Playing Seriously Together - A Study of Serious Games and Cooperation: A Study of Serious Games and Cooperation

Friberg, Fie Marie

4. term

Medialogy, Master

2017

2017-06-02

53 pages

The use of video games for purposes other than entertainment has been on a steady rise in popularity over the last decade. The games, known broadly as serious games and deep games, enable possibilities for awareness and global social understanding, which could benefit modern society. Many aspects of game design have yet to be considered for serious and deep games, which is why this thesis analyze and discusses the use of multiplayer and cooperation mechanics as a potential evolutionary development of these games. It does so through the history of serious games, the discussions of the problematic etymology, and by analyzing and comparing two serious game design tools and subsequently created a brief guideline. Afterwards, a serious game with cooperation mechanics was created to test the impact of multiplayer experiences in serious games. The test concluded that there could be potential tendencies of the cooperation outweighing the individual’s interpretation, but the game itself did not provide a clear enough message to determine this with certainty. However, the data supported the discussion of the etymology and the relative obscurity of these games.

The use of video games for purposes other than entertainment has been on a steady rise in popularity over the last decade. The games, known broadly as serious games and deep games, enable possibilities for awareness and global social understanding, which could benefit modern society. Many aspects of game design have yet to be considered for serious and deep games, which is why this thesis analyze and discusses the use of multiplayer and cooperation mechanics as a potential evolutionary development of these games. It does so through the history of serious games, the discussions of the problematic etymology, and by analyzing and comparing two serious game design tools and subsequently created a brief guideline. Afterwards, a serious game with cooperation mechanics was created to test the impact of multiplayer experiences in serious games. The test concluded that there could be potential tendencies of the cooperation outweighing the individual’s interpretation, but the game itself did not provide a clear enough message to determine this with certainty. However, the data supported the discussion of the etymology and the relative obscurity of these games.

Serious games ; Deep games ; game design ; serious game design ; deep game design ; video games

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