This special issue highlights some of the best of emerging research in using video games for serious purposes. Although “serious games” is a new term, such games have been around for many years in the form of training simulators for vehicle control, such as flight simulators, and other types of simulation technologies. Through game constructs, we can simulate realistic situations to provide val...

Suzanne de Castell is a professor of curriculum and instruction at Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada V5A 1S6; e-mail: [email protected]. Her interests centre on relations between media and epistemology, with particular reference to problems of knowledge formation, non-formal learning, and game-based curriculum design. Her recent publications include ‘Object lessons: Towards an education...

The Tactical Language and Culture Training System (TLCTS) helps learners acquire basic communicative skills in foreign languages and cultures. Learners acquire communication skills through a combination of interactive lessons and serious games. Artificial intelligence plays multiple roles in this learning environment: to process the learner’s speech, to interpret and evaluate learner actions, t...

This paper discusses the conceptual, practical and ethical considerations towards the development of a framework of experience to inform design and assessment of serious games. Towards this, we review the literature on experience in interaction design, HCI, and games, and identify that the dominant focus for design has been, and still remains, on positive and fun experience. In contrast, anythi...