The Way Ahead for Serious Games

Despite the fact that people have been playing games since before recorded history, the field of Serious Games—as a scientifically valid and viable area of investigation and application—is really in its infancy. In fact, the rise in availability and popularity of video games is a relatively recent phenomenon and actual applications of video game technology to serious pursuits are relatively rare. That said, I believe that Serious Games are coming into their own, and predict that the next few years will witness an explosion of new games, design features and guidelines, success stories, and scientific findings regarding their effectiveness. How quickly and fruitfully this happens depends, in part, on how well the community of researchers, designers, developers, evaluators, and end users can come together to systematically conceive of, and deploy games for serious purposes. Haphazard attempts—i.e., those that do not build on the findings of others’ experiences—will retard the speed at which viable games are consistently produced. Likewise, rigorous evaluation of those games that are developed cannot be neglected or future developers will likely fall prey to the same problems and pitfalls as their predecessors.