Gaming Media and Social Effects – serie

This book introduces state-of-the-art research on simulation and serious games for education. The major part of this book is based on selected work presented at the 2014 Asia-Europe Symposium on Simulation and Serious Games held in Windesheim University of Applied Sciences, the Netherlands (Oct 1–2, 2014).It covers three major domains of education applications that use simulation and serious games: Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Education; Special Needs Education and Humanity and Social Science Education.Researchers and developers in simulation and serious games for education benefit from this book, and it also offers educators and professionals involved in training insights into the possible applications of simulation and serious games in various areas.

The book is about user interfaces to applications that have been designed for social and physical interaction. The interfaces are ‘playful’, that is, users feel challenged to engage in social and physical interaction because that will be fun. The topics that will be present in this book are interactive playgrounds, urban games using mobiles, sensor-equipped environments for playing, child-computer interaction, tangible game interfaces, interactive tabletop technology and applications, full-body interaction, exertion games, persuasion, engagement, evaluation and user experience. Readers of the book will not only get a survey of state-of-the-art research in these areas, but the chapters in this book will also provide a vision of the future where playful interfaces will be ubiquitous, that is, present and integrated in home, office, recreational, sports and urban environments, emphasizing that in the future in these environments game elements will be integrated and welcomed.

This book highlights the challenges and potential of educational learning or industry-based training using serious games and social media platforms. In particular, the book addresses applications used in businesses and education-related organizations in Asia, where the framework and experience of serious games have been used to address specific problems in the real world. The topics that will be present in this book includes future of serious games and immersive technologies and their impact on society; online and mobile games; achievement systems in serious games; persuasive technology and games for saving and money management; malware analytics for social networking; serious games for mental health interventions; educational implications of social network games; learning and acquiring subject knowledge using serious games in classrooms. The target audience for this book includes scientists, engineers and practitioners involved in the field of Serious Games. The major part of this book comprises of papers that have been presented at the Serious Games and Social Connect 2012 conference held in Singapore (October 4, 2012). All the contributions have been peer reviewed and by scientific committee members with report about quality, content and originality.

This book presents the state of the art technology in Serious Games which is driven extensive by applications and research in simulation. The topics in this book include: (1) Fashion simulation; (2) Chinese calligraphy ink diffusion simulation; (3) Rehabilitation (4) Long vehicle turning simulation; (5) Marine traffic conflict control; (6) CNC simulation; (7) Special needs education. The book also addresses the fundamental issues in Simulation and Serious Games such as rapid collision detection, game engines or game development platforms. The target audience for this book includes scientists, engineers and practitioners involved in the field of Serious Games and Simulation. The major part of this book comprises of papers presented at the 2012 Asia-Europe Workshop on Serious Games and Simulation held in Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (May 9, 2012). All the contributions have been peer reviewed and by scientific committee members with report about quality, content and originality.

The book presents a critical evaluation of current approaches related to the use of digital games in education. The author identifies two competing paradigms: that of games-to-teach and games-to-learn. Arguing in favor of the latter, the author advances the case for approaching game-based learning through the theoretical lens of performance, rooted in play and dialog, to unlock the power of digital games for 21st century learning. Drawing upon the author’s research, three concrete exemplars of game-based learning curricula are described and discussed. The challenge of advancing game-based learning in education is addressed in the context of school reform. Finally, future prospects of and educational opportunities for game-based learning are articulated.Readers of the book will find the explication of performance theory applied to game-based learning especially interesting. This work constitutes the author’s original theorization. Readers will derive four main benefits: (1) anexplication of the difference between game-based-teaching and game-based learning, and why this difference is of critical importance, (2) an exposition of the theory of game-based learning as performance, (3) concrete exemplars and research outcomes relating to three game-based learning curricula that have been empirically evaluated in schools, and (4) an understanding of complex issues related to the human side of school change that must be effectively addressed to achieve take-up of game-based learning in schools.

This book covers the latest advances in playful user interfaces – interfaces that invite social and physical interaction. The topics discussed include: human-nature interaction, human-animal interaction and the interaction with tangibles that are naturally integrated in our smart environments.

