Educational, serious, learning, and transformational games, are various terms used in the ever-evolving landscape of games and game design. These terms are often used interchangeably. However, each one of these games’ categories encompasses unique characteristics and objectives. For that reason, understanding these distinctions can help developers and educators select the right type of game for their specific goals.
Educational Games
Objective: These games focus primarily on imparting knowledge or skills.
Characteristics:
- Typically, they are used in formal educational settings.
- Accordingly, they are aligned with curriculum standards.
- In addition, they emphasize factual knowledge and mastery of content.
- Some examples include games that teach math basics, language skills, or historical facts.
Benefits:
- These games engage students in interactive learning.
- In addition, they reinforce traditional educational material through practical applications.
Example:
“Math Blaster” – A game that helps students practice arithmetic through fun and engaging missions.
Serious Games
Objective: These games address real-world problems or issues, often beyond purely educational purposes.
Characteristics:
- Designed for purposes other than pure entertainment, such as training, simulation, or policy discussion.
- Used in industries such as defense, healthcare, and urban planning.
- Consequently, their emphasis is on serious issues, problem-solving, and decision-making.
- Examples include medical simulations for training doctors or games that simulate environmental impact.
Benefits:
- Provide practical simulations for real-world experiences.
- As a result, they facilitate understanding and engagement with complex issues.
Example:
“Foldit” – A puzzle game that contributes to scientific research by allowing players to fold proteins in an online simulation.
Learning Games
Objective: These games facilitate learning experiences through game-play.
Characteristics:
- Focus on the process of learning rather than just content delivery.
- Hence, they promote critical thinking, problem-solving, and cognitive skill development.
- Often incorporate feedback loops and adaptive learning environments.
- Examples include games that teach coding, logic, or language through immersive activities.
Benefits:
- Engage players in active learning.
- Adapt to individual learning styles and paces.
Example:
“CodeCombat” – A game that teaches coding in Python and JavaScript through interactive quests and challenges.
Transformational Games
Objective: These games aim for profound personal growth and behavior change.
Characteristics:
- Designed to affect players emotionally, socially, or in terms of values.
- Often involve deep storytelling and immersive experiences.
- Target both learning and personal development outcomes.
- Examples include games that explore empathy, mental health, or social justice.
Benefits:
- Encourage self-reflection and personal transformation.
- Can inspire long-lasting changes in attitudes and behavior.
Example:
“That Dragon, Cancer” – An autobiographical game that deals with themes of love, loss, and coping with terminal illness.
Indelible Learning Games: A Multi-Faceted Approach
What category of games do Indelible Learning games fit in?
Indelible Learning games encompass elements from all categories, aiming to impart knowledge, simulate real-world scenarios, foster critical thinking, and inspire transformation. That personal transformation inspires long-lasting changes and development of healthy (or healthier) habits.
Indelible Learning: Election Lab Online
Election Lab Game fits all the checkmarks for a great educational game. Besides its focused immersive learning experience of playing the electoral college, it also provides transformation for players as well. That transformation includes not only better understanding of the complex process of electoral college but more importantly, decreased partisanship. Decreased partisanship leads to players being more civil to each other. Amazing transformation to say the least.
Talking about civility reminds me of Benjamin Franklin words: “Be civil to all, sociable to many, familiar with few, friend to one, enemy to none.”
Indelible Learning: End Of Imperial
End of Imperial fits in the formal and informal educational settings. It addresses serious real life issues, encourages problem-solving (and other 21st century skills), and encourages decision-making. This medical mystery game provides digital simulations for real-world experiences. It facilitates understanding and engagement with complex issues related to sleep, health, driving, substance use etc. In that sense, it is a serious game. But, End of Imperial also promotes critical thinking, and problem-solving skills. Accordingly, End Of Imperial is a learning game. Given its’ storytelling and immersive experience, it encourages self-reflection and personal transformation as well. Indeed, while playing the game (or afterwards), this game sparks a number of in-depth discussions about choices that players will make in their real life. That might help them not only live healthier lives but also avoid getting into potential life-threatening situations. In that sense, End Of Imperial is also a transformational game.
Indelible Learning: Handwashing Trainer
Bubble Beats Trainer, our handwashing technique training game can also be used in formal or informal educational settings. Bubble Beats Trainer emphasize factual knowledge and helps with mastery of proper hand hygiene. This game also engages students in interactive learning, and it reinforce traditional educational material through practical applications. In that sense, it is an educational game. On the other hand, it also provides practical simulations for real-world experiences. Accordingly, it also has benefits of serious games. The ability of Bubble Beats Trainer to encourage problem-solving (cleaning dirty hands to completion), meets the definition of learning game. And given its’ aim to help players with personal transformation and development of better health habits, it also has certain characteristics of transformational games.
And above all, Indelible Learning games are fun to play, engaging users across multiple dimensions of learning and growth.
Conclusion
While each type of game serves distinct purposes, they all harness the power of interactive and engaging experiences to educate, inform, and transform.
By understanding these distinctions, you can choose or design games that align with your objectives, whether to impart knowledge, simulate scenarios, foster skills, or inspire change.
How about you?
What types of games do you use, play, or create, and for what purpose?
Jasminka Vukanovic-Criley MD, FACP, FHM is a multiple award-winning physician, from cancer researcher, internal medicine physician, and Medical School Associate Clinical Professor to entrepreneur. She has mentored many undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate students and faculty. She is the Principal Investigator on studies from the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Education creating research-driven #edtech games and digital media to improve health, civics, science education, and healthy habits. Dr Criley is also a founding Board member of Physician’s Weekly. She can be reached on X at @criley_md and at www.linkedin.com/in/jasminka-criley-md