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| Title | [ETNEWS-Monday Forum] Serious Games, Games Recommended by Parents | 2009.11.13 |
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FROM: ETNEWS [ETNEWS-Monday Forum] September 29, 2009 Serious Games, Games Recommended by Parents The Gyeonggi Serious Game Conference was held in Seongnam City, Gyeonggi Province on October 25. Serious games are in the limelight as an effective way to provide education, medical treatment, and the like. The idea is to take advantage of games’ ability to engross users and the simple joy of playing them. There are games of various themes including Remission for treatment of children with cancer, an energy resources development game, Energy Bill, a waste treatment and recycling game, The Garbage Game, and a fire fighting safety game, Little Firehouse. The first time I learned about serious games was at the 2007 Davos Forum, where I met Suzanne Seggerman, President of Games for Change (G4C), a non-profit organization that researches and distributes serious games. She convinced me that serious games are a very effective tool for educating people about social issues. President Seggerman wondered why Korea, which is strong in IT, did not develop serious games. We met again in 2007 when she was invited as a presenter at the Daesung Global Contents Forum held to celebrate 60 years of Daesung Group. She requested the establishment of a Korean branch of G4C. I gladly accepted and did so October the same year. This past August, the 2009 Daesung Youth Science Camp was held using serious games. Participating students played energy and environment-themed games they made and had an opportunity to ponder environment and energy issues in the process. This experimental camp was favorably received by both the students and specialists, and it will be presented as a case study at the G4C Festival to be held in New York in 2010. Serious games are already being recognized as a viable industry in the U.S., and R&D on them is active in Europe. In Japan, the success of Nintendo’s brain training games proved the commercial potential of serious games. In Korea, efforts are being made to expand their development and publicize them. A new serious game to teach Chinese characters is now being used in after-school classes at elementary schools. Gyeonggi and North Jeolla provinces and other local governments are increasing investment in serious games to nurture them as specialized regional contents industries. Serious games are considered key to next-generation technology and content. Korea has a particularly favorable environment for development of serious games: It has the world’s best IT infrastructure and a strong e-sports culture. However there are several difficulties that must be resolved before development and use of serious games can take off in full swing. First among these is the negative social perception of games. This is hindering the proliferation of serious games. Second, their development and distribution systems are not yet adequate. Korea lacks professionals with experience in developing serious games, with the result that there is not much development other than edutainment. There is a need to set up an entire process covering development and distribution of serious games. Thirdly, there are calls to strengthen the linkage between policies and the support they provide. Serious games can bring together different fields such as education, health, and the environment, and substantial projects can be created by defining roles for and coordinating cooperation among different government offices. Critics cite the negative aspects of games like addictiveness, but if we can leverage their merits and nurture the serious game industry, it can become a new growth driver of the national economy.
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