This book introduces the latest visual effects (VFX) techniques that can be applied to game programming. The usefulness of the physicality-based VFX techniques, such as water, fire, smoke, and wind, has been proven through active involvement and utilization in movies and images. However, they have yet to be extensively applied in the game industry, due to the high technical barriers. Readers of this book can learn not only the theories about the latest VFX techniques, but also the methodology of game programming, step by step. The practical VFX processing techniques introduced in this book will provide very helpful information to game programmers. Due to the lack of instructional books about VFX-related game programming, the demand for knowledge regarding these high-tech VFXs might be very high.

This book provides a detailed update on the applications of Serious Games in Healthcare and Education sector. In short, it provides an all rounded research and industry updates about the current and future advances in this area.These are the two sectors that are developing rapidly with direct applications of serious games. With advances in technologies and a new perspective on patient engagement and public expectations, the healthcare sector is increasingly turning to serious games to solve problems. Subconscious Learning via Games and Social Media will share expert opinions on the development and application of game technologies for health-related serious games. Our commercial and non-commercial expert comes from different aspects of the healthcare system from clinicians to therapist. The scope ranges from population health to specific medical domain applications. In the education sector, digital games have a great potential to improve learning of both adults and children. It is important to understand how to design games that could create long term behavioral change rather than short term alterations. In these chapters, we discuss how the serious games should be designed and deployed for both adults and children.

This book starts with the proposition that digital media invite play and indeed need to be played by their everyday users. Play is probably one of the most visible and powerful ways to appropriate the digital world. The diverse, emerging practices of digital media appear to be essentially playful: Users are involved and active, produce form and content, spread, exchange and consume it, take risks, are conscious of their own goals and the possibilities of achieving them, are skilled and know how to acquire more skills. They share a perspective of can-do, a curiosity of what happens next? Play can be observed in social, economic, political, artistic, educational and criminal contexts and endeavours. It is employed as a (counter) strategy, for tacit or open resistance, as a method and productive practice, and something people do for fun.The book aims to define a particular contemporary attitude, a playful approach to media. It identifies some common ground and key principles in this novel terrain. Instead of looking at play and how it branches into different disciplines like business and education, the phenomenon of play in digital media is approached unconstrained by disciplinary boundaries. The contributions in this book provide a glimpse of a playful technological revolution that is a joyful celebration of possibilities that new media afford. This book is not a practical guide on how to hack a system or to pirate music, but provides critical insights into the unintended, artistic, fun, subversive, and sometimes dodgy applications of digital media.Contributions from Chris Crawford, Mathias Fuchs, Rilla Khaled, Sybille Lammes, Eva and Franco Mattes, Florian 'Floyd' Mueller, Michael Nitsche, Julian Oliver, and others cover and address topics such as reflective game design, identity and people's engagement in online media, conflicts and challenging opportunities for play, playing with cartographical interfaces, player-emergent production practices, the re-purposing of data, game creation as an educational approach, the ludification of society, the creation of meaning within and without play, the internalisation and subversion of roles through play, and the boundaries of play.

This book addresses the topic of playable cities, which use the ‘smartness’ of digital cities to offer their citizens playful events and activities. The contributions presented here examine various aspects of playable cities, including developments in pervasive and urban games, the use of urban data to design games and playful applications, architecture design and playability, and mischief and humor in playable cities.The smartness of digital cities can be found in the sensors and actuators that are embedded in their environment. This smartness allows them to monitor, anticipate and support our activities and increases the efficiency of the cities and our activities. These urban smart technologies can offer citizens playful interactions with streets, buildings, street furniture, traffic, public art and entertainment, large public displays and public events.

This book introduces state-of-the-art research on simulation and serious games for education. The major part of this book is based on selected work presented at the 2014 Asia-Europe Symposium on Simulation and Serious Games held in Windesheim University of Applied Sciences, the Netherlands (Oct 1–2, 2014).It covers three major domains of education applications that use simulation and serious games: Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Education; Special Needs Education and Humanity and Social Science Education.Researchers and developers in simulation and serious games for education benefit from this book, and it also offers educators and professionals involved in training insights into the possible applications of simulation and serious games in various areas.

This book addresses the topic of playable cities, which use the ‘smartness’ of digital cities to offer their citizens playful events and activities. The contributions presented here examine various aspects of playable cities, including developments in pervasive and urban games, the use of urban data to design games and playful applications, architecture design and playability, and mischief and humor in playable cities.The smartness of digital cities can be found in the sensors and actuators that are embedded in their environment. This smartness allows them to monitor, anticipate and support our activities and increases the efficiency of the cities and our activities. These urban smart technologies can offer citizens playful interactions with streets, buildings, street furniture, traffic, public art and entertainment, large public displays and public events.

