'Serious Gaming' Set To Take Off

Forrester Research expects “serious gaming” - the use of games and gaming dynamics for non-entertainment purposes - to take off in the next seven years.

In a new report It’s Time to take Games Seriously, Forrester cites the rise of “Technology Populism,” the greening of IT, and the emergence of “millennials” born between 1980 and 2000 as factors driving the trend.

Michigan State University offers a master’s in serious game design and Coventry University in the UK houses the Serious Games Institute.

However, to achieve widespread adoption, the industry must deal with five issues: 1) what games should be called; 2) how slick the presentation should be; 3) how users should interface with the games; 4) how to determine ROI; and 5) determining if the technology has any limitations.

 

In Forrester’s view:

• Military and defense will provide developers with a place to innovate.
• Healthcare and emergency response will embrace large-scale games.
• Universities will become competition to game developers.
• Enterprises will seek to make games a part of work.

Forrester categorizes vendors vying for serious games business into four types:

1. Traditional video game companies such as Zombie and Blitz Game Studios.
2. Serious games vendors such as Virtual Heroes and PIXELearning.
3. Stalwart software giants, led by IBM (IBM) and Microsoft (MSFT).
4. Multimedia companies such as C2 Creative and Red Knight Learning.

Comments

[User 124534:]

Would be nice if this were true!

2008 Aug 25 05:54 PM

[jopann:]

From an experienced former game developer:

Military and defense will provide developers with a place to innovate.

Totally wrong. Military and defense provide developers with a place to implement educational and training games on top of existing technology and gameplay innovations.


Healthcare and emergency response will embrace large-scale games.

This is possible. MMO-style interactions would provide for this.


Universities will become competition to game developers.

Again totally wrong. Universities are filled with under-motivated, low-talent and low-skill individuals attempting to make games. This underestimates the skill level required to complete a polished game experience.

Enterprises will seek to make games a part of work.

What? Sounds good on paper, but probably will not make any money for any of these unknown "Enterprises".

2008 Aug 25 07:31 PM

[Moral Hazar...:]

Just from my anecdotal experience from playing and observing the computer game world since Pong in the 70s, and my knowledge of software development, I think the progress in the gaming universe has been and will continue to be linear, not parabolic. As jopann alluded to, the constraints in game development are not technical, but human.

2008 Aug 26 12:10 AM