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Origins of Serious Games

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Serious Games and Edutainment Applications

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the historical origins of Serious Games to try to understand where the current wave of “Serious Games” comes from. We first review the origins of the “Serious Games” oxymoron. We will then analyse digital games designed for serious purposes before the 2000s. Such games can be traced back to the beginning of the history of video games. We will use all these elements to discuss how the current wave of “Serious Games” began; and to highlight the differences between “Serious Games” and their ancestors.

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Acknowledgements

Authors would like to thank Maxine Johnson for proof-reading this chapter and correcting many of its English language errors.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. IRIT, Toulouse III University, Toulouse, France

    Damien Djaouti & Jean-Pierre Jessel

  2. Ludoscience, Toulouse, France

    Damien Djaouti & Julian Alvarez

  3. European Centre for Children’s Products (CEPE), Poitiers University, Poitiers, France

    Olivier Rampnoux

Authors
  1. Damien Djaouti
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  2. Julian Alvarez
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  3. Jean-Pierre Jessel
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  4. Olivier Rampnoux
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Damien Djaouti .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Digital Design Studio, The Glasgow School of Art, The Hub, Glasgow, G51 1EA, United Kingdom

    Minhua Ma

  2. E514, School of Computing and Mathematics, University of Derby, Kedleston Road, Derby, DE22 1GB, United Kingdom

    Andreas Oikonomou

  3. , School of Electrical and Information, University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA 5095, South Australia, Australia

    Lakhmi C. Jain

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Djaouti, D., Alvarez, J., Jessel, JP., Rampnoux, O. (2011). Origins of Serious Games. In: Ma, M., Oikonomou, A., Jain, L. (eds) Serious Games and Edutainment Applications. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-2161-9_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-2161-9_3

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