Stefan Göbel

Josef Wiemeyer

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Serious Games for Training, Education, Health and Sports, Game Days 2014, held in Darmstadt, Germany, in April 2014. The 13 full papers presented together with 3 short papers, 2 keynotes, and 3 workshop papers were carefully reviewed and selected for inclusion in this book. The topics of the papers are settled in the fields of (game-based) training, teaching and learning, authoring tools, mobile gaming, health and rehabilitation, and citizen science. The papers address a broad scope of issues, including mechanisms and effects of (Serious) Games, adaptation and personalisation, local, mobile, and internet learning and education applications, game, reuse and evaluation, game settings, types of learners, problem solving etc.

4th International Conference on Serious Games, GameDays 2014, Darmstadt, Germany, April 1-5, 2014. Proceedings

Games for Training, Education, Health and Sports

Ralf Dörner

Wolfgang Effelsberg

This textbook provides an introduction to the fundamentals of serious games, which differ considerably from computer games that are meant for pure entertainment. Undergraduate and graduate students from various disciplines who want to learn about serious games are one target group of this book. Prospective developers of serious games are another, as they can use the book for self-study in order to learn about the distinctive features of serious game design and development. And ultimately, the book also addresses prospective users of serious game technologies by providing them with a solid basis for judging the advantages and limitations of serious games in different application areas such as game-based learning, training and simulation or games for health. To cater to this heterogeneous readership and wide range of interests, every effort was made to make the book flexible to use. All readers are expected to study Chapter 1, as it provides the necessary basics and terminology that will be used in all subsequent chapters. The eleven chapters that follow cover the creation of serious games (design, authoring processes and tools, content production), the runtime context of serious games (game engines, adaptation mechanisms, game balancing, game mastering, multi-player serious games), the effects of serious games and their evaluation (player experience, assessment techniques, performance indicators), and serious games in practice (economic aspects, cost-benefit analysis, serious game distribution). To familiarize the readers with best practice in this field, the final chapter presents more than 30 selected examples of serious games illustrating their characteristics and showcasing their practical use. Lecturers can select chapters in a sequence that is most suitable for their specific course or seminar. The book includes specific suggestions for courses such as “Introduction to Serious Games”, “Entertainment Technology”, “Serious Game Design”, “Game-based Learning”, and “Applications of Serious Games”.

Josef Wiemeyer

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