Exploration of the Serious Games Taxonomy

Serous games for employees.

Ship simulator
Vstep

Overview

Why did I pick it?
it may look like a normal game, like the Microsoft flight Sims but it did not start out at such.
At the time I did my internship there this project was still a training simulator just to train employees on ships in the Rotterdam ports.
So I still think it is a valid game for my subject.

where the game can be downloaded or played

• http://www.shipsim.com/downloads/trailers.php?PHPSESSID=fac029b44d6b2f73c4d3866d5c404d49

hardware requirements for the game

Who created the game?

Vstep www.vstep.nl

who is using the game and for what purpose?

In the past it was created to train personnel on large ships mainly for in the docks of Rotterdam and later it was expanded and made into a game.

What YOU learned from playing the game.

To be honest I worked on making the original and I know that all the mayor functions and commands that come with sailing these vessels was in the original. Unfortunately most of the true to life functions have been replaced with unrealistic controllers in the final game version.

Which Serious Game sub-domain the game fits within.

Training for employees (training for people wanting to become captains)

give it a score out of 36 as per the rubric

Complete, Correct and Well-Rounded Content:               1
Focused on the Topic:                                                                 3
Encourages Active Player Participation:                            3
Problem Solving:                                                                            1
User Interface:                                                                               3
Genre:                                                                                                 3
Integration of game play and content:                                 3
Assessment:                                                                                    2
Scalable:                                                                                            3
Interoperable:                                                                                2
Editable:                                                                                            0
Reusable:                                                                                          3

TOTAL

27 Out of 36

Full Spectrum Warrior
pandamic studios

Why did I pick it?
Like the Vstep game this also is a training simulation and later turned into a entertainment game.
I thought it would bring a good contrast between two training games and how some word as normal games while others don’t

where the game can be downloaded or played

• http://www.fileshack.com/file.x/5463/Full+Spectrum+Warrior+Demo

hardware requirements for the game

Who created the game?

pandamic studios  http://www.pandemicstudios.com/corp/index.php

who is using the game and for what purpose?

It was created for the American army to train their soldiers how to act during a conflict.
So they could gain experience in how to handle enemy contacts and how to work in squad’s whiteout ever having to be exposed to dangerous environments or other dangerous envirements.

What YOU learned from playing the game.

I learned how the military handles themselves in a conflict, that it is not just a run and gun mentality, but that there is really thought about it.
On the other side, I could see why it failed as a serious game.
As I heard for Andrew and found out for myself now, the game has dangerous flags as far as training goes for military personnel.
For example the windows are fake (non see through) this works for a normal game, but for training for soldiers this could mean the difference between life and death.
Someone could easily shoot them if he was standing in a building and the soldier would have never experienced that in the simulator.

Which Serious Game sub-domain the game fits within.

Training for employees (training for people wanting to become soldiers)

give it a score out of 36 as per the rubric

Complete, Correct and Well-Rounded Content:               3
Focused on the Topic:                                                                 3
Encourages Active Player Participation:                           3
Problem Solving:                                                                           1
User Interface:                                                                               3
Genre:                                                                                                 2
Integration of game play and content:                                 1
Assessment:                                                                                    2
Scalable:                                                                                            2
Interoperable:                                                                                2
Editable:                                                                                            3
Reusable:                                                                                          1

TOTAL

26 Out of 36

Complete, Correct and Well-Rounded Content:
ship simulator.
This game has almost everything that you would encounter in real life (the original even had all the things you would encounter in real life) and it is done correctly.
The player will get a completely feel for what it takes to handle the ship and how to handle it correctly.
This makes for a good simulator but a terribly boring game.
Full spectrum warrior.
This game handles most of the things a soldier would encounter in a real combat but because of the fact that it was originally meant to train soldiers it’s a has a fatal flaw in the fact that it does not handle every aspect that the soldier would encounter and that would be fatal.

Reusable:
ship simulator.
The game is reusable multiple times because the system can be changes for different weather conditions and types of ships so that it can be reused multiple times.
Full spectrum warrior.
The game has scripted events and every replay would result in similar encounters that would be useless to train someone to think fast and on their feet

Conclusion
ship simulator is a good training game because it handles the aspects, but it is a terrible entertainment game because real life sailing is not as exciting as one would expect.
While full spectrum warrior is a terrible simulator for training because it does not handle all the subjects, but it is a great game for entertainment because it is action packed and fast.

