Game on

Video games get an image makeover to become a training tool for the corporate sector

By Jason Hill

Many people see computer games as vacuous, violent time wasters. The fact is that the worldwide interactive entertainment industry will rake in more than $50 billion this year, but still suffers from negative stereotypes.

The critics consider games as pointless escapism for children, while others label them dangerously addictive and anti-social, particularly 'massively multiplayer' online games such as World of Warcraft and the anarchic Grand Theft Auto series.

Despite the criticism, academics and business leaders are beginning to champion the use of interactive games as legitimate training tools. 'Serious' games can be powerful educational tools, allowing users to experiment, learn from their mistakes and safely experience risky or dangerous situations.

Computer game technology is now being used for applications such as military simulations, workplace training, education and healthcare, including training emergency services, pilots, soldiers and surgeons. It is even helping ice-cream store workers get a feel for the correct portions of their tasty treats.

Of course, experienced players need little convincing of the power of games.

They know that games can be hugely immersive, and will readily say that their driving skills have been sharpened by Gran Turismo, or their knowledge of history enhanced by the Civilization games, or that they developed a new appreciation and understanding of the complexity of urban planning via SimCity.

Game researcher Dr Andrew Stapleton believes games are very effective educational tools because they enable players to learn through interaction, encourage active problem solving and strategic thinking, and emphasise exploration and self-discovery rather than rote memorisation.

'Through play [game players] get to interact with the virtual world, its rules, objects and characters so they learn what actions and tools are available and when and where to use them,' Stapleton says.

'I'd also add other reasons such as the high level of engagement that people have when playing them, and the level of challenge presented to players, which typically increases as they progress through the game to match their increased knowledge and skill.'

Stapleton says many discoveries and inventions throughout history were 'the result of what some may consider mistakes', and that games encourage this through trial and error.

'Wrong turns or dead-ends help us along a process of elimination, discounting them as viable solutions, and then force us to think of alternatives,' he says. 'So in the same way a designer or scientist learns through an interactive process of discovery, game players come to learn about the game environment, uses of objects and consequences of actions.'

The reasons why serious games are used around the world are 'as wide and varied as all the applications themselves,' according to Stapleton.

Examples of serious games include IndustryPlayer, a business simulation based on real-world data, and Simport, which lets players learn about the challenges involved in large infrastructure projects like sea ports.

Transport and Distribution Australia produced a game to help instruct transport and distribution workers in tasks such as lifting freight, operating fork-lifts, loading trucks and identifying security threats.

In the Netherlands, VSTEP (Virtual Safety Training and Education Platform) has developed many realistic 3D simulations for applications like training oil rig workers, emergency services, port authorities, hospital staff and the military.

The Virtual Reality Centre at Australia's RMIT University has also produced a simulation for NSW State Rail to train staff to respond appropriately in emergencies. A virtual 3D model of a Sydney underground station was constructed so trainees could role-play during different scenarios, 'experiencing the panic, reduced vision and stress of an evacuation procedure'.

Similar applications include Incident Commander, a US homeland security tool tutoring municipal officials in managing accidents or disasters, and HazMat, preparing those who are typically first to respond after a catastrophe.

Code Orange trains hospital workers to deal with the rapid decision making required after mass-casualty events, while Shield of Freedom enables the US Coast Guard to test the communication and tactical performance of their recruits.

Serious games have also been created for political agendas, such as Australia's Escape From Woomera, which highlights the plight of asylum seekers in detention, and Darfur is Dying, which simulates life in a refugee camp. Even the United Nations is using games to help educate Westerners about famine and the difficulties of distributing food in developing nations.

The Serious Games Initiative was established in the US to foster the growth of computer games beyond the entertainment sector, and is a good resource for those interested in exploring the burgeoning sector. Co-director Ben Sawyer says the use of game-related technologies in fields such as healthcare, education, security and business has grown rapidly over the past few years.

'We have exercise games, games that help with phobia treatment, games used for treating pain related to cancer or burns, and games used to train healthcare workers (including surgeons) in important new procedures,' enthuses Sawyer.

Examples of serious games in healthcare include Splash, an underwater scuba environment used for pain distraction during chemotherapy treatments; Iceworld, which helps patients suffering from burns; and Re-Mission, which has given young cancer patients a sense of self-efficacy and even enhanced the impact of chemotherapy treatments.

Virtual reality systems have also successfully treated patients suffering from phobias.

Marc Prensky, an American speaker, writer, educator, corporate trainer and game designer, is one of the world's leading advocates of game-based training. His company Games2Train offers more than 100 online and CD-based training games that have been used by firms such as American Express, Bank of America, IBM, JP Morgan Chase, Nokia, and the US Department of Defense.

Other clients include a software company using a 3D game that helps teach young engineers how to use complex computer-aided design tools, an investment fund that uses games to train telemarketers in dealing with difficult customers during their 'down time' between calls, and a bank that uses games for product and leadership training, and even to eliminate workplace sexual harassment.

Prensky says people can learn many skills from playing games, including collaboration, wise decision making under stress, prudent risk taking, scientific deduction, lateral and strategic thinking, persistence and ethics. He believes that it is a game's intellectual challenge (not violence or flashy graphics) that keeps players engaged.

While many adults mistakenly believe they are trivial, Prensky says most games today 'require the learning of many complex and difficult skills in order to achieve challenging goals' and players 'are learning tremendous amounts from their games that will help them lead better 21st-century lives.' Employers might even want to actively start looking for game players when recruiting staff, according to IBM.

