I'm Serious.net

Psst! Serious gamers - Can you keep a secret?

  This is a really big day for me, and I hope for serious games in general. Today, I'm going to let you in on a secret, but I have to ask you to keep quiet about it. Pinky promise?

We have partnered with Pragmatic Solutions to launch the first (no disrespect to our friends at SGI and the Serious Games Exposed project) portal and distribution site for serious games! Pragmatic, you will remember, is the brains behind America's Army, providing all the back-end infrastructure, the hugely complex real-time analytics engine, and worldwide distribution.

The portal (we'll take name suggestions) provides access to a catalog of games from developers around the world and handles all the e-commerce components for buyers. The deep analytics are available to all serious game developers who join our network. The social networking component enables users to share learning experiences, join game groups or teams, and recommend helpful titles to other users. The advertising network generates co-op revenues that will be shared with developers who opt-in to this feature. Best of all, this service is FREE to game developers/purveyors.

Right now, we are provisioning the system with two things: a massive competencies engine against which we match games; AND, the game system itself.

What does this mean to you? If you are a developer/purveyor of serious games anywhere in the world and have one or more titles that you offer for commercial distribution - even if you offer them for free - we want to hear from you! We are loading the system with as many games as we can during the next six weeks - in preparation for our less-secret announcement coming early this Summer.

Interested parties should contact secrets@imserious.net. Let us know about you and your game(s) - title, subject matter, learning objectives/outcomes, kind of game, number of players, your contact information. We are vetting many titles right now, so don't miss the opportunity to be part of the big announcement.

I'm really, really serious,
Anne

GDC: Not a Banner Year for Serious Games Summit

  I've been trying to put into words the flat feeling I was left with after the Serious Games Summit.

Perhaps it's the word "summit" that generates expectations too lofty to be achieved. I had dreams of heated conversation about the challenges within and for the serious games industry. I envisioned impassioned discussions about learning design/game design mashups. I was yearning for all the new game concepts that would fuel and challenge us for another year. Such was not to be.

Rather, it was a bit stale and under-attended. Sure, a few more corporate initiatives have been funded, but not for any novel purposes. There were a couple of new tools on the market that claim to make it easier to author/script/develop learning games. But all in all, it was same old same old.

This leaves me with vague unease about where serious games are going - or, better, where the conference is going. My sense is that the company that puts on GDC keeps going to the same people to help them with their programming for serious games. This inevitably self-referential approach effectively eliminates new ideas or new entrants to the discussion.

I raise this point because I've wondered for some time whether a conference focused on the ways technologies for entertainment are used for learning and productivity should be co-located with a conference for game developers. There are great benefits, to be sure, but so many topics get left off the table. Important topics, like achieving the right balance between learning and game play; or, cross-cultural play styles and their impact on serious game design; or, whether music enhances learning equally well in story-driven games as in strategy games.

If you are a serious games professional, are your professional development needs being met? Your professional networking needs? If so, how and where? Inquiring minds want to know.

I'm serious,
Anne

Women and (Serious) Games

  One of the few general sessions I was able to attend at last week's GDC focused on the lack of women in games, both on the player and the creator sides of the equation. As the panelists were speaking about this wretched state of affairs, a silent slide deck ran behind them. The deck was created by Merrilea Mayo (one of the panelists) and Julie Becker, both of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, and offers their analysis of the problem along with their tongue-in-cheek prescription for fixing it.

Download Kauffman

My solution is a bit more pragmatic. Focus on the part of the industry where there is a huge gap to fill: serious games.

What is the gap? There are not nearly enough learning designers involved in the creation of serious games (for the umpteenth time).

But there are many, many female learning designers, an unquantifiable subset of whom are interested in games and game technologies. By drawing on their learning design expertise while introducing them to game design and production, we are likely to see many benefits: new job opportunities; higher-quality games; and, a stronger industry all around.

So, go ahead. Start talking amongst yourselves. It's for (y)our own good.

I'm serious,
Anne

Just Announced: IBM's Virtual Service Management Simulator

IBM announced today their new Virtual Service Management Simulator. The game is an immersive 3D learning game which, according to IBM, is "based in a realistic virtual organization where players learn how service management and IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) processes can be applied to significantly improve business performance and increase operational maturity."

The simulator is set within a virtual organization, and presents the "challenges and issues" that each member of the organization face. Players work through the game, building their knowledge of ITIL and service management, then applying new knowledge to process and tool improvements that 1) resolve business pains and 2) drive business success and profitability. 

IBM sees this product as appropriate for all levels of service managers. 

In a potentially worrying move for small(er), independent serious game developers, IBM is making the title available to all for FREE. It's available as of today. To play online or download, click here.

I'm serious,

Anne

GDC: Game of the Day (Tuesday)

Several months ago, I drew readers' attention to what promised to be a "game-changing" game called Spore. Today, I heard Margaret Robertson offer a critical review of the game. It was a great presentation, and Margaret's insights offer valuable lessons for all game designers, whether entertainment or serious.

Spore, as you will remember is massive - massively multi-player, massive in scope, and massively ambitious. Players start with a single-cell creature that is nursed through many stages of evolution, 

ultimately achieving space exploration technology and abilities. The appearance and attributes of the creature are purely user-generated content; every aspect of the little dude is controlled by the player with the Spore Creature Creator. Along the way, your creature discovers other creatures that may or may not be friendly. Don't worry, though, everyone survives, and along the way, new worlds are colonized and societies flourish.

