Exploring the value of genres in serious games

The choice of a particular genre in serious game design often seems ad hoc or motivated by gamers’ preference or pure pragmatic issues such as choice of platform. Although these are probably valid and justified reasons, an inconsiderable choice of game genre might contribute to a failure of conveying the learning content and, in addition, lead to a decrease in game enjoyment. Indeed, there might be a link between a specific learning content and the ‘best’ possible game genre to approach this content. With the analysis of four game examples with different genres and in different fields, we want to explore the appropriateness of game genres for learning contents, and point to the need for further research in order to improve learning outcomes as well as gaming experience.status: publishe