This book introduces state-of-the-art research on simulation and serious games for education. Based partially on work presented at the 3rd Asia-Europe Symposium on Simulation and Serious Games (3rd AESSSG) held in Zhuhai, China as part of the 2016 ACM SIGGRAPH International Conference on Virtual-Reality Consortium and Applications in Industry (VRACI 2016), it includes a selection of the best papers from both.  The book is divided into three major domains of education applications that use simulation and serious games: science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education; special needs education; and humanity and social science education. A valuable resource for researchers and developers in simulation and serious games for education benefit from this book, it also offers educators and professionals involved in training insights into the possible applications of simulation and serious games in various areas.

This book starts with the proposition that digital media invite play and indeed need to be played by their everyday users. Play is probably one of the most visible and powerful ways to appropriate the digital world. The diverse, emerging practices of digital media appear to be essentially playful: Users are involved and active, produce form and content, spread, exchange and consume it, take risks, are conscious of their own goals and the possibilities of achieving them, are skilled and know how to acquire more skills. They share a perspective of can-do, a curiosity of what happens next? Play can be observed in social, economic, political, artistic, educational and criminal contexts and endeavours. It is employed as a (counter) strategy, for tacit or open resistance, as a method and productive practice, and something people do for fun.The book aims to define a particular contemporary attitude, a playful approach to media. It identifies some common ground and key principles in this novel terrain. Instead of looking at play and how it branches into different disciplines like business and education, the phenomenon of play in digital media is approached unconstrained by disciplinary boundaries. The contributions in this book provide a glimpse of a playful technological revolution that is a joyful celebration of possibilities that new media afford. This book is not a practical guide on how to hack a system or to pirate music, but provides critical insights into the unintended, artistic, fun, subversive, and sometimes dodgy applications of digital media.Contributions from Chris Crawford, Mathias Fuchs, Rilla Khaled, Sybille Lammes, Eva and Franco Mattes, Florian 'Floyd' Mueller, Michael Nitsche, Julian Oliver, and others cover and address topics such as reflective game design, identity and people's engagement in online media, conflicts and challenging opportunities for play, playing with cartographical interfaces, player-emergent production practices, the re-purposing of data, game creation as an educational approach, the ludification of society, the creation of meaning within and without play, the internalisation and subversion of roles through play, and the boundaries of play.

This book introduces state-of-the-art research on simulation and serious games for education. Based partially on work presented at the 3rd Asia-Europe Symposium on Simulation and Serious Games (3rd AESSSG) held in Zhuhai, China as part of the 2016 ACM SIGGRAPH International Conference on Virtual-Reality Consortium and Applications in Industry (VRACI 2016), it includes a selection of the best papers from both.  The book is divided into three major domains of education applications that use simulation and serious games: science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education; special needs education; and humanity and social science education. A valuable resource for researchers and developers in simulation and serious games for education benefit from this book, it also offers educators and professionals involved in training insights into the possible applications of simulation and serious games in various areas.

This book explores the ways in which the broad range of technologies that make up the smart city infrastructure can be harnessed to incorporate more playfulness into the day-to-day activities that take place within smart cities, making them not only more efficient but also more enjoyable for the people who live and work within their confines. The book addresses various topics that will be of interest to playable cities stakeholders, including the human–computer interaction and game designer communities, computer scientists researching sensor and actuator technology in public spaces, urban designers, and (hopefully) urban policymakers.This is a follow-up to another book on Playable Cities edited by Anton Nijholt and published in 2017 in the same book series, Gaming Media and Social Effects.

This book explores the ways in which the broad range of technologies that make up the smart city infrastructure can be harnessed to incorporate more playfulness into the day-to-day activities that take place within smart cities, making them not only more efficient but also more enjoyable for the people who live and work within their confines. The book addresses various topics that will be of interest to playable cities stakeholders, including the human–computer interaction and game designer communities, computer scientists researching sensor and actuator technology in public spaces, urban designers, and (hopefully) urban policymakers.This is a follow-up to another book on Playable Cities edited by Anton Nijholt and published in 2017 in the same book series, Gaming Media and Social Effects.

