Better results require better games.
Better games require better knowledge.
Games and simulations are becoming serious business
with serious applications. They are being used in more and more public and
private realms, with the added meaning that results from these games and
simulations are increasingly affecting real world affairs. By association,
there is a growing demand for knowledge about the design and application of
games and simulations, especially for serious applications. This demand
currently far outstrips supply, because the knowledge is dispersed over many
organizations, business and academic disciplines, because it is strongly
individualized, and because it often is anecdotal in nature lacking clear and
consistent guidelines explaining design or application. This topic area aims to improve this
situation by creating a platform that brings this knowledge together and makes it
accessible. By providing this platform, the topic area should contribute to
building better and more effective games and simulations, improve the
effectiveness of their application, and the validity and utility of their
results.
Ambition and Professional development
At any time that a new technology or science is
discovered, created and developed standards will eventually evolve about
concept and languages to discuss it, as well as about the best practices for
building and creating new stuff with these technologies or sciences.
Games and simulations have been around for a very long
time, and have been seriously used for at least 200 years now. Therefore it is
about time that we articulate and share our combined knowledge and experience to
improve the state of the art in design an application of games and simulation.
Especially as the use of games and simulations grows exponentially and as
results are applied to real world problems.
This topic area is created to foster, facilitate and
support the development and evolution of the state of the art in gaming and
simulation, and perhaps in particular in the evolution game-simulations that
combine the two in serious applications.
At the moment knowledge and experience in game design
and application is dispersed over many different user communities, design
companies, and academic disciplines. If we want to really raise the state of
the art in game design and simulation we need to bring together this vast
amount of knowledge and experience. Our ambition is to support and improve the
development and evolution of Standards in
the Design, the Applications, and
the Science of entertaining and
serious games, simulations and game-simulations. In this manner we intend to become
the premier Website for collecting, sharing and transmitting knowledge and
experience about the ‘State of the Art’
in gaming and simulation. We will facilitate, support and improve access & utilization of the knowledge and experience available through this
topic area. At all times it will present the ‘State of the Art’ in gaming and
simulation. We expect to support this effort next year with the establishment
of a Peer Reviewed Journal, with paper
versions on demand.
Intended Audience
The topic area on Gaming and Simulation is intended
for a broad audience of Designers, Practitioners, Educators and Researchers
involved in research, design or application of games, game-simulations, and
simulation models. At this stage of development we need the multiple
perspectives that this broad audience will bring in order to build a
comprehensive, relevant and useful knowledge base for developing and improving
standards.
- For Game Designers, the topic area will show
best practices in game design, the latest technological solutions, and the
latest requirement standards for each application domain and purpose.
- For Developers of
Computer Technology, the topic area will show the latest standards in
game and simulation technology, together with the latest requirements for
technology put forward by users, designers and or researchers.
- For Educators, the topic area provide information on what
students need to know and what skills they need to acquire for successful
design and successful application of games and simulation models, for each
application domain and purpose.
- For Practitioners, the topic area will
show best practices in the application of games and simulation models.
- For Researchers, the topic area is
about the state of the art and developing knowledge in the design and
application of games and simulations.
Defining games, game-simulations and simulations
Games and simulation is a broad topic with many
elements covering many disciplines. To improve the state of the art in game
technology and simulation models, we need to understand what the composing elements
of games and simulations are and how
they fit together in games and simulations and how they affect behavior of
games and simulations. These composing elements form the fundamental & standard building blocks of each and every game
and simulation. By focusing on these building blocks we can accomplish two things:
1) We are enabled to cover and
debate each design and application, establishing effective architectures,
design specifications and user-requirements.
2) By focusing on the standard
building block we enable, support and facilitate the evolution of a standard
vocabulary for the effective exchange of knowledge and experience. In this
manner it will improve the standard in the science and art in game design and
application.
This can be illustrated by a car metaphor. We all know
about cars, we see them everyday in all kinds of shapes and colors, and many
different types (lorry, fire-engine, police car, ambulance, etc). To understand
how all of these cars work we do not need to understand each and every type.
What we do need to understand are the elements that constitute a car, and
further, how we can adapt each car to its purpose. For the first we need to
understand the building blocks of a car (wheels, engine, frame, body, seats,
steering wheel and gearbox) and how these can be fitted together. Secondly, we
need to understand the application domain and the functions that the car needs
to fulfill. Together these two knowledge area’s enable us to discuss the design
and application of cars for any application.
Figure 1
Figure 1 shows a graphical definition of gaming and
simulation as presented by Richard (Dick) Duke and later expanded upon by Ivo
Wenzler and Swen Stoop. It shows that game and simulations are abstracted
representations of reality, the level of abstraction being depended on purpose
we aim to achieve. The orange circle in the middle shows the game-simulation
and its application environment. To the left and right we see the 5 most basic
building blocks of games and simulations. These are:
- Content (what and who): describes the topic area of games and
simulations, about what and who is represented. Each topic area, or each
domain in which it is used, may result in additional (dedicated) requirements
for game and simulation design and application. The element ‘content’
includes the scenario’s that are used in the game or simulation.
- Purpose: describes the goal
for which the game or simulation is made. For example, entertainment,
education, research, training, decision making, planning, socialization,
communication, etc. Each category of purpose may result in additional (or
dedicated) requirements for game and simulation design and application.
- Games: are about the nature of the interaction
between players and between players and the game, usually described in the
game-rules. This also includes knowledge about interaction-mechanisms and their
effects.
- Simulation: Provide a
representation of real world objects and or processes that behave like their
real world counterparts. In games simulation models are used to create a dynamic
environment (i.e. models of objects, and processes) in which game-play
will take place.
- Media
Technology: Is about the environment in which the games and
simulation are represented and played. For example: carton board and paper or plastic
playing pieces in a board game, or metal figures and model buildings in
table top games, or virtual worlds and figures in a computer game. For
digital games Media Technology includes all kind of digital technologies
like software programming, video technology, digital animation, network
languages etc.
There is a growing fuzzy overlap involving games and
simulations forming something we identify as game-simulations. is are blurring,
particularly with serious application in education, training, research and
innovation. In these cases the concept of more appropriate. Still, the concepts
of game and simulation are used because they relate to different aspects. Games
are activities that are mostly oriented at improving human cognitive and
tasking skills, while simulations are activities that are mostly oriented at
representing reality as good as possible. Here the concepts of games and
simulations help us understand and communicate the capabilities, functions and
utility of games and simulations.
Scope
At DS Online the topic area Games and Simulation is
about games and simulations in a digital environment. We would also like to
focus on distributed online games and simulations and on standardization.
Feedback & Contact
We want your feedback and
comments on this topic area, its content and format. The success of this topic
area relies on the development of a community that reads and contributes to its
development. The development of standards for game technology and simulation models
depends on practitioners, designers, educators and researchers communicating
and sharing knowledge and experience about the best practice in design and
application.
Please contact us at: dsonline-games@computer.org
Edited April 2007, version 0.1 Swen