COSC'324'001 Usability in Game Design

1
COSC.324.001 Usability in Game Design

• Lesson 9
• Serious Games

2
Serious Games?

• A serious game is one used for instruction via
  either game play or simulation.
• Game technology transfers well.

3
Nintendo Surgeons

• MIT Technology Review reports
• Surgeons who play video games three hours a week
  have 37 percent fewer errors and accomplish tasks
  27 percent faster

4
Anti-Fatigue Training

• Tony Hawk Pro Skater for the Playstation
• used to help individuals improve their own
  behavior during periods of listlessness
• NASA team hooked gamers up to an
  electroencephalograph machines to monitor and
  track the brains electrical signals. They then
  altered the controllers so that maximum steering
  control was only available if the player produced
  a necessary brainwave.

5
Genesis of Serious Games

• Not all serious games started out that way
• Kurt Squire at Firaxis Web site
• http//www.firaxis.com/community/teachers-spk.php
  
• Myst Elementary School Writing Classroom
• http//www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/04/15/spark.teaching/
  

6
Genesis of Serious Games

• Many Did
• Will Interactive
• http//www.willinteractive.com/home
• Video in Director
• Breakaway Federal Systems
• http//www.breakawaygames.com/serious-games/overvi
  ew/
• Incident Commander Code Orange
• Lockheed Trainer

7
New Literature

• Chris Clark, formerly of Breakaway Federal
  Systems
• Game Based Learning
• Marc Prensky, Games2Train
• Digital Game-Based Learning
• Kurt Squire, U. Wisconsin
• Video Games and the Future of Learning
• James Gee
• What Video Games Have to Tell Us About Learning
  and Literacy

8
Usability and Serious Games

• What are the considerations for this conjunction?
• Who play games?
• Why dont all people play games?
• How does usability play into the new crop of game
  players?
• How do we entice learners with games if they
  dont generally like them?