Serious Games Essay

By Andrea Patiño Orrego

Serious Games purpose clearly is to give additional value to existing engines and devices to make them serve for lofty purposes. This to my point of view, should be the goal of all inventions: to serve humanity and improve its life quality. Virtual games has the possibility to capture user attention easily, people tends to get release of their daily routines and get involve for the curiosity caused by innovation and creative ways of entertainment. According to [1] there are several classifications for Serious Games given by different criterias: Market-based and Purpose-based. Into Market-based, classification include: Defense, Training and Education Games, Advertising, Information and Communication, Health, Culture and Activism; while in Purpose-based category there are : Edugames, Advergames, Newsgames, Activist games, Edumarket games, Training and Simulation games Market-based category, as its name indicates based its activities on the target customers or “markets” (who play the games). Purpose-based is focused on the intention every serious games is designed to serve for. Another types are: persuasive games, organizational-dynamic games, exergaming and art-games. Given the huge categorization diversity, it is difficult try to embrace all technologies sufficiently in few pages. Specially because the selection of technologies and devices highly depends on type of serious games. Additionally an exhaustive list can be found in [2]. Therefore avoiding to be repetitive maybe is better to give a different perspective and instead give some statistics reflecting the characteristics of the next set of free and open source technologies used in serious games: FlashPunk, Flixel, Allegro library, Build engine, id Tech 1, id Tech 2, id Tech 3, ioquake3, Quake engine, Sge2d, Stratagus, Axiom Engine, OpenSimulator, ORX, 3D Rad, Adventure Game Studio, Aleph One, Box2D, Cafu Engine, ClanLib, Crystal Space, Cube, Cube 2, Delta3d, ENIGMA, Exult, FLARE, Flexible Isometric Free Engine, GameKit (OgreKit), Gameplay, Grit, Haaf's Game Engine (HGE), Horde3D, HPl 1 engine, id Tech 4, Indielib, Irrlicht Engine, IwGame Engine, K-Grunt, Linderdaum Engine, Maratis, Moai SDK, Nebula Device, PixelLight, PLIB, PushButton Engine, Retribution Engine, SFML-Fork, Sphere, Spring, URGE, Wire3D, WorldForge, BRGameEngine, Construct Classic, Ardor3D, DimensioneX Multiplayer Engine, Env3D, Jake2, jMonkeyEngine, Jogre, LWJGL, JGame, Gamvas, Storymoto, LÖVE, Lavgine, nxPascal, Kobold2D, ZenGL, Blender, Panda3D, Multiverse Platform, Cocos2d, Ignifuga Game Engine, Eclipse Origins.

Graph 1. As can be see in Graph 1. The most used Primary Language is C++ , followed by JavaScript and a combination of C and C++.

Graph2.

From all technologies only 8 of them are not Cross Platform: 3D Rad, BRGameEngine, Build engine, Construct Classic, Indielib, Multiverse Platform, Retribution Engine and from them, Eclipse Origins support only windows

Graph 3. This cage shows that only 36% of the technologies use Simple Directmedia Layer. Graph 4. Show the number of technologies that is 3D, 2.5D or 2D oriented. With this brief overview the intention is to move to a preferable category line and dive into it, in order to find a specific approach and of my personal interest, that satisfy also the requirements about technology, style, frameworks, etc. For that reason, the chosen one is Exergaming. EXERGAMING One memorable example of exergaming is the well known Konami’sDance Dance Revolution which was released on 1998 and according to [3] was the first major successful application of exergaming genre. This genre is differentiated of many others in the sense that this uses video game physical interfaces for physical iteration, so that movement can be tracked and provide physical routines; for instance: dancing, sports, and other disciplines. Furthermore, those interfaces allows extension to another fields not necessarily related to serious games, but not less important, such rehabilitation and movement research.