But even with all those new worlds, Spore is not gaining the traction that game design house, Maxis, and the publisher, Electronic Arts, had anticipated. One of the sub rosa goals of the Spore design team was to provide a platform to explore - and teach - biology. In fact, since the game launched, no one has been identified as using Spore to teach science.

In part, this is due to the windstorm that kicked up shortly after launch. Members of the science community took the game creators to task for their science, for the game's inattention to important details and nuances of biology and evolution, and for the cute-sy approach to graphics. Creationists took umbrage at the entire concept of the game, and intelligent design proponents felt equally digruntled.

Other design issues have posed barriers to adoption. The game has been called "too slow," "too long," "too complicated," and "too soon" (in other words, teachers haven't had enough time to be exposed to the depth and breadth of the game, and so haven't yet figured out how to fit the game into the rest of the curriculum). And of course, there's the little-referenced, although greatly considered, metric : TTP (time-to-penis, or the time it takes students to start creating sexually-explicit content).

There is promising news about Spore's utility in education, however. A number of education applications have been devised by clever educators, among those: creative writing; introduction to 3D modelling and thinking spatially; teamwork, particularly among those with developmental difficulties; and, emotional literacy for autistics.

As a result of her recent evaluation of the game, Margaret offers several "learnings" from which we can all benefit. I have taken her ideas and liberally elaborated on them, and so ask for her forgiveness if I misrepresent her thinking.

1. Marketing and advocacy are key to adoption, particularly within the education community. These activites should focus both on subject matter and on teaching.
2. Games being primed for the education sector should be marketed with lesson plans, model learning modules, and other teacher-assistance materials that make it easy for the educator to get on board.
3. Publishers need to learn how to sell to the education community, which is not at all the same as selling through retail channels or to the corporate world. This includes the ability to do education pricing and institutional licensing rather than seat licensing, just for starters.
4. Free is the best price of all in education. Of course, it's difficult to sustain a non-revenue business, so rather than giving it all away, consider "compartmentalizing" your game so that you can seed the market with the freebies while still charging for other components.
5. Make sure that your technology threshold is as low as possible to account for the aged equipment available at many schools.
6. Ensure that it's easy for players to collaborate.
7. Be as flexible as possible in the format of your outputs. User-generated content assets should be downloadable and exportable.
8. Practice patience. The education market moves much more slowly than business. Adoption and uptake happen on academic year cycles, not on a quarterly basis.

I'm serious,
Anne

GDC Anyone? Taking meetings...

  I'm excited - GDC is almost here. All you folks partying your hearts out in Austin better rest up, 'cuz the real action's coming up next week. Honestly, if you're interested in designing games or using game technologies in the service of learning and you aren't planning to be in San Francisco, you need to re-think your priorities for next week.

I'm finalizing my conference schedule now. I have a few slots available, and would love to meet people who have projects to share or work to discuss. Please let me know immediately - EMAIL ONLY, please (anne@imserious.net) - if you would like to arrange to meet.

I'm serious,
Anne

IBM continues to "innovate"

Looking for business sims? According to Red Herring, IBM has just announced a new version of their BPM serious game title, Innov8 2.0. Here is the video promo for the previous version:

This free title is currently only available to the academic community - for now. And, you'll also have to wait if you are a Mac user. I suspect inquiries will be welcome.

I'm serious,
Anne

Interactive Storyboards

Links for products mentioned: PowerPoint; Keynote; Flypaper; Xtranormal

"Keep going"

  Things are looking scary out there. First Electronic Arts, then Sony, now Microsoft - not to mention tens of smaller studios - have all moved forward (?) with plans to cut back, even eliminate, game studio personnel. Projects are being mothballed, titles have been removed from catalogs.

This is not the time for those of us on the learning and productivity side of the map to waver. The solutions our industry offers are precisely what is called for in this era of diminished resources and changing priorities. We bring people together; we foster communication, collaboration, creativity and efficiency. We advance "green" initiatives by reducing, if not eliminating, the need for travel. We advance knowledge, and the application of knowledge and know-how to everyday problems, large and small.

Rather, now is the time to heed the words of the great abolitionist, Harriet Tubman:

    If you are tired, keep going; if you are scared, keep going; if you are hungry, keep going;
    if you want to taste freedom, keep going.

I'm serious,

Anne

Sweating the small stuff

  Bill Brandon, editor at the eLearning Guild just reminded me about Albert Mehrabian's conclusions regarding how humans determine whether we like one another. Mehrabian and his colleagues wanted to determine the relative influence of facial expressions and spoken words in human relations. After various experiments where subjects read words, listened to words spoken, and watched someone speak specific words, Mehrabian et al. concluded that the totality of interpersonal communication is conveyed:

• 7% through spoken word
• 38% through voice tone
• 55% via general body language

To be sure, these exact numbers can and have been challenged. But the relative influence of these communication modalities is generally accepted.

These findings have important implications for those designing immersive environments. Take, for example, a frequent in-world situation where a user must gather information and apply it in a new, potentially ambiguous context. The designer must decide the best way to present the new information and the best way to present the context for the user to apply it. Is a block of text the right way to set this up? Perhaps voice-over will assist in smoothing out ambiguities. Maybe an NPC with a facial expression or a gesture will be necessary to convey the full meaning, particularly when feedback is involved.

The process of design can be greatly informed by this awareness, as well. How do you develop and review storyboards? Is this an entirely paper-based process? Or, do you do storyboard walkthroughs with reviewers taking different "roles" so that the review is active, participatory, and more "life-like"?

While these details may seem to be more trouble than they're worth, it's this attention to detail that can make the difference between a transformational experience for your users and just another (maybe) learning event.

I'm serious,
Anne