ABSTRACT

Digital interactive games for entertainment have been commercially available for 37 years, and, almost from the start, serious games made for learning, skill development, attitude and behavior change, and other purposes beyond entertainment have also been part of the landscape (Malone & Lepper, 1987; Rieber, Smith, & Noah, 1998). Even before the advent of digital interactive games as consumer products, games and simulations supported by mainframe computers were used in education (Coleman, 1971; Suppes, 1967; Suppes, Jerman, & Groen, 1966). The use of games for serious purposes has been controversial amid concerns about the violent and stereotyped content of certain popular entertainment games and the enticement of yet one more screen that could lead people to be more sedentary. However, the resistance has subsided in the past few years, and digital games and game technologies have been gaining wider general acceptance as viable platforms for learning, skill development, behavior change, and other serious aims.