Introduction

In this review we will be comparing America’s Army with Virtual Battlespace 2. Both are serious games in the games for training genre in the defense sector. The two games are for training military personal in virtual combat situations. Although America’s Army is also primarily used as a recruitment tool while as VBS2 is primarily used for training.

Game: America’s Army

The main focus of America’s Army is on team-based multiplayer battles. The entire game is centered around the idea of working as a squad of US Army soldiers. Both sides see themselves as American soldiers (to avoid any potential controversy) and the opposite side as a fictional nationality.

The attention to detail is very important in this game. Smooth, good looking animations and realistic looking guns and soldiers combined with realistic sounds make for an immersive gameplay.

America’s Army comes with a standard amount of maps that are iterations from previous versions of the game. With each map you can choose a different mode like VIP (where you need to escort a Very Important Person to safety, while the other team hunts him down), some Capture the flag modes, … but you could ignore those and just try to kill the opposing team.

The latest version of the game is called America’s Army 3 but basically it is just an iteration of the previous versions with better graphics and some patched up things. Although the game does have a few bugs like glitch-y animations, people can’t complain because of the price, it’s free.

Links

• Official website: http://www.americasarmy.com/downloads/

• Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DTQqdFdlas

Minimum hardware requirements

• Microsoft Windows XP (with Service Pack 2)
• Processor (CPU): 3.0+ GHz Single Core CPU
• Memory (RAM): 1GB RAM
• Video Card: Direct X 9.0c compliant, Shader 3.0 enabled video card with 256MB RAM (NVIDIA 6600 or better/ATI X1300 or better)
• Sound Card: Direct X 9.0c compliant sound card (Minimum)
• Hard Drive Space: 5GB free hard drive space
• Network: Broadband Internet Connection
• DVD-ROM: 4x DVD-ROM (Disc Copies Only)

Developer

U.S. Army

Evaluation

Score: 25/36

Game: Virtual BattleSpace 2 (VBS2)

Virtual BattleSpace 2 (VBS2) is a military grade simulation of air, land, and sea small unit combat. it doesn’t come with any already made missions at all, except for 2 simple training missions, an obstacle course and a weapons range. It has a very extensive tool kit for level creation and the like. That being said that is all that you get with the game. It is up to the player/company/army that bought it to make the levels/scenarios that is has a need for and wants to train for.

This product is strictly for training only since it has no single player missions of multiplayer for itself (need to have a LAN with lots of other trainees on it). If a person really would like to have a go at a game there is a commercial version of the game available called ArmA. It basically has all the missing features that this game lacks.

Links

• Official website: http://virtualbattlespace.vbs2.com/

• Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_3zIodwGXw

Minimum hardware requirements

• Processor (CPU): 2.4+ GHz Single Core CPU
• Memory (RAM): 2GB RAM
• Video Card: video card with 512MB RAM (NVIDIA 9600 or better)
• Hard Drive Space: 20GB free hard drive space

Developer

Bohemia Interactive

Evaluation

Score: 33/36

Comparison

Both games are realistic first-person shooters but because the the primary focus of both games are different it is hard to compare the two. The edit-ability, scalability and reusability of America’s Army may be less than VBS2 but I believe that in the right hands the content creation tools of America’s Army to create the level and gameplay can be just as good as VBS2’s creation tools.

The biggest difference between the two games is the player base. America’s Army is accessible to everybody and thus has a very big player community giving it a lot of extra content and support. The fact that VBS2 is only used as a battle simulator by a select number of people does not encourage a lot of extra development or support.

Conclusion

Both games are proper serious games but VBS2 is more focused on the training aspect of soldiers than America’s Army is. I would have to say that for quick combat situations where the player only needs to focus on reflexes, enemies and some team based strategy, America’s Army would be the game to use. But for actual and strategic combat with the ability to make very specific combat situations with an extensive creation kit I would recommend VBS2.