The British Computer Society has highlighted the growing
role that "serious games" can play in developing skills for
business.
In an
article
on the BCS website this month, David Wortley, director of the
Serious Games
Institute, said, "Serious games refers to the use of electronic
games, technologies and methodologies for serious purposes. That
can also encompass the use of electronic games for entertainment
where somebody has repurposed them for education."
The government has a serious games team. It is particularly
focused on how commercial off-the-shelf games can be used as part
of the curriculum, because the cost of developing custom games for
a particular curriculum is beyond the budget of most schools, said
Wortley.
In business, games such as
World of
Warcraft have been used by companies to improve strategy
skills, and
social networking is a big potential area of development for
serious games and
virtual worlds.
The Serious Games Institute does not create games itself but
acts as a facilitator to help develop the industry. "We are here to
build bridges between potential commissioners of games, small
companies that are developing serious games, and academics and
researchers," said Wortley. "We act as a broker to bring people
together to create opportunities.
"Games provide a risk-free environment in which you can
experiment and learn they could involve disaster simulation,
training triage people to deal with an explosion in a city centre
and going to look at casualties, deciding on their condition,
whether they need immediate treatment, or whether they can be
stabilised before you move on to the next one."
Serious games are particularly useful in a medical environment,
because they allow people to learn about treatments and procedures
without putting patients' lives at risk.
Another application is in flight simulator games, which help
teach pilots how to control a plane.
Pixel Learning is a
company that specialises in designing games for business with a
realistic office environment. Games present players with day-to-day
problems, such as developing a marketing strategy for a business.
Players can then see the results of their decisions on the
performance of their company, without risking any real money.