This week we get serious about serious games. It’s a known fact that the best kind of learning comes as a result of well-designed experiences and as such games, with their high level of engagement and interaction, serve as the right mode for learning.

That iPads and smartphones have made their presence felt inside the classroom is a given now. Know how they will soon replace the classroom computers. Also get a sneak peak into the future of learning.

Read it all here in our Weekly Digest – a collection of our top 8 links from the week gone by, each accompanied by a quick brief.

I’ve been obsessing about the design of games lately and have attempted to study some of the patterns of good games. First off, these observations are driven mainly by the games I’m playing on and off currently – Patapon 1 & 2, Crysis, the Sims 3, Civilization 5, Angry Birds, and Need for Speed. Of these, Patapon is the one I’m enjoying the most as I compete against my six-year-old, and more so because it’s a very quirky, interesting game that runs on a portable platform with a very cool game mechanic.

1. Do Serious Games Work? Results from Three Studies
Some studies help answer some of the questions now surrounding serious games-or games whose primary purpose is something other than entertainment, such as military training, education, physical therapy-and determine the relationship between the use of video games and learning as measured on standardized tests. More research is needed, but these findings provide some answers to both skeptics and supporters.

Recently I’ve been consulting with a customer on the design of a series of digital learning games for sales training. Most clients have done their research online about serious games, and find the whole gamut of samples, demos, etc. Clients typically have some thoughts about what they feel are serious games and whose game-play and mechanics they intended to emulate. Just one look at their collated ‘portfolio’ was enough to tell me that none of the content in the portfolio was really a serious game. What followed was the diplomatic squashing preconceived ideas about what serious games were in their (client’s) training context.

We receive requests for information about game-based learning development services. Customers have determined that using digital games is a good choice, but aren’t quite certain about whether it’s a casual or serious game they need.
There are pronounced differences between casual and serious games. I’d like to delve a bit deeper into differences I see as being more important when deciding which way to go. The differences between casual and serious games seem to lie squarely in two domains: Instructional Outcomes, and Use of Technology.

We’ve been following GDC’s Serious Games Summit, and the Serious Game portal has just posted about emerging trends in the serious games market as evident from the summit presentations and discussions. You can view the article here.