The IT giant funded studies conducted in conjunction with MIT, Stanford, and software start-up Seriosity, and found players of massively multiplayer online games such as World of Warcraft and Everquest were learning skills that will be crucial in tomorrow's workplaces.

IBM's findings suggest online games can help the next generation of workers become better corporate leaders as work becomes more distributed, collaborative and virtual in nature. The research found games can hone skills related to self-organisation, risk taking, openness, influence, and communications, skills not typically taught in universities or workplaces.

Eric Lesser, from the IBM think tank Institute of Business Value, conducted interviews and watched online players in action, looking for the kind of skills that would be applicable for a corporate setting.

'There are lessons that gamers learn within virtual environments that are relevant to what people are now starting to see in corporations,' he says. 'For example, the ability to bring together distributed groups of individuals, often who are on a volunteer or semi-volunteer basis, to be able to make more rapid decisions under conditions of uncertainty. To incorporate and use different sources of data and make decisions rapidly. To recognise people for their contribution. To be able to motivate.'

Lesser found 'a number of behavioural traits' that occurred in gaming environments that are 'definitely relevant' in the business world. He believes online games provide a window into the future as to how many organisations will run, with leaders required to communicate with workers across a 'virtual environment' that might span several countries.

There are many useful skills that people are learning from online games that they aren't learning in typical workplaces, argues Lesser.

'When people go into organisations, [they] don't spend a lot of time thinking about, ‘How do I lead a virtual team?' [But] in a virtual environment, there are things you have to do differently. You have to engage people differently. You have to employ different communication channels. You have to change the frequency in which you communicate with people to make sure they still feel connected to the larger enterprise and recognise their contributions. These are all things that people have grown up with in an office environment, but if you work for a global organisation, you need to be able to path or plan time-zone and distance and culture to make these virtual teams more effective.'

Lesser believes businesses are starting to recognise that 'traditional leadership metaphors' such as sport or military analogies do not work as well in a distributed environment.

'[But] once people become more acquainted with gaming, they are more easily able to see the parallels. Of course, there are always going to be naysayers, but half of the people we interviewed said what they learned in gaming influenced the way they conducted leadership in their own corporate environment.'

Like Stapleton, Lesser also believes games can be powerful learning tools because people can learn by experimenting with different strategies, and from failure. He believes games can encourage people to take informed and manageable risks, and 'fail small but fail more frequently in order to try new things.'

Video gaming timeline

1961
Spacewar, the world's first interactive computer game, is created at MIT.

1967
Ralph Baer designs the Brown Box, which can play simple games on a standard television, released as the Magnavox Odyssey five years later.

1971
Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari, releases the first video arcade game, Computer Space.

1972
Engineer Al Alcorn creates the first commercially successful video game, Pong.

1977
Atari releases its first cartridge-based console, the Video Computer System (later known as the Atari 2600).

1978
Taito releases Space Invaders, and the game's popularity in Japan causes a shortage of 100 yen coins.

1980
Activision, formed by disgruntled Atari programmers, becomes the world's first third-party video game publisher. Namco releases Pac-Man.

1982
Game publisher Electronic Arts is founded by Trip Hawkins.

1983
The Commodore 64 is released, while in Japan, Nintendo launches the Famicom (Nintendo Entertainment System) and Super Mario Bros.

1985
Russian programmer Alex Pajitnov develops Tetris.

1989
Nintendo releases the handheld Game Boy console.

1993
3D shooter Doom is developed by id Software, while Myst encourages many PC owners to buy CD-ROM drives.

1994
Sony releases its first games console, the PlayStation.

1996
Super Mario 64 is released with the new Nintendo 64 console, and Tomb Raider makes its debut.

1997
Sony releases driving simulator Gran Turismo, while Electronic Arts launches the first popular massively multiplayer game, Ultima Online.

2000
Electronic Arts releases The Sims, which eventually becomes the best selling computer game up to this point.

2001
Microsoft releases its first gaming console, the Xbox, with shooter Halo. Rockstar releases Grand Theft Auto III.

2002
America's Army game released as a recruitment tool.

2004
Nintendo releases its handheld DS console, while Blizzard launches World of Warcraft.

2006
Nintendo's new Wii console is released with motion-sensing controllers.

2008
Grand Theft Auto IV becomes the fastest selling video game ever.

What business can learn from gaming

• The Nintendo generation often finds traditional workplace training dull and ineffective.
• Games can reward persistence and encourage experimentation and risk-taking. Learning via trial and error, through experience and making mistakes is powerful.
• Learning and fun do not have to be mutually exclusive.
• Gamers are often flexible, not easily discouraged, skilled at multi-tasking, and swift at decision making and evaluation of risk. Players of online games have also often honed collaborative skills that will be increasingly important to modern distributed workplaces.
• Games can enable players to experience events that are not readily accessible or too dangerous to experience in the 'real world'.
• People often learn best when challenged and stimulated. Active problem solving is much more effective than learning by rote.
• Games can be customised to meet the specific requirements of your business.

Jason Hill is one of Australia's most respected technology writers, winning Best Gaming Journalist at the 2007 Sun Microsystems IT Journalism Awards. He has chronicled video gaming's rise into mainstream entertainment and reviewed thousands of games across all popular formats since 1992 for many Australian newspapers and magazines. He currently contributes to The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.

Reference: October 2008, volume 78:09, p. 26-29