06-21-06

Media Release

“Serious Games” Opening New Possibilities in Education, Research

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Researchers at Oregon State University are developing ways to piggy-back on the multi-billion dollar video game industry to create sophisticated “serious games” that could be of considerable use in scientific research, outreach communication or student education.

It’s possible, they say, to create “add on” software that retains the most useful parts of existing games – some of which are incredibly sophisticated and the result of millions of dollars of programming – and turn them into interactive visualization systems useful for research or education, at a bargain price.

The process might start with a violent or action-filled science fiction video game, where the heroic defender crosses the landscape and shoots invading alien enemies. But take away the guns, delete the alien bad guys, keep the rolling hills, clean up the hero a little, add a few other touches, and the game becomes people exploring an old-growth forest and observing various species and types of vegetation.

“Many software developers have spent millions developing realistic-looking games that have dramatic visual elements, great lighting, 3-D effects, human interaction, and are easily used by your average middle-school student,” said Tim Holt, a senior research assistant in the OSU College of Forestry. “Why re-invent the wheel? These games can usually be modified with additional programming. And so long as you don’t sell your package commercially, the industry generally encourages this because it helps them sell more of their games.”

The result, Holt says, can be visualization systems that are an order of magnitude more powerful, compelling and useful for a variety of scientific or educational uses, at a small fraction of the price.

Holt – a computer software programmer who also has a background as a video game developer – is creating systems such as this for the OSU College of Forestry, and in the past couple years the idea has also caught on elsewhere around the country, he said. Funding for the two-year project is being provided by the Joint Fire Science Program of the U.S.D.A. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management.

“This idea of serious games is pretty new but it’s attracting interest quickly,” Holt said. “Using one of the same games that I’m working with for forestry, some people in Texas created a game that helps surgical nurses train for work in an operating room environment.

“It’s an art to look at an existing game and see what underlying elements it has that you could use to illustrate something else.”

Many of the computer systems now used in scientific research, Holt said, are fairly dry and comparatively expensive. They are often static, not highly interactive, and rarely have the type of 3-D architecture that is common in the video game industry.

In theory, there are few limits to what you could show with the new type of games – anything from the working interior of a cell to the vegetation in a forest or a “flight” beneath the oceans. And if it serves the purpose of the game, you could make it fun.

“For serious games being used in research or outreach, you may not necessarily want to retain the entertainment or fun aspects of the game, although that’s certainly possible,” Holt said. “The key is to use fun stuff if it will enhance what you’re trying to do, not detract from it. I could see that being more common, for instance, in games used for student education.

“Right now we have people trying to learn foreign languages in old-fashioned ways,” he said. “But imagine if your kids really wanted to stay up studying until 2 a.m. because they were having so much fun on their French language simulation game, where they were doing a scavenger hunt while walking through a village in France. That could make a great learning tool.”

The ease of game manipulation and creation is not without risks, experts say.

“One of the concerns here is that with these games, you can literally show anything and make it look incredibly realistic,” Holt said. “The action and illustrations would look real and believable whether or not it’s based on good underlying science. So for scientific and educational uses, we must take care that the game be an accurate reflection of good data and science, not just a tool for propaganda.”

These types of serious games, Holt said, might be especially useful for anything that’s expensive to do in person – a field trip to the Arctic – or dangerous in reality, like training forest fire fighters. The U.S. military has already invested heavily in some sophisticated games of this type in order to help train its fighting forces with less real-world danger.

“I think this idea is going to spread pretty quickly,” Holt said. “It’s low-cost, functional and fun. Sometimes the biggest problem is trying to explain on your research expense account why you needed to buy an R-rated video game that plays like a Quentin Tarantino movie.”