Serious Games

Home > Anthropology > Virtual Anthropology > Serious Games

Games that are designed for a primary purpose other than entertainment, such as education or training. Serious Games can be used to explore cultural concepts in virtual environments.

Serious games: This is a broad topic that encompasses games designed for educational or training purposes, as well as games that address social issues, health, and wellness. Serious games use game elements to engage players, but with a focus on a specific topic or purpose.
Virtual anthropology: A sub-discipline of anthropology that uses virtual technologies to study and understand human culture, behavior, and society. Virtual anthropology involves the creation and use of virtual models and environments to investigate human social interactions and rituals.
Game-based learning: An educational approach that involves using games to teach or reinforce concepts and skills. Game-based learning can be used in a variety of educational settings, from formal classrooms to informal learning environments.
Design thinking: An approach to problem-solving that involves understanding user needs and ideating, prototyping, and testing solutions. Design thinking is often used in serious game design to create engaging and effective experiences.
Game design: The process of creating the rules, mechanics, and aesthetics of a game. Game design is a critical aspect of serious games, as it determines how players interact with the game and how effective the game is at achieving its intended goals.
User experience (UX) design: A field of design focused on creating positive experiences for users. In serious game design, UX design is important to ensure that games are accessible, engaging, and effective.
Storytelling: The art of conveying information or emotions through narrative. Storytelling is often used in serious games to create engaging and memorable experiences that help players learn or address social issues.
Game mechanics: The rules and systems that govern gameplay. Game mechanics are essential in serious game design, as they determine how players interact with the game and how effective the game is at achieving its intended goals.
Gamification: The process of adding game elements to non-game contexts to increase engagement and motivation. Gamification is often used in serious games to increase the effectiveness of educational or training experiences.
Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR): Technologies that create immersive virtual environments or overlay virtual elements onto the real world. VR and AR are essential tools in virtual anthropology and serious game design, as they allow for the creation of immersive and engaging experiences for users.
Educational Games: These games are designed to teach specific knowledge or skills to the players in an entertaining manner. They are often used in schools to supplement traditional teaching methods.
Health Games: These games are designed to promote healthy behaviors and physical activity. They can be used to encourage patients to complete physical therapy exercises or to help individuals maintain a healthy lifestyle.
Military Games: These games are designed to simulate military scenarios and train soldiers for real-world applications. They can assist with simulation training for battlefield situations, as well as individual and squad combat training.
Business Games: These games are designed to teach business skills, management techniques, marketing strategies, and more. They can be used in corporate training or in business school settings.
Political Games: These games simulate political situations, allowing players to experience different roles within a political system. They can be used in political science courses or for individuals interested in politics.
Environmental Games: These games simulate environmental scenarios to help individuals understand complex environmental issues, such as climate change, pollution, and conservation.
Social Games: These games are designed to promote social interaction between players, encouraging communication, collaboration, and empathy. They can be used in counseling, therapy and education.
Historical Games: These games simulate historical events and timelines, allowing players to experience and learn from them. They have been found to be useful implementations in museum environments.
Training and simulation games: These games are designed to train players in job-specific skills, such as aviation or surgery. They can assist in on-boarding of new employees or employees undergoing additional training.
Educational Simulation Games: These games simulate real-life scenarios, activities or situations to teach specific knowledge or skills. They can be used to train professionals, including but not limited to doctors, pilots, and firefighters.
Sports Games: These games simulate competitive sporting activities to teach players rules, strategies, techniques, and foster team-building and team spirit.
Musical Games: These games use musical content and mechanics to teach overall music appreciation, history, theory, and rhythm. They can help individuals learn how to play an instrument or improve their existing musical abilities.
Cultural Games: These games teach individuals about different cultures and traditions. They can be used to promote cultural understanding and respect.
Art Games: These games promote creativity, inspire artistic expression, and teach art concepts and techniques. They can be helpful in both formal and informal educational settings.
Language Games: These games are designed to teach language skills such as vocabulary, grammar, and syntax. They can be useful in language-learning public institutions, while also popular among foreigners living in the country they wish to learn the language of.
Fantasy Games: These games allow players to enter an imaginary world where they can explore and perform other-worldly tasks that aren’t possible in real life. They can be used to teach imagination and creativity fundamentals while also encouraging problem-solving and socialization.
Science Games: These games teach basic scientific concepts and can be useful for engaging young learners or helping students in need of remedial education in sciences.
Special Needs Games: These games are designed for individuals with special needs and can assist with rehabilitation, cognitive functioning, and socialization.
Professional Development Games: These games are designed to assist professionals seeking personal development, offering coaching and guidance related to day-to-day job activities, management, and more.
Crowd-Sourcing Games: These games generate solutions on a specific, non-trivial problem related to virtual or physical world. They use the collective intelligence of different players to reach a final solution that satisfies a certain set of rules.
"The 'serious' adjective is generally prepended to refer to video games used by industries like defense, education, scientific exploration, health care, emergency management, city planning, engineering, politics, and art."
"...used by industries like defense, education, scientific exploration, health care, emergency management, city planning, engineering, politics, and art."
"...designed for a primary purpose other than pure entertainment."
"Serious games are a subgenre of serious storytelling..."
"...where storytelling is applied 'outside the context of entertainment, where the narration progresses as a sequence of patterns impressive in quality ... and is part of a thoughtful progress'."
"The idea shares aspects with simulation generally, including flight simulation and medical simulation..."
"...but explicitly emphasizes the added pedagogical value of fun and competition."
"...used by industries like defense, education, scientific exploration, health care, emergency management, city planning, engineering, politics, and art."
"...emphasizes the added pedagogical value of fun and competition."
"...games used by industries like defense, education, scientific exploration, health care, emergency management, city planning, engineering, politics, and art."
"...used by industries like defense, education, scientific exploration, health care, emergency management, city planning, engineering, politics, and art."
"...used by industries like defense, education, scientific exploration, health care, emergency management, city planning, engineering, politics, and art."
"...used by industries like defense, education, scientific exploration, health care, emergency management, city planning, engineering, politics, and art."
"...used by industries like defense, education, scientific exploration, health care, emergency management, city planning, engineering, politics, and art."
"Serious games are a subgenre of serious storytelling...engineering..."
"...used by industries like defense, education, scientific exploration, health care, emergency management, city planning, engineering, politics, and art."
"...used by industries like defense, education, scientific exploration, health care, emergency management, city planning, engineering, politics, and art."
"...explicitly emphasizes the added pedagogical value of fun and competition."
"...where the narration progresses as a sequence of patterns impressive in quality ... and is part of a thoughtful progress'."
"...where storytelling is applied 'outside the context of entertainment, where the narration progresses as a sequence of patterns impressive in quality ... and is part of a thoughtful progress'."