Serious Games: Games That Educate, Train, and Inform [Paperback]

David Michael (Author), Sande Chen (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1592006221 | ISBN-13: 978-1592006229 | Publication Date: October 10, 2005 | Edition: 1

"Serious Games: Games that Educate, Train, and Inform" will help game developers learn how to take what they've learned in making games for fun and apply it to making "serious games": games for education, training, healing, and more. It will provide an overview of all of the major markets for serious games. This overview will include examples of what has been done with video games in these markets, and what is anticipated in the future, including market scope, goals of each emerging market, game types offering greatest potential, the shortest route to market by category, development budgets by category, and barriers for developers to consider.

Product Details

• Paperback: 312 pages
• Publisher: Course Technology PTR; 1 edition (October 10, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1592006221
• ISBN-13: 978-1592006229
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #856,343 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Most days, David Michael is a software developer and a writer. Some days, he's a writer and a software developer. Other days, he's an amateur photographer. Because, really, who is the same person every day? David is the designer and developer of DavidRM Software's The Journal, personal journaling software for Windows. He has also designed and developed video games, and has written two nonfiction books and numerous articles about video game development. David lives with his wife and kids in Tulsa, Oklahoma. David blogs about writing at Guns & Magic: www.gunsandmagic.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb Overview for both Novice Games, and Non-Gamer Sponsors of Games, February 25, 2007

By 

Robert D. Steele (Oakton, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Serious Games: Games That Educate, Train, and Inform (Paperback)

This book is exactly what I hoped for when I ordered it from Amazon. In fact, it is much more. The first part, in three chapters, talks about new opportunities for game developers, defines serious games, and talks about design and development issues.

Then the book surprises. It has entire chapters on EACH of the following: Military Games, Government Games, Educational Games, Corporate Games, Healthcare Games, and a chapter on Political, Religious, and Art Games.

Following final thoughts, the book surprises again. The appendices are world-class. Appendix A is a tremendous listing of Conferences (13 in all), and Organizations (6), Contests (1, Hidden Agenda, $25K prize--we need MORE); web sites (6, less impressive than I hoped), and publications (5). Appendix B is a survey with results, and Appendix C is a very fine bibliography as well as a very helpful Glossary of terms in the field, and an index.

Ever since I saw the US Army sponsor the Serious Games summit, and then saw the emergent success of Games for Change, I realized that we were at the beginning of a major explosion of innovation that could change the world.

In my view, Serious Games need to become the new hub for life-long education, for inter-cultural understanding, and for simulating belief systems, including evil belief systems, at both the macro and micro neuroscience levels. The Earth Intelligence Network was just created this year in order to feed free real-world public intelligence to all Serious Gamers as well as to Transpartisan policy and budget developers.

In my humble opinion, Serious Games is the next big leap in the global Internet, especially when integrated with the Way of the Wiki such that open source software standards can allow games on every threat, every policy, every budget, every location, to interact and to empower the public with tools for sense-making and consensus-building that were once limited to a small elite.

This book was everything I hoped for, and much more. I am not now and never intend to be a game developer. I want to see Serious Games expand from isolated toy-like games that focus on one small issue in isolation, to a vibrant "Co-Evolution" Sphere that in an increasingly accurate representation of the Earth, past, present, and future. This book is my ground zero in observing this field, and I have very high hopes for the future of Serious Games.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An invaluable resource for anyone interested in Serious Games, April 16, 2006

By 

Ricardo J. Rademacher - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Serious Games: Games That Educate, Train, and Inform (Paperback)

As a Serious Game Developer, I am keenly aware of the state of our industry, of our movement. We have in a few years achieved a meteoric rise in exposure and progress but this is not enough. There are a multitude of new ideas and projects that don't know what is out there, that don't know we are out there. There is much still to be learned and only by knowing what is out there here and now can new (and old) projects hope to succeed in this nascent field.

Enter this book.

David Michael (author of "indie game developers survival guide") and Sande Chen have provided an indispensable review of this area in their book "Serious Games: Games that Educate, Train, and Inform". Touching upon all the major areas, they provide a blanket survey of the past and present efforts in this arena, introducing us along the way to the people and the companies that are changing the landscape of video games into something that transcends entertainment. The reading is light and the pace is brisk. The content is clearly broken up so that a person can skip straight to their area of interest or read it front to back and take it all in. The coverage is complete and I feel that no area of the Serious Games space was missed.

I wish I would have had this book three years ago when I started my projects. I would have had a much better idea of where I'm coming from and where I'm going. I am thankful to David and Sande for putting this book together in hopes that future developers will not have to struggle as much as I have.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good start but wants a bit more.., July 23, 2006

By 

Simon Egenfeldt-nielsen (Copenhagen, Denmark) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Serious Games: Games That Educate, Train, and Inform (Paperback)

The book provides a good overview but stays on a quite overall level without really getting deep into the important problems in the serious games space. It seems a bit US-centric. But definitely a good companion for anyone wanting to do serious games.