Technologies of Inclusive Wellbeing Serious Games Alternative Realities And Play Therapy

“A powerful provocation and challenge to our ways of thinking about extractivism, industrialism and so-called ‘progress’ – refreshing, depressing and inspiring. Highly recommendable.”
Andrea Brock, University of Sussex, UK

The recent re-emergence of serious games as a branch of video games and as a promising frontier of education has introduced the concept of games designed for a serious purpose other than pure entertainment. To date the major applications of serious games include education and training, engineering, medicine and healthcare, military applications, city planning, production, crisis response, to name just a few. If utilised alongside, or combined with conventional training and educational approaches, serious games could provide a more powerful means of knowledge transfer in almost every application domain.

With the continued application of gaming for training and education, which has seen exponential growth over the past two decades, this book offers an insightful introduction to the current developments and applications of game technologies within educational settings, with cutting-edge academic research and industry insights, providing a greater understanding into current and future developments and advances within this field.

This book emerged out of research done during the period between 2004 and 2016 on the topic of mobile and wearable computing. It did not solely focus on technical solutions and the search for a general approach but also on the question how people can live with this technology. Thus social and organizational aspects were also part of the research. The findings demonstrate the opportunities of serious games and reveal the need of clinical studies when targeting at solutions that are to become part of any kind of therapy. The result is a comprehensive presentation of research findings covering different important aspects in the domain of wearable and pervasive computing for a better life.

This book emerged out of research done during the period between 2004 and 2016 on the topic of mobile and wearable computing. It did not solely focus on technical solutions and the search for a general approach but also on the question how people can live with this technology. Thus social and organizational aspects were also part of the research. The findings demonstrate the opportunities of serious games and reveal the need of clinical studies when targeting at solutions that are to become part of any kind of therapy. The result is a comprehensive presentation of research findings covering different important aspects in the domain of wearable and pervasive computing for a better life.