally sound and relevant learning experiences for a wide variety of audiences and industries. The author contends that for serious games to be effective, instructional designers and video game designers need to understand how the game characteristics, competition and goals, rules, challenges, choices, and fantasy, used in both edutainment and serious games, can influence motivation and facilitate learning.
New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:
Computer games have a long history as entertainment media, but their use for educational or political communication is relatively recent. This paper explores the use of computer games as news media. Newsgames are computer games used to participate in the public sphere with the intention of explaining or commenting on current news. The paper provides a set of concepts for analyzing newsgames, based on public service theory. The paper expands this analytical approach with a reflection on game design methodologies for creating newsgames.
New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:
The goal of the project presented in this paper is to enable motor rehabilitation to stroke patients in their home environment and to utilise game enjoyment to achieve frequent training. Stroke patients have an average age above 70 years, which implies that they typically do not belong to a gaming generation. In addition, these patients suffer from motor, and many times cognitive impairments, which make traditional games extremely difficult to use. Nearly all work in this area has been conducted in a clinic environment where it is possible to overcome some of these difficulties by letting professionals assist and guide patients.In this paper, we present the challenges faced, the system itself and the result from a study where five patients were equipped with a game console in their homes for five weeks. The focus of this paper is on analysing the gaming behaviour of patients, which includes the amount of time they spent, the type of games they selected and their comments on the gaming experience. The conclusion from this analysis is that their behaviour resembles that of gamers. They spent significant voluntary time, and it has been possible for patients, with no prior experience of computer games, to enjoy gaming in their homes where they had no professional assistance.
New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:
Computer Games are about to leave their "electronic shells" and enter the city. So-called Serious Pervasive Games (SPGs) [1] allow for hybrid simultaneously physical and virtual - experiences, applying technologies of ubiquitous computing, communication and "intelligent" interfaces. They begin to focus on non-entertaining purposes. The following article a) presents game design strategies as a missing link between pervasive computing, Ambient Intelligence and user's everyday life. Therefore it spurs a discussion how Pervasive Healthcare focusing on the therapy and prevention of chronic diseases can benefit from urban game design strategies. b) Moreover the article presents the development and work in progress of "DiabetesCity" - an educational game prototype for young diabetics.
New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:
This paper describes the evaluation of a computer game to support triage training. Triage is a process for decision-making that prioritises mass casualties in terms of treatment. The main aim of the research was to test the hypothesis that participants using the game for practice would perform better in terms of the accuracy in applying the triage protocol than a group that practised triage with a table-top exercise. The method of giving in-game formative feedback to the learner was modified within the trial programme and that provided the opportunity to investigate whether changing the complexity and timing of feedback affected learning transfer through performance measured in a realistic assessment activity. The results showed that the participants who practised using the game were significantly more accurate for certain measures of performance in applying the triage protocol. The participants that received a modified in-game feedback that reduced complexity and the delay in giving feedback were also significantly more accurate for certain measures of performance in triaging the casualties. These findings will require further experimentation to determine which attributes of the in-game feedback have the greatest impact on the learning of the triage protocol for the given learner group.
New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:
This paper presents the design of the final stage of a new game currently in development, entitled cMotion, which will use virtual humans to teach emotion recognition and programming concepts to children. Having multiple facets, cMotion is designed to teach the intended users how to recognize facial expressions and manipulate an interactive virtual character using a visual drag-and-drop programming interface. By creating a game which contextualizes emotions, we hope to foster learning of both emotions in a cultural context and computer programming concepts in children. The game will be completed in three stages which will each be tested separately: a playable introduction which focuses on social skills and emotion recognition, an interactive interface which focuses on computer programming, and a full game which combines the first two stages into one activity.
New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:
This paper describes the problems that had to be faced
during the elaboration of an interactive narrative for the
Instory project (http://img.di.fct.unl.pt/InStory/) directed by
Prof. Nuno Correia. The project had the goal of defining and
implementing a platform for mobile and cinematic
storytelling, information access, and gaming activities, in
Quinta da Regaleira (World Heritage) in Sintra, Portugal.
The system is driven and validated by a set of fictional
threads that are centred on the exploration of physical spaces
(the real world, in real time). The development of a narrative
was naturally constrained by the environment which raised
some practical and theoretical issues in what regards the
literary strategies involved. InStory received the PMA
Award (2006) for best Portuguese multimedia project web–
mobile.
New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:
This paper introduces the concept of an augmented learning environment into the field of game-based learning. An augmented learning environment (ALE) combines principles of on-line multi-player computer games with social, role-playing games in order to facilitate the development of key skills and transfer of knowledge. Fundamental features of ALE are discussed through the educational game paradigm, Europe 2045, which has been developed and successfully implemented in a number of secondary schools in the Czech Republic during 2008. On a more general level this paper aims to establish a theoretical and case-study-based methodological framework for game researchers and designers, involved in similar future projects, which capitalizes on the notion of ALE.
New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:
Europe 2045 is an on-line multi-player strategy game aimed at education of high-school students in economics, politics, and media studies. The essential feature of the game is that players face various simulated scenarios and crises addressing contemporary key issues of the unified Europe. These scenarios are branching and can evolve in a parallel manner. In this paper, we present a technique for specifying plots of these scenarios, which underpins the story manager of Europe 2045. The technique is based on a modification of Petri Nets. We also detail one particular scenario concerning the current crisis in Darfur. On a general level this paper discusses the strengths and weaknesses of implementation of Petri Nets in virtual storytelling.
New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:
This paper presents a theoretical framework, which has been adopted in designing an on-line multi-player strategy game Europe 2045. Europe 2045 is an educational tool for high school social science courses, aimed at familiarizing students with political, economic, and social issues in contemporary Europe. Apart from learning facts, players develop a range of key skills: discussion ability, negotiation, teamwork, and group decision-making. The presented theoretical framework is based on a critical analysis of crucial issues, which seem to determine the success or failure of development and implementation of an educational game in the formal school environment. It demonstrates key approaches the authors of Europe 2045 have adopted in order to overcome already known problems related to game-based learning. On a general level this paper discusses issues related to formal fact learning in educational systems and the possible role of educational games in enhancing these systems.
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