Playing Seriously Together - A Study of Serious Games and Cooperation: A Study of Serious Games and Cooperation
Author
Friberg, Fie Marie
Term
4. term
Education
Publication year
2017
Submitted on
2017-06-02
Pages
53
Abstract
I det seneste årti er videospil med formål ud over ren underholdning - ofte kaldet 'serious games' og 'deep games' - blevet mere udbredte. De har til hensigt at øge viden, skabe opmærksomhed og fremme bredere samfundsforståelse. Mange designspørgsmål er dog stadig åbne. Dette speciale undersøger, om multiplayer og samarbejdsmekanikker (funktioner der kræver, at spillere arbejder sammen) kan være et næste skridt i udviklingen af sådanne spil. Arbejdet gennemgår serious games' historie, diskuterer de problematiske betegnelser og hvad de indebærer, sammenligner to designværktøjer til serious games og foreslår på den baggrund en kort designvejledning. Derefter udvikles et kooperativt serious game for at teste, hvordan multiplayer påvirker oplevelsen. Resultaterne peger på en tendens til, at samarbejdet kan komme til at overskygge den enkeltes fortolkning af spillets budskab, men prototypens budskab var ikke klart nok til at bekræfte dette med sikkerhed. Dataene understøttede til gengæld diskussionen om terminologien og at disse spil stadig er relativt ukendte for mange.
Over the last decade, video games made for more than entertainment - often called 'serious games' and 'deep games' - have become more common. They aim to raise awareness and foster broader social understanding. Yet many design questions remain. This thesis examines whether multiplayer and cooperation mechanics (features that require players to work together) could be a next step for these games. It reviews the history of serious games, discusses the problematic terminology and what the labels imply, compares two serious-game design tools, and, based on this, proposes a short design guideline. Next, a cooperative serious game was built to test the impact of multiplayer on players' experience. The findings suggest a tendency for teamwork to overshadow each player's personal interpretation of the game's message, but the prototype's message was not clear enough to confirm this with certainty. Even so, the data supported concerns about the terminology and the fact that these games remain relatively obscure to many.
[This abstract was generated with the help of AI]
Keywords
Documents