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Square Moves into Serious Games Biz
Kotaku has the word that Square/Enix is moving into the 'serious' games market. Serious Games, as they're known, attempt to do more than just entertain. Square has never previously created games for education, and so it's quite notable that company strategist Ichiro Otobe is now slated to give the keynote at this year's GDC Serious Games Summit. From the release: "The serious games market represents a new outlet for our skills as a game developer, and it means that we will be serving totally different customers. As such, there are many different kinds of hurdles that must be cleared in order for it to offer meaningful opportunities. I plan to speak about Square Enix's approach to these challenges, and hopefully provide both business and design inspiration for everyone interested in the uses of games beyond entertainment."
I have to wonder why this is the news story when we have current rumours saying Square are selling off Siken Densetsu, Chrono and the Kingdom hearts franchises. Wouldn't this be a massive news story as opposed to Square failing in the educational market?
I like muppets.
"Moogles and Chocobos teach sex education"
Monstar L
So Square is coming to a full circle in game design?
If anything, this announcement should've come months ago when games like Brain Age took over the Japanese sales charts. Such "productivity" titles make perfect sense for a massive studio's diverse portfolio, as they cost less to make and tap into a broader market. Perhaps the studio's ties with Disney will come into play with educational software, for starters?
FFX meets... the lewis & clark expedition... just imagine the boss battle when they get to the mouth of the columbia river... :D
Don't call me back. Give me a call back. Bye. So yeah. But bye our, well, but alright we are on a shirt this chill.
Replacing 'entertain' with 'teach':
They don't teach you anything, but they look absolutely fahhhboulous while they do it!
Among other things I didn't know before:
- When the Royal Navy used to send gigantic steel warships to shell the crap out of some primitive town from several miles offshore, they had to take precautions against being sunk by the local spearmen.
- The tobacco and cotton plantations of the American colonies were worked mainly by Indian converts and by transported criminals; no slave labour was used at any time.
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
I get the feeling that these games will be titled along the lines of "chocobo teaches typing", "chocobo math", etc.
"Serious Games, as they're known, attempt to do more than just entertain."
Back in the day, they were called "edutainment," but as I recall they all died of cholera.
Edutainment was typically used to characterize child education games, which is only a small subset of the 'serious games' category.
... some would argue that politics is a game, and it's not funny, so does that qualify it as a serious game?)
'Serious games' seems to be used to describe job training exercises, exercise games, games with political messages, and the casual puzzle games that are supposed to 'stimulate your brain'.
Do the labels really mean anything? Probably not, but if you think of edutainment as the only type of 'serious game', you'll miss a lot.
(hmm
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
I think he meant like, the Civilopedia and stuff. I did read those entries in Civ 1 and they were interesting reads. Of course, after I closed Civilopedia my Tank was killed by a spearman :)
Civ didn't teach based on what you did in the actual game. That should be obvious given that we haven't launched anything at Alpha Centauri, and nobody has yet achieved world domination. However, if you read the civilopedia, they do give you a substantial amount of information on what happened in real life. That bit of learning is even more present in Civ IV, where they give short bios of each of the leaders and things like that. All an educational game needs to do to be successful is give you enough information to make you go seek out more on your own.
...and now they say it's not a serious game?
ObWTF: WTF?
'Serious games' seems to be used to describe job training exercises, exercise games, games with political messages ...
Well, that's a relief. I was worried that they might be terrible and boring, like educational games were!
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
Looking forward to Square's version of a Fire Fighter simulation that was showcased at the GDC Serious games summitt last year but with Final Fantasy characters. They should call it Final Fantasy Fire Fighters or FFFF for short!
Previewing comments are for sissies!
Video games: Serious Business.
The "Serious Games" buzzword frequently refers to military training, first responder simulations, interactive political simulations, etc. They are typically not designed to be even remotely entertaining. The phrase is relatively new and should be more like "interactive simulation".
The "Edutainment" buzzword typically refers to K-12 educational games, and simple simulations. It's a pretty old phrase and pretty well understood.
Because Square has no actual *product* it's tough to tell where they lie.
I mean, DS is the preference when we talk about education/learning games. And it's for a [good] reason. I think the Chocobo and the Magic Book [Or something like that] game goes that way.
Minti: What's that huge shuriken in your back?! Kin: It's the instrument of my victory.