Exploration of the Serious Games Taxonomy

In this serious game review I will be rating and comparing two flash games in the field of physics. Both games try to teach the player several facts about their respective fields in physics.

So, let’s take a look at both these games, and see what’s what!

Laser Challenge

You can play this game for free and without registration here. This serious game deals with the everyday use of laser equipment in modern life. The game consists of two different game section types, a simple platformer section as well as various puzzle sections. Every section has an introduction which explains the game mechanics as well as the controls to be used. The entire game is set up like a simple story, in which the player controls the protagonist who has to set up a party for the celebration of the existence of laser equipment. The game consists of several levels, each starts with a platform-section and finishes with a puzzle-section.

The game teaches the player facts about lasers by presenting a database of facts that the player can browse through. In the process of the game, the player is presented with multiple-choice questions as well as problems that can be solved by looking in the database, and then applying the facts presented in there. The player is awarded disproportinally large amount of points for completing these challenges in comparison with the other gameplay elements that in order to set a high score the player has to apply knowledge from the database. The database is integrated in the game, but not in the gameplay itself. I think that for the parts where the player has to answer multiple choice questions, this non-integration is a problem, but in the more practical puzzle-sections, I don’t think this is as much of a problem.

Rating:
Complete, correct and wellrounded content: 3/3
Focused on the topic: 3/3
Encourages active player participation: 2/3
Problem solving: 2/3
User interface: 3/3
Genre: 1/3
Integration of gameplay and content: 2/3
Assessment: 3/3
Scalable: does not apply
Interoperable: 0/3
Editable: 0/3
Total: 19/33 = 57%

Steel Alloys

You can play this game for free and without registration here. This serious game deals with the use of alloys in different areas in modern life. The game consists of several timed challenges. Basically, the tutor-character in the game, known as the “Chef” will set you a challenge by requesting an alloy from the player for a specific use. The player then has to select the appropriate alloy recipe from a small selection. In the next stage the player has to combine the elements in the selected recipe, after which the player can select a number of item-patterns that should reflect the intended use of the created material. For each phase, the game presents a timer, in which the player can try to correctly solve the problem at hand. When the player makes a mistake, he/she can retry until the allotted time runs out, after which the game will skip to the next section and award no points for that phase. This transition is awkward, and the correct solution is not presented to the player.

The game teaches the player about different alloys and their use in modern day life. The amount of information available is fairly limited, but is integrated in the gameplay. The information presented is incomplete (by it’s own admission), but this is done for reduced game complexity, which I think is an acceptable reason. I don’t think the player is actively learning anything while playing this game, it is basically “match words and forms” without requiring the understanding of what the words mean, not entirely unlike the plastic cube with different holes toddlers play with to fit a plastic shape through the correct hole.

Complete, correct and wellrounded content: 1/3
Focused on the topic: 2/3
Encourages active player participation: 1/3
Problem solving: 0/3
User interface: 2/3
Genre: 1/3
Integration of gameplay and content: 0/3
Assessment: 2/3
Scalable: does not apply
Interoperable: 0/3
Editable: 0/3
Total: 9/33 = 27%

Comparison

Both these games might be used as an extension of in-class material on secondary schools. The “Laser Challenge” game correctly targets this audience by providing information of sufficient quantity and complexity, whereas the “Steel Alloys” game seems to fail miserably by providing gameplay elements targeted at a much younger audience. The information is too complex for younger children, but the gameplay elements are too trivial for the target audience.

The information in both games isn’t really integrated in the gameplay, but in the “Laser Challenge” case the information is required to complete the gameplay challenges, whereas in the “Steel Alloys” case the information isn’t really required for completing the gameplay challenges at all.

The “Laser Challenge” game requires the players active participation and problem solving abilities in order to complete the game, where it is unlikely that the player would succeed without learning the information provided. It’s unfortunate that this information is not presented to the player in an appealing, integrated way, but merely as a database the player can dig in when required. However, in comparison with the “Steel Alloys” game this is still preferable: “Steel Alloys” doesn’t really require any thinking or information absorption to complete the game at all. All problems can be solved by directly matching words to words or forms, without knowing the meaning of either. The only complexity arising from this method is the fact that some of these forms are hard to recognize as any word, but this only makes the game unclear instead of challenging.

The user interface of the games is quite straightforward in both cases, but it is admirable that the “Laser Challenge” presents a graphical representation of the input methods and the upcoming challenge before the challenge actually starts, which is a welcome change from “Steel Alloys” way of figuring it out as you go, while the timer keeps on running.

Because both games are flash-based, they are both scalable to any computer with access to the internet, as well as portable devices with flash-support. However, the games don’t provide any multiplayer interaction, since all players play an instance of the game entirely independently. Because of this property of flash-based games I decided not to rate them on this property, as it doesn’t really apply to them.

Neither of these games is interoperable or editable, but this is common amongst flash-based games. Although there are high-score keeping facilities which might be used as a measurement of players understanding of the information in the game, this information cannot be exported from the game.

Conclusion

This should be quite clear with a 57% versus a 27% score, but here is my final verdict…

The “Steel Alloys” game presents correct but incomplete information to the player, which isn’t so bad, since the information is quite complex. However, this game totally misses the serious game boat by bolting this information on a very simple game with unintuitive controls as well as gameplay of a way to low level. This game most appreciated element is probably the Chef’s animation and voice-acting, which is actually quite funny, but, admittedly, doesn’t raise this game to any useful level in terms of serious gaming. I would advise not wasting your valuable time on this, as I did for writing this review. There’s nothing to see here, please move along to the next paragraph

The “Laser Challenge” game presents correct and complete information to the player, and this information is required to complete the game challenges with a decent score. Although the information is not integrated in the gameplay directly, it is still required to finish the game with a decent score.  I would say that this game as quite informative and valuable as a teaching tool, and is clearly the best game out of the two games reviewed. It’s funny the game should advise laser-based eye-surgery as a valid way to repair someone’s glasses, seeing is how this is totally in the same price- and risk-range. However, this doesn’t take away from the fact that this game is of a very good quality in it’s category!