This book introduces state-of-the-art research on virtual reality, simulation and serious games for education and its chapters presented the best papers from the 4th Asia-Europe Symposium on Simulation and Serious Games (4th AESSSG) held in Turku, Finland, December 2018. The chapters of the book present a multi-facet view on different approaches to deal with challenges that surround the uptake of educational applications of virtual reality, simulations and serious games in school practices. The different approaches highlight challenges and potential solutions and provide future directions for virtual reality, simulation and serious games research, for the design of learning material and for implementation in classrooms. By doing so, the book is a useful resource for both students and scholars interested in research in this field, for designers of learning material, and for practitioners that want to embrace virtual reality, simulation and/or serious games in their education.

This book introduces state-of-the-art research on virtual reality, simulation and serious games for education and its chapters presented the best papers from the 4th Asia-Europe Symposium on Simulation and Serious Games (4th AESSSG) held in Turku, Finland, December 2018. The chapters of the book present a multi-facet view on different approaches to deal with challenges that surround the uptake of educational applications of virtual reality, simulations and serious games in school practices. The different approaches highlight challenges and potential solutions and provide future directions for virtual reality, simulation and serious games research, for the design of learning material and for implementation in classrooms. By doing so, the book is a useful resource for both students and scholars interested in research in this field, for designers of learning material, and for practitioners that want to embrace virtual reality, simulation and/or serious games in their education.

This book provides a detailed update on the applications of Serious Games in Healthcare and Education sector. In short, it provides an all rounded research and industry updates about the current and future advances in this area.These are the two sectors that are developing rapidly with direct applications of serious games. With advances in technologies and a new perspective on patient engagement and public expectations, the healthcare sector is increasingly turning to serious games to solve problems. Subconscious Learning via Games and Social Media will share expert opinions on the development and application of game technologies for health-related serious games. Our commercial and non-commercial expert comes from different aspects of the healthcare system from clinicians to therapist. The scope ranges from population health to specific medical domain applications. In the education sector, digital games have a great potential to improve learning of both adults and children. It is important to understand how to design games that could create long term behavioral change rather than short term alterations. In these chapters, we discuss how the serious games should be designed and deployed for both adults and children.

This book introduces the latest visual effects (VFX) techniques that can be applied to game programming. The usefulness of the physicality-based VFX techniques, such as water, fire, smoke, and wind, has been proven through active involvement and utilization in movies and images. However, they have yet to be extensively applied in the game industry, due to the high technical barriers. Readers of this book can learn not only the theories about the latest VFX techniques, but also the methodology of game programming, step by step. The practical VFX processing techniques introduced in this book will provide very helpful information to game programmers. Due to the lack of instructional books about VFX-related game programming, the demand for knowledge regarding these high-tech VFXs might be very high.

The book presents a critical evaluation of current approaches related to the use of digital games in education. The author identifies two competing paradigms: that of games-to-teach and games-to-learn. Arguing in favor of the latter, the author advances the case for approaching game-based learning through the theoretical lens of performance, rooted in play and dialog, to unlock the power of digital games for 21st century learning. Drawing upon the author’s research, three concrete exemplars of game-based learning curricula are described and discussed. The challenge of advancing game-based learning in education is addressed in the context of school reform. Finally, future prospects of and educational opportunities for game-based learning are articulated.Readers of the book will find the explication of performance theory applied to game-based learning especially interesting. This work constitutes the author’s original theorization. Readers will derive four main benefits: (1) anexplication of the difference between game-based-teaching and game-based learning, and why this difference is of critical importance, (2) an exposition of the theory of game-based learning as performance, (3) concrete exemplars and research outcomes relating to three game-based learning curricula that have been empirically evaluated in schools, and (4) an understanding of complex issues related to the human side of school change that must be effectively addressed to achieve take-up of game-based learning in schools.

This book covers the latest advances in playful user interfaces – interfaces that invite social and physical interaction. These new developments include the use of audio, visual, tactile and physiological sensors to monitor, provide feedback and anticipate the behavior of human users. The decreasing cost of sensor and actuator technology makes it possible to integrate physical behavior information in human-computer interactions. This leads to many new entertainment and game applications that allow or require social and physical interaction in sensor- and actuator-equipped smart environments. The topics discussed include: human-nature interaction, human-animal interaction and the interaction with tangibles that are naturally integrated in our smart environments. Digitally supported remote audience participation in artistic or sport events is also discussed. One important theme that emerges throughout the book is the involvement of users in the digital-entertainment design process or even design and implementation of interactive entertainment by users themselves, including children doing so in educational settings.

