Why use serious games

The use cases for AR serious games are multiple — from school education and professional training to rehabilitation.

The patient needs to feed a virtual bird by sitting down and standing up again. Virtual reality and games are like peanut butter and jelly — even if you are not a gaming person, you must have heard of a VR game. A game placing the player right within its environment attracts both the young and the old.

Of course, using VR as a serious game allows achieving much higher skill levels than with traditional learning. When implementing serious games in the format of VR applications, businesses can expect some benefits:. Although serious games can be entertaining, their main purpose is to train or educate users. As we can see, serious games are being widely used in emergency services, military, and even healthcare training. It works and the opportunities are huge. If you are interested in serious games, please contact us for a detailed project discussion.

Our expert AR and VR developers will be happy to work on your project to create a unique educational game that is exciting and serious at the same time. Get our fresh tech stories delivered to your inbox! Email address:. Anastasia Morozova Chief Operating Officer. Serious games and gamification — are they the same thing?

Why are serious games a great tool for learning? Greater engagement through play Games traditionally result in better engagement than work-related activities. Stronger skills and greater retention through practice If you have ever played any game, you, most probably, had to repeat some particularly hard levels over and over again to pass on. Higher efficiency through perfection This benefit is also related to players making multiple attempts in the game struggling to achieve a better result or top their competitors.

Advantages of VR and AR technologies for serious games The benefits of serious games as a powerful personnel training tool are quite obvious. Advantages of the augmented reality technology for serious games Augmented reality brings virtual objects into your real world. Such a format has multiple benefits: No need for the special gaming environment. You can play an AR game anywhere. AR objects appear when the camera scans special markers that can be ordinary printable QR codes.

For this reason, augmented reality games are easy to set up in a class, a workroom, even at home. Training safety. Since the gameplay involves virtual objects while creating realistic experiences, the game is safe to play. At the same time, the skills trained during the game are strong and long-lasting.

Possibility to add supportive material. You can design an AR game so that it shows various graphics or textual prompts to the player, displays related information that can help to build not only practical but theoretical knowledge, too. Some games even adapt the difficulty automatically to the player. Besides matching the challenge with the skill level, games are also very rewarding.

When a player conquers a certain challenge, this triggers a release of endorphins which makes the player feel better about themselves. Players will want to keep on playing to keep the endorphins flowing. Did you ever get an endorphin rush from learning the Pythagoras theorem?

Learning in groups is more effective than learning alone reference. Multiplayer games are games that you play with other people, online or on the couch next to each other.

Being able to play or compete with other players is one of the motivations for people to play and continue playing games. The interaction creates unpredictable situations which in turn can create interesting challenges or funny situations. Being able to compete or cooperate with other players, improves both learning and engagement.

Serious games have been applied to several areas with a very successful outcome. Here are some interesting cases that show the working and effectiveness of serious gaming:. These are just a few examples of serious games. What defines these examples is that they all have a very strong entertaining component as well as a serious purpose.

The more entertaining a serious game is, the more effective it is as a solution to train, teach or in any other way reach its goal. More examples here! Now that you have a basic understanding of what serious games are and what they can be used for, you might be interested in more information on the subject. There has been a lot of research on using games for a purpose other than entertainment. You can check out the search results in google scholar.

We also wrote an article with an overview of interesting serious game research! Closely related to serious games are gamification, game based learning, applied games and a range of other terms to describe similar practices. Where are serious games used Serious games are used in a lot of different areas since they can be applied to a broad range of problems and challenges. A few areas where we see serious games more than in other areas are: Education : Games are used to teach specific subjects through gamified exercises and simulations.

This way, students can learn math or learn a new language for example. This is one of the most well-known applications of serious games, also known as educational games. Healthcare : Games are also used in rehabilitation by translating exercises to actions in the game.

Another use in healthcare is to train medical procedures in a simulated environment. Sustainability projects : make people engaged for sustainability project or change their behaviour.

Training and consultancy: More and more consultancy agencies use serious games to explain and train teamwork and social and logistic dynamics within businesses. What are the advantages of serious games? And it is effective as a tool because of the following reasons: Higher engagement and immersion: Because of the way how games are designed, they always motivate the player to keep on playing by using rewards, story progression or other feedback systems.

Yes they train to a lower level but at least they will begin to understand the same lessons that your senior management are learning ensuring your organization from top to bottom are speaking the same language. They are Cost Effective Cost effectiveness is reached through re-use, wide distribution and the ability to update the game for years to come. They are Expected Serious Games have matured. Companies who use these approached are often seen as progressive in terms of their learning and development and will attract the top talent.

These methodologies will also help retain talent by ensuring your in house learning and development is enjoyable and your employees want to keep learning. Ely and Sitzmann finding,