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Publications
Author(s) :
Julian Alvarez et Pascal Staccini
Editor :
e-virtuoses et SEGAMED, CCI Grand Hainaut, Play Research Lab, UNICE
Date :
2014
Lang :
Description
Introduction by Julian Alvarez & Pascal Staccini
Since 2002, the Serious game has been attracting growing interest thanks to the prospects it promises to offer in terms of prevention, training, education, learning, therapy, communication, training, data collection and so on. Valenciennes has been hosting the e-virtuoses since 2008. This is an event with international ambitions, designed to bring together players interested in Serious games, simulation and e-learning. The main sectors addressed are training, security, defense, communication and healthcare.
In 2012, the first international scientific symposium e-virtuoses, dedicated to the study of the impact of Serious games, will enrich the event. 2012 is a symbolic year, as it marks the tenth anniversary of the advent of Serious games based on videogames, with the launch of America's Army. This was the first title to showcase the potential of Serious games in terms of message dissemination, training and data collection.
In 2012, the conference entitled “Evaluating and measuring the impact of Serious games” focused on the Serious game object. While the question of how to design a Serious game represents a significant part of current concerns, we also need to look at how to scientifically evaluate and even measure their impact. In our view, this is an essential step in helping sponsors, users, designers and researchers to know what position to adopt. The notion of impact is understood here as the effect or influence that the Serious game can help bring about on the object's users, but also more broadly on an entire ecosystem.
In 2013, the symposium entitled ''Jouer à toutes fins utiles? : appropriations, detour and rejections'' takes a broader approach, examining the use of games and play - digital or otherwise - for utilitarian purposes. The SeGaMed adventure began in 2011 as part of the European mEducator project (2009-2011), whose aim was to index the reproposition of educational content in medicine. The serious game had been identified as a pedagogical object, and the aim was to index the business scenario encapsulated in the game. The discovery of an emerging world of publishers, researchers and users, the identification in the healthcare field of national funding earmarked for Serious Games, and the experience acquired in the field of medical and surgical simulation at the Nice Faculty of Medicine, were all founding factors in the SeGaMed meeting. With both an academic and a demonstration objective, the alliance with the e-virtuoses colloquium was a natural and obvious choice for those in charge. The Serious Games research community welcomed the thematization of a sector as serious as healthcare.
The 2013 edition saw the links consolidated, and the red thread of acceptance in 2012 was followed by the red thread of appropriation in 2013. This openness and partnership between SeGaMed and e-virtuoses, aims to highlight that the Serious game is ultimately just one of the possibilities when it comes to summoning games for utilitarian needs. At the same time, it offers a richer range of scientific and economic perspectives. We invite you to judge for yourself by reading the various papers, which are grouped under three themes: communication, education and health.
Happy reading!
Julian Alvarez and Pascal Staccini Directors of the e-virtuoses and SeGaMed scientific programs
Keywords : Serious game, Serious gaming, Conferences, SEGAMED, e-virtuoses, Health, Education, Communication