Technologies: Consoles: Sony Playstation Move, Nintentdo Wii, Microsoft Xbox 360 Kinect. Initial interfaces dated from 1980’s with the Nintendo PowerPad and then in 2004 Eye toy, which was attached to play-station. The newest technologies compete in quality: Wii Remote Plus & Sensor Bar and PlayStation Move Eye & Motion Controller: can recognize 3d information of movement acceleration and rotation of the controller, while Wii Balance Board detect 2D displacement information of gravity center. On the other hand, Xbox 360 Kinect sensor can track 3D position and orientation of objects. Apparently this last one overcomes some advantages, it does not require the user to hold controllers and can recognized scenes. Only PlayStation Move Eye & Motion Controller does not have a public SDK. Wii Remote Plus &

Sensor Bar Wii Balance Board PlayStation Move

Eye & Motion Controller

Xbox 360 Kinect sensor

Sensor devices

Remote Plus: IR camera

(128*96 pixels), 3D gyro sensor, 3D acceleration

sensor @ 100Hz.

Sensor Bar : highlighting IR

LEDs.

Multi pressure sensors @

100Hz

PS Move Eye: 640*480pixels @

60fps, 320*240pixels @

120fps with directive microphone.

Motion Controller: 3D gyro sensor, 3D acceleration

sensor, geomagnetic

sensor.

Depth camera: 640*480 pixels @

30 Hz,

distance range 0.7m -

6.0m. RGB camera:

640*480 pixels @ 30 Hz.

Multi-array microphone.

Advanta-ges

Hand motion detection with relatively high

temporal resolution. *SDKs are

opened to the public (e.g.,

Wiimote Lib).

Relatively high temporal

resolution. SDK is opened to the public

(Wiimote Lib).

3D hand motion recognition with

high temporal, high spatial resolution and robustness

No need for holding controllers. 3D gesture

recognition. 3D scene

recognition. SDKs are opened to

the public (e.g., OpenNI).

Disadvantages

Limited detection to hand motion.

Difficulty in detection of 3D hand position

Exercise on limited area (the

board area of 511 mm*316

mm).

Hand tracking only (upper body motion can be estimated by

using Inverse Kinematics, but the estimation accuracy

Low temporal

resolution.

Difficulty in occluded

motion recognition.

Difficulty in

recognition of motion

would be worse). that does not change

depth information

(e.g., arm axial

rotation).

Exergaming interfaces [3] GAMES: As stated above, Dance Dance Revolution (DDR), by Konami. In the Groove, by RedOctane; this sold millions of console copies in United states and is popular in video game arcades. EyeToy: offers a variety of workouts, ranging from combat, in which players kick and punch images of falling objects; to active cardio exercises, gym workouts, and karate moves; to toning exercises, yoga, and tai-chi. A virtual trainer moves the player through a 12-week fitness program that becomes increasingly challenging over time, and the player’s progress can be saved and reviewed. Yourself!Fitness: uses a virtual trainer to guide the user in daily workouts, the game keeps track of the user progress and can be adapted to user preferences or abilities . Connect 4 and Bop it: uses a stair stepper machine which interfaces with a video game’s console. These were two games from a collection of games called Family Fun Night 2. ATV Off Road Fury : a form of virtual bike that resembles a traditional bike that allows children to control all onscreen actions, including steering, speed, turns, and other strategies. Kinet Adventures: set of games offered with Microsoft Kinect, two people can play at the same of six that are tracked. SOCIAL IMPACT In the case of Exergames the social impact is significant. Common videogames as well as TV programs and other technologies tend to increment sedentary lifestyle, but Exergames encourage people to use their bodies movements to interact with the videogames. According to [3] some studies reveal that significant elevation in energy expenditure in comparison with watching TV, additionally children show to enjoy participating in exergaming. Similar studies conducted show that from two groups of children, one who received and upgrade to ther PS2 and others than not, the first half were engaged in more physical activities and as a result get a reduction on their waist circumferences when comparing them with the second half.

On the other hand, it would be interesting to analyzed if people or children tend to set aside sports or other typical activities outdoors and what is preferable and how this can lead to less social interaction. Personally I consider in general, technology can be good or bad depending on the use we give to it. This is the same for video games or in this case, serious games. Use or abuse delimits the borders between benefits or consequences. When serious games are not only in charge of profit organizations and instead are linked to other type of communities in areas such: education, health, arts, etc.; that look for social grow, technology purposes increase their value and begin a important element in the evolution of humanity. Bibliograpy [1] http://www.ludoscience.com/files/ressources/classifying_serious_games.pdf [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_game_engines [3] A Comparison of Exergaming Interfaces for Use in Rehabilitation Programs and

Research [4] Dance Games and Other Exergames: What the Research Says [5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serious_game#Classification