The Industry and Policy Context for Digital Games for Empowerment and Inclusion:Market Analysis, Future Prospects and Key Challenges in Videogames, Serious Games and Gamification

The effective use of digital games for empowerment and social inclusion (DGEI) of people and communities at risk of exclusion will be shaped by, and may influence the development of a range of sectors that supply products, services, technology and research. The principal industries that would appear to be implicated are the 'videogames' industry, and an emerging 'serious games' industry. The videogames industry is an ecosystem of developers, publishers and other service providers drawn from the interactive media, software and broader ICT industry that services the mainstream leisure market in games, The 'serious games' industry is a rather fragmented and growing network of firms, users, research and policy makers from a variety of sectors. This emerging industry is are trying to develop knowledge, products, services and a market for the use of digital games, and products inspired by digital games, for a range of non-leisure applications. This report provides a summary of the state of play of these industries, their trajectories and the challenges they face. It also analyses the contribution they could make to exploiting digital games for empowerment and social inclusion. Finally, it explores existing policy towards activities in these industries and markets, and draws conclusions as to the future policy relevance of engaging with them to support innovation and uptake of effective digital game-based approaches to empowerment and social inclusion.JRC.J.3-Information Societ

Le besoin en compétences et en développement des senior revenue managers: le serious game est-il l’outil idéal pour leur formation?

Ce travail explore le besoin en compétences et en développement d’un senior revenue manager des temps modernes. La littérature actuelle atteste, d’une part, de l’évolution de la fonction et des responsabilités d’un revenue manager et, d’autre part, du manque de professionnels qualifiés dans la branche du revenue management. Les objectifs de la présente recherche sont donc de déterminer les compétences dont un senior revenue manager doit idéalement être doté, d’identifier les domaines dans lesquels un perfectionnement est nécessaire, ainsi que d’examiner les possibilités d’utilisation d’un serious game pour le développement des compétences des senior revenue managers

Mapping the Monetization Challenge of Gaming in Various Domains

The cost of developing successful games for either entertainment or business purposes is a high-risk investment but mandatory due to the nature of the sector. However, there are discrete and innovative ways that minimize the investments risk and assure profitability without losing the player’s engagement. Gaming monetization can be approached from direct or indirect financial charges based on the scope of the game and its target group. As of today, no monetization practice can be considered as a silver bullet as they are all affected by geographical, cultural, social, economic and other factors. This paper attempts to define the major monetization elements in the gaming industry. It also attempts to define the major gaming categories and subcategories and associate on them the monetization elements and techniques. Furthermore, it creates a map for the development of gamification monetization approaches per case which can contribute towards effective gaming investments management

Exploring business models for medical games: Key components and challenges

The costs of health care are going up in many countries. In order to provide affordable and effective health care solutions, new technologies and approaches are constantly being developed. In this research, video games are presented as a possible solution to the problem. Video games are fun, and nowadays most people like to spend time on them. In addition, recent studies have pointed out that video games can have notable health benefits. Health games have already been developed, used in practice, and researched. However, the bulk of health game studies have been concerned with the design or the effectiveness of the games; no actual business studies have been conducted on the subject, even though health games often lack commercial success despite their health benefits. This thesis seeks to fill this gap. The specific aim of this thesis is to develop a conceptual business model framework and empirically use it in explorative medical game business model research. In the first stage of this research, a literature review was conducted and the existing literature analyzed and synthesized into a conceptual business model framework consisting of six dimensions. The motivation behind the synthesis is the ongoing ambiguity around the business model concept. In the second stage, 22 semi-structured interviews were conducted with different professionals within the value network for medical games. The business model framework was present in all stages of the empirical research: First, in the data collection stage, the framework acted as a guiding instrument, focusing the interview process. Then, the interviews were coded and analyzed using the framework as a structure. The results were then reported following the structure of the framework. In the results, the interviewees highlighted several important considerations and issues for medical games concerning the six dimensions of the business model framework. Based on the key findings of this research, several key components of business models for medical games were identified and illustrated in a single figure. Furthermore, five notable challenges for business models for medical games were presented, and possible solutions for the challenges were postulated. Theoretically, these findings provide pioneering information on the untouched subject of business models for medical games. Moreover, the conceptual business model framework and its use in the novel context of medical games provide a contribution to the business model literature. Regarding practice, this thesis further accentuates that medical games can offer notable benefits to several stakeholder groups and offers advice to companies seeking to commercialize these games.siirretty Doriast

Localization in educational mobile games: Multiple case studies of educational mobile games in the emerging market, Vietnam

The thesis studies the localization/globalization of educational mobile games in emerging markets, particularly Vietnam. In detail, the thesis investigates how an educational mobile game company balances their localization strategy in the pressure of Global Integration-Local Responsiveness (GI-LR), the drivers behind the localization choice and level, and how players react to the strategy. The study reviews and summaries literature review related to GI-LR for MNEs and localization strategy for born-globals and suggests a framework for educational mobile game companies. The literature review indicated that while born-globals try to standardize their products, due to external and internal drivers, they have to adapt to local responsiveness on some levels. The suggested framework indicated that there are three levels of localization for educational game companies: simple, complex, and blending; besides standardization strategy. The thesis focuses on external drivers such as cultural differences and customer demands and studies how this affects the localization level of each game company. The thesis employs multiple case studies to compare different educational game companies that have different localization levels and serve different customer demands. The data collected from both America and Vietnam reviews similarities and differences in how users of each region perceive the games, react to the localization level of the games and suggest game improvements. The study figured out that cultural differences, especially language, and customer demands can change the level of localization of educational game companies. The level of localization can extend to one or several elements of the game. Users from Vietnam noticed some limitations of local language courses and suggested having their local language to be able to understand some games. In the context of emerging markets which have diverse culture and demands, educational game companies should do intense market research in advance to check whether they need to alter the localization level, reducing or raising the total cost of expanding to emerging markets

Working in Australia's digital games industry

The Working in Australia’s Digital Games Industry: A Consolidation Report is the outcome of a comprehensive study on the games industry in Australia by Dr Sandra Haukka from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation (CCI) based at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane. The study responds to concerns that Australia’s games industry would not reach its full potential due to a lack of local, highly skilled staff, and a lack of appropriately trained graduates with the necessary knowledge and skills. This is the first of two reports produced with the support of the Games Developers’ Association of Australia. Over coming months researchers will develop a future skills strategy report for the industry

Company-university collaboration in applying gamification to learning about insurance

Incorporating gamification into training–learning at universities is hampered by a shortage of quality, adapted educational video games. Large companies are leading in the creation of educational video games for their internal training or to enhance their public image and universities can benefit from collaborating. The aim of this research is to evaluate, both objectively and subjectively, the potential of the simulation game BugaMAP (developed by the MAPFRE Foundation) for university teaching about insurance. To this end, we have assessed both the game itself and the experience of using the game as perceived by 142 economics students from various degree plans and courses at the University of Seville during the 2017–2018 academic year. As a methodology, a checklist of gamification components is used for the objective evaluation, and an opinion questionnaire on the game experience is used for the subjective evaluation. Among the results several findings stand out. One is the high satisfaction of the students with the knowledge acquired using fun and social interaction. Another is that the role of the university professors and the company monitors turns out to be very active and necessary during the game-learning sessions. Finally, in addition to the benefits to the university of occasionally available quality games to accelerate student skills training, the company–university collaboration serves as a trial and refinement of innovative tools for game-based learning