America’s Army is the most successful Serious Game to date, and it is referenced at just about every conference. Initially developed as an U.S. Army PR tool, it also has a large civilian following. © America’s Army 2005.

One of the hot topics at the recent Game Developers Conference was Serious Games, videogames used for learning — by students learning physics in schools, by surgeons in hospitals, by corporations to train salesmen, by the Army to train soldiers in combat, by the Forestry Service to practice firefighting, and even by the Secret Service, to learn how to respond to crisis events.

In a time when it’s getting much more expensive and risky to produce games for entertainment (costs for PlayStation 3 games are expected to routinely top $10 million), Serious Games offer an interesting possibility for game houses to create moderately priced games, do some good for society, and get paid up front to prop up cash flow.

To better understand what learning games are all about, it helps to get a broad view of some of the different types being developed in the market right now.

Types of Learning Games
The types of learning games run the gamut, and may be used for just about any application involving training. The sober approach is to see where the funding comes from (“Show me the money!”) — this points to a smaller number of categories, including games sponsored by the military and other government agencies, health care organizations, first responders and emergency management groups, professional groups such as attorneys, and specialized niche categories such as religious, political, yoga and exercise, and social change.

In Harpoon 3 the scenario focuses on the Falkland Islands and features zoom-maps. Here, the selected submarine S 48 Conqueror and several aircraft close in on two enemy vessels. © Advanced Gaming Systems.

America’s Army (www.americasarmy.com) is the most successful Serious Game to date, and you will hear it referenced at just about every conference. Initially funded by the Army as a pr tool, and produced by the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, for an initial cost of around $8 million, America’s Army is now used for actual training of soldiers, using existing and even experimental weapons. It also has a large civilian following — more than six million players belong to the online community, which can download the game for free. Gameplay options continue to grow, with around $10 million per year being spent for upgrades and new categories. America’s Army is now also available for Sony PlayStation 2 and Microsoft Xbox game consoles.

Harpoon 3, by Advanced Gaming Systems (www.advancedgaming.biz) is a game for the U.S. Navy that can also be played by civilians for entertainment. This is an example of an industry trend to develop both entertainment and Serious Game versions of the same basic game, thereby re-using digital assets and saving production costs. The “Harpoon” referred to is not for killing whales, but is an anti-ship missile used by the Navy in combat.

Tactical Iraqi (www.isi.edu/stories/101.html) is a game created by the University of Southern California Information Sciences Institute (USC ISI). It introduces the player into social settings in Iraq, where he learns and tries out both the Arabic language and his understanding of the various social symbols, gestures and cultural habits of that country. The game was funded by the Department of Defense, which has had an ongoing $10 million per year contract with the University, sometimes called “Hollywood meets the Pentagon.”