This book presents selected research and development on virtual reality (VR) and serious games (SG) applications to assist children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in their learning of different skills. Children with ASD have challenges to learn skills of learning, living, and working, due to their cognitive and behavioral limitations. The authors and their research teams of this book have many years’ research experience developing innovative and interactive VR and SG technology for the special needs education. More specifically, several VR serious games are designed to train children with ASD on learning skill, life skill, and job skill. Such games are often developed based on the needs of special education and used by special needs schools in Singapore. This book is a useful resource for students, scholars, and designers of learning material who want to embrace VR and SG for children with ASD.

This book presents selected research and development on virtual reality (VR) and serious games (SG) applications to assist children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in their learning of different skills. Children with ASD have challenges to learn skills of learning, living, and working, due to their cognitive and behavioral limitations. The authors and their research teams of this book have many years’ research experience developing innovative and interactive VR and SG technology for the special needs education. More specifically, several VR serious games are designed to train children with ASD on learning skill, life skill, and job skill. Such games are often developed based on the needs of special education and used by special needs schools in Singapore. This book is a useful resource for students, scholars, and designers of learning material who want to embrace VR and SG for children with ASD.

This book highlights the challenges and potential of educational learning or industry-based training using serious games and social media platforms. In particular, the book addresses applications used in businesses and education-related organizations in Asia, where the framework and experience of serious games have been used to address specific problems in the real world. The topics that will be present in this book includes future of serious games and immersive technologies and their impact on society; online and mobile games; achievement systems in serious games; persuasive technology and games for saving and money management; malware analytics for social networking; serious games for mental health interventions; educational implications of social network games; learning and acquiring subject knowledge using serious games in classrooms. The target audience for this book includes scientists, engineers and practitioners involved in the field of Serious Games. The major part of this book comprises of papers that have been presented at the Serious Games and Social Connect 2012 conference held in Singapore (October 4, 2012). All the contributions have been peer reviewed and by scientific committee members with report about quality, content and originality.

This book presents the state of the art technology in Serious Games which is driven extensive by applications and research in simulation. The topics in this book include: (1) Fashion simulation; (2) Chinese calligraphy ink diffusion simulation; (3) Rehabilitation (4) Long vehicle turning simulation; (5) Marine traffic conflict control; (6) CNC simulation; (7) Special needs education. The book also addresses the fundamental issues in Simulation and Serious Games such as rapid collision detection, game engines or game development platforms. The target audience for this book includes scientists, engineers and practitioners involved in the field of Serious Games and Simulation. The major part of this book comprises of papers presented at the 2012 Asia-Europe Workshop on Serious Games and Simulation held in Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (May 9, 2012). All the contributions have been peer reviewed and by scientific committee members with report about quality, content and originality.

The book is about user interfaces to applications that have been designed for social and physical interaction. The interfaces are ‘playful’, that is, users feel challenged to engage in social and physical interaction because that will be fun. The topics that will be present in this book are interactive playgrounds, urban games using mobiles, sensor-equipped environments for playing, child-computer interaction, tangible game interfaces, interactive tabletop technology and applications, full-body interaction, exertion games, persuasion, engagement, evaluation and user experience. Readers of the book will not only get a survey of state-of-the-art research in these areas, but the chapters in this book will also provide a vision of the future where playful interfaces will be ubiquitous, that is, present and integrated in home, office, recreational, sports and urban environments, emphasizing that in the future in these environments game elements will be integrated and welcomed.

This proceedings comprises of selected papers presented at the Learning Innovations Summit 2024, during 13-14 September at the University of Nicosia, Cyprus. The presented work showcases cutting-edge research and innovations in technology-powered education covering the latest advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI), Extended Reality (XR), and other emerging technologies, and their transformative potential in revolutionizing the landscape of learning. It aims to bridge the gap between theoretical research and practical implementation, ensuring that AI, XR, and emerging innovations translate to real-world educational enhancements. The content targets researchers, academics, educators, teachers, corporate trainers, graduate students, learning designers, educational technology developers and technology enthusiasts who are dedicated to exploring the transformative opportunities and multifaceted challenges associated with integrating AI, XR and emerging technologies in education and training.