Research Guides: Video Game Studies: Serious Games

About Serious Games

Broadly defined, "a serious game or applied game is a game designed for a primary purpose other than pure entertainment. 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, and politics. The idea shares aspects with simulation generally, including flight simulation and medical simulation, but explicitly emphasizes the added pedagogical value of fun and competition."

Serious Games and Education

If educating people through the use of games interests you, this list of projects might give you ideas for your own projects:

BiblioBouts Project
The BiblioBouts Project was a 3-year project (October 1, 2008 to September 30, 2011), to support the design, development, testing, and evaluation of a computer game to teach incoming undergraduate students information literacy skills and concepts.
The Education Arcade
The Education Arcade explores games that promote learning through authentic and engaging play...
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TEA's research and development projects focus both on the learning that naturally occurs in popular commercial games, and on the design of games that more vigorously address the educational needs of players.
Learning via Gaming: An Immersive Environment for Teaching Kids Handwriting
Prof. Maxim of U-M Dearborn wrote a report detailing his project to create a computer game that helps children learn handwriting.
LemonTree
A game for the University of Huddlesfield in the U.K. meant to inspire library patrons to become more actively involved at the library by winning game badges, points, etc.

Serious Games and Health

If games in health studies interests you, this list of projects might give you ideas for your own projects:

Educational video game for juvenile diabetes
Packy & Marlon, an interactive adventure video game that uses experiential learning to improve self-management of diabetic children and adolescents, was evaluated in a six-month controlled trial...
FoldIt Project
Online gamers have used a game called FoldIt to help decipher "the structure of an enzyme of an AIDS-like virus," helping scientists to develop "new insights for the design of antiretroviral drugs."
Gaming for the Greater Good class (U-M)
Games created in this U-M engineering course are developed into the therapy and assessment laboratories at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital.
The Incredible Adventures of the Amazing Food Detective
Kaiser Permanente has released a game that focuses on teaching children how to fight obesity.
The Magi and the Sleeping Star
This Kickstarter video game project was a combination RPG and health education game that teaches people how to deal with diabetes and blood sugar.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Assessment and Treatment (PTSD)
The Virtual Reality (VR) Assessment and Treatment of Combat-Related Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) project develops immersive virtual environment applications for the treatment of Iraq War veterans diagnosed with PTSD.
SuperBetter
Superbetter is the brainchild of Jane McGonigal – world renowned gamification guru. After she suffered a concussion in 2009, the resulting symptoms left Jane feeling depressed and suicidal. While she recovered, she created Jane the Concussion-Slayer, a game designed to treat her condition (as well as keeping her occupied). Seeing the success of JtC-S, she renamed it ‘Superbetter’ and developed a gamified application to help people achieve goals and overcome obstacles.

Serious Games and Military Training

If using games to augment military training interests you, this list of projects might give you ideas for your own projects:

Cubic Corporation
The Cubic Corporation provides virtual combat training and scenarios through the use of games.
Institute for Creative Technologies
ICT brings film and game industry artists together with computer and social scientists to study and develop immersive media for military training, health therapies, education and more.

Other Game Projects

Darfur Is Dying
Darfur is Dying is a web-based, viral video game that provides a window into the experience of the 2.5 million refugees in the Darfur region of Sudan. It is designed to raise awareness of the genocide taking place in Darfur and empower college students to help stop the crisis.
Peacemaker
Originally a university project, PeaceMaker became ‘a video game to promote peace’, focused on the Israeli-Palestine conflict. In this government simulator, players need represent one of the sides and make social, political and military decisions. The positive and negative consequences of these decisions teach the players about a vastly complex situation.
Planet Hunters
To date, Planet Hunters volunteers found over 100 new planetary systems in data from TESS's predecessor, Kepler, and we are excited to find even more with the TESS data. Will the next planet be discovered by you?
World Without Oil
An alternate reality game (ARG) that lasted for 32 days in April-June, 2007. The game sought to make players understand how an oil crisis might affect their lives by getting them to describe how the crisis is affecting their area. After the 32 days were up, the game produced a valuable record to help anticipate problems and avoid a worst-case-scenario.

Curated Lists of Serious Games

Extra Credits EDU - Steam Group
“Games suitable for aiding and enhancing learning in various educational settings. All recommendations are categorized by suggested subjects, minimum play length, and recommended teacher gaming experience ”
Purpose Games
Purpose Games was created to showcase the best games that do more than just entertain.
Health Games Research Database
Advancing effectiveness of interactive games for health.
Science Game Center
The goal of the Science Game Center is to demonstrate to teachers, scientists, museums, and parents the myriad ways games can be used to improve education in math and science.
Serious Play Conference - Award List
Click on their "Awards" section to explore their most recent award-winning serious games.

News & Initiatives

GamesAndLearning.org
Gamesandlearning.org is a news and information service aimed at increasing the amount of information available for those interested in developing and funding new educational games for children and young adults.
On Serious Games
On Serious Games was created by a enthusiastic group of video games fanatics completely convinced that there is more than just entertainment to offer in this industry.
Serious Play Conference
The Serious Play Conference is a leadership conference for professionals who embrace the idea that games can revolutionize learning.
MIT Education Arcade: Games for Learning Project
We work with educators to make sure our games tie into their math and science curriculums. The games we develop can be played on computers or mobile devices, and are used both inside and outside the classroom.

Serious Game Materials in Library Catalog Search

U-M Library Catalog Search Resources