Factors Associated with Player Satisfaction and Educational Value of Serious Games

Computer games are well established forms of entertainment which have been shown to promote the development of important cognitive skills. This has also seen their evolution into games supporting training and education, known as serious games. In order to investigate those factors that would be important when de-veloping these types of games we conducted a two year study on undergraduate game development students. Seventy four students participated in the study. They were asked for their views on three web-based serious games (Cancer Game, Dar-fur is Dying and Elude). A series of study questionnaires were used to collect data on their playing experience, satisfaction with the games and how well they ac-quired subject specific knowledge after playing them. The students’ views on the games’ entertainment and educational value were mixed. Two games (Cancer Game and Darfur is Dying) were able to increase players’ knowledge as a result of playing them but to differing extents. Suggested improvements to the games fo-cused on providing more appropriate background information on the subject with-in the game, and giving the player better feedback on how to play it. When the re-sults were compared to existing heuristics on game development improvements to the design of the game interface, game mechanics and game playability were iden-tified. The need to incorporate learning outcomes into the games and that they be outcome based are also important pedagogical factors. In this initial study we have suggested a series of heuristics which the authors believe will be important to developers of serious games