About This Post

I initially wrote the following about 6-7 years ago, for inclusion on the then newly-formed Penn State Educational Gaming Commons web site. The original site has undergone a complete transformation to a new platform, and this post was lost in the shuffle. So, although it is a bit dated (especially the research section), I wanted to share it again with everyone. Enjoy!

Definition of Games

Many definitions of the term game exist. Games are based on the concept of fun (Prensky, 2001). Hulzinga (1950) states a game is a free activity, outside ordinary life, with no profit. It has rules and a defined way of progressing. It may possess social groupings that cloak themselves in secrecy to stress their difference from the common (real) world.

Caillois (1961) also stresses the free or voluntary nature of games, that a game has rules, and that games are unproductive. He also defines games as having a make-believe element.

Avedon and Sutton-Smith (1981) define a game as an exercise of voluntary control systems with an opposition between forces, confined by procedures and rules that produces a disequilibrial outcome.

Crawford (1981) lists four factors that comprise a game:

• A closed formal system that subjectively represents a subset of reality
• Interaction
• Conflict
• Safety

The results of a game are always less harsh than the reality the game emulates.

Kelley (1988) and Salen and Zimmerman (2003) also define games as a system with rules, conflict, and a quantifiable outcome. It is free movement within a more rigid structure.

Juul (2005) lists six criteria that define a game:

1. A rule-based formal system
2. Variable and quantifiable outcomes
3. Different outcomes are assigned different values (valorization)
4. The player exerts effort in order to influence the outcome
5. The player feel emotionally attached to the outcome
6. The consequences of the activity are optional and negotiable

These are the “core” elements of any true game. Borderline cases of games include:

• Skill-based gambling (consequences are pre-negotiated)
• Chance-based gambling (no player effort, consequences are pre-negotiated)
• Pen and paper role-playing (flexible rules)
• Open-ended simulations (No valorization of outcome)

Activities that may be named games but are not games include:

• Free-form play (rules vary)
• Traffic, noble war (non-negotiable consequences)
• Hypertext fiction (fixed outcomes, no attachment)
• Storytelling (fixed outcome, no player effort, no attachment)

Juul (2005) also provides a shortened definition of games:

A game is a rule-based system with variable and quantifiable outcome, where different outcomes are assigned different values, the player exerts effort in order to influence the outcome, the player feels emotionally attached to the outcome, and the consequences of the activity are negotiable. (p. 36)

From the research, a game can be defined as a voluntary rule-based activity that motivates the player to achieve a goal state or quantifiable outcome via conflict with others or self. Games thus contain the following elements:

• Voluntary Participation
• Rules
  • Verify appropriateness of strategies
• Goals
  • Challenging
  • Limit usable strategies
  • Have defined outcome(s)
• Feedback
  • Used to measure progress against goal(s)
• Interactions
  • Conflict (overt or covert)
  • Competition (with the game, others, or self)
  • Opposition (with the game, others, or self)
• Representation
  • The game mechanics, graphics, etc. all blend together to define what the game is all about
  • An abstracted story of reality
• Separation from Reality
  • A safe environment – consequences are not externalized
  • May contain fantasy or “impossible” elements

Definition of Educational Games

An educational game, one designed for learning, is a subset of both play and fun. It is a melding of educational content, learning principles, and computer games (Prensky, 2001). Digital game-based learning is organized to provide both education and pleasure. Play relaxes people, putting them in a receptive state for learning.

Another term used by researchers is Serious Games. A serious game is a type of computer game that is usually a simulation of real-world events or processes. (WikiPedia, 2005). Serious games use game-like elements to provide education and training in a pleasurable experience. Most serious games simulate a “world” in which activity takes place. The learner may take on a first-person perspective and interact with other characters – both artificial and real (other real-life players). Serious games are usually composed of a main task or goal to accomplish, with one or more subtasks that lead towards accomplishment of this main task. In serious games, players also have the ability to manipulate the environment according to the rules of the games and affordances of the environments. Many serious games use 3D technologies to provide as much as possible an immersive, real-world environment, although this is not an essential element.

Educational games embrace the elements of traditional games, with several alterations. Educational games work best when competition is minimized and emphasis is placed on the value of the experience (Hark, 1997; Nemerow 1996). Control over the game flow may be stronger in educational games (Mungai, Jones, & Wong, 2002), and competency is stressed via feedback mechanisms. However, as Prensky (2001) insists, educational games should feel like a traditional computer game, from beginning to end.

Educational games create a continuous cycle of cognitive disequilibrium and resolution (Van Eck, 2006). This is tied closely to Piaget’s concept of accommodation. The extent to which educational games cause cognitive disequilibrium without overwhelming the individual determines the quality of the engagement in the game (Van Eck, 2006).

Research to Date

The use of games that teach can be traced back many thousands of years (Mungai, Jones, & Wong, 2002). Mitchell and Savill-Smith (2004) did a comprehensive review of published literature related to the use of computer and video games for learning. They found a noticeable increase in the volume of material since the year 2000. The major categories they found were:

• General overview and descriptive articles
• How game attributes affect user’s preferences
• Commercial market reports
• Pre-2000 research reviews
• Discipline-specific research articles based on pre and post-testing of users
• Research on gender issues in game use
• Studies on the relationship between the use of games and lifestyle choices

The majority of research occurred in the field of psychology.

Van Eck (2006) states there are three different approaches for the use of and research in educational games:

1. Students build games to learn about the process.
2. Educators build games to teach students some content.
3. Integrate commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) games into the curriculum.

Of these three, choice two holds the greatest promise for education because it allows for the merging of sound pedagogy with entertainment and engagement.

Bibliography

Avedon, E. M., & Sutton-Smith, B. (1981). The study of games. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Caillois, R. (1961). Man, play, and games. New York, NY: Glencoe.

Crawford, C. (1982). The art of computer game design.   Retrieved April 4, 2006, from http://www.vancouver.wsu.edu/fac/peabody/game-book/Coverpage.html

Hark, I. R. (1997). It’s how you play the game. Education, 118(1), 6-9.

Huizinga, J. (1955). Homo Ludens. Boston, MA: The Beacon Press.

Juul, J. (2005). Half-Real: Video games between real rules and fictional worlds. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

Kelley, D. (1988). The art of reasoning. New York: W. W. Norton.

Mitchell, A., & Savill-Smith, C. (2004). The use of computer and video games for learning. Retrieved March 19, 2007. from http://www.lsda.org.uk/files/PDF/1529.pdf.

Mungai, D., Jones, D., & Wong, L. (2002). Games to teach by. Paper presented at the 18th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning.

Nemerow, L. G. (1996). Do classroom games improve motivation and learning? Teaching and Change, 3(4), 356-361.

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital Game-based Learning (1 ed.). Two Penn Plaza, New York, NY 10121: McGraw Hill.

Salen, K., & Zimmerman, E. (2003). Rules of Play – Game Design Fundamentals. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Van Eck, R. (2006). Digital game-based learning: It’s not just the digital natives who are restless. Educause Review, 41(2).

Wikipedia. (2005). Definition of Serious Games.  Retrieved November 16, 2005, from http://en.wikipedia.org

Wikipedia. (2006). Definition of Role-playing Games.  Retrieved February 23, 2006, from http://en.wikipedia.org