Gibbons Lecture Series 2024 | Beyond Entertainment: Serious Games for Education, Training and Health

Burkhard Wünsche; University of Auckland
Linkedin | https://www.linkedin.com/in/burkhard-...

Serious games are games designed for a primary purpose other than pure entertainment. They can be effective where traditional approaches don’t work because tasks are repetitive, stressful, time-consuming, or users lack motivation.

In this talk we focus on serious games for education, training, and healthcare. We will provide an overview of the history of this field and the current state-of-the-art using as examples both commercial games and research. Along the way, we will discuss advantages, limitations, and risks of serious games and under what circumstances such games are likely to work best.

Additionally, we’ll explore how modern technologies, such as AR and VR, can help to make serious games even more effective. The talk will conclude with an exploration of emerging trends and possible future developments.