We defined educational video games as a computer application developed with video games technology, under non-leisure, educational, formative, video games design principles, created to earn capacities. The idea here is the convergence of three kind of areas: first of all we have theory, the way of learning concepts which are the psychology of the learning, all along with the contents we want to transmit to the players. And all that by using game design techniques at the level of objectives, at the level of scoring, at the level of the incentives so that the player can learn those contents in a more ludic way. Those educational video games characteristics are basically three: the idea of simulating reality as close as it's possible so that with this realistic simulation the player assumes a role in the game in which he is trying out, he is testing whether he has the needed capacities or not. This role has the incentive of lives, scores or game mechanics so that the player can get those knowledges or capacities. They are usually low-cost video games which don't require specialized devices. They can be used on different platforms and they also have a very important educational or formative component. As well they provide the ability acquisition expected in video games. Sometimes, some of those video games can subject the player to critical situations in aim to see his reaction when facing those critical situations. Educational video games can be used in different fields. One of them is the educational field in the pedagogic field, both in basic levels such as elementary or high school, or even in community colleges or universities. As an example, we will speak about our experience with Medgame project. Some other educational games are critical simulation applications to evaluate the players' capacity. There is a public web called publichealthgames.com, where we can find video games about catastrophic situations where the player is an Emergencies manager and they somehow evaluate his ability to react to critical situations. In the health field there are a lot of applications in the field of educational video games, especially in the part of encouraging cognitive or motor activities, both for elder people or people with motor or mental disabilities. An example of this kind of video games is our experience in CIPOActivity, a video game for handicapped people. There is also a web called healthgamesresearch.org where you can find a project from the USA in different sanitary fields to encourage elder people's capacities. Or games in solidarity fields, which strengthen solidarity and altruism such as gamesforchange, a video game which tries to make people aware of inequality situations. Our experience... well, we will quickly explain a little bit our experience in the field of educational video games with three specific projects we have made during the last five years: Laia.Cat, Medgame y CIPOActivity. Laia.Cat is an educational video game made to give advice about inequality behaviors to people between 13 and 16 years old. The main character, called Laia, is a young girl who is around 13-14 years old. She lives different situations at home, at the cinema, at school... so she faces different situations and the player gets a test to know how would he as himself react if facing the situation Laia is living on the screen. This situation is introduced via a question and some multiple choice options in which they value and give points based on the answer given, the best score or the worst score. When the player gives an answer, he gets a feedback, an explanation of this score so that the student, which is the player, understands the reason of this score and finds out which is the best choice. In the slide, we can see the part of drawing design made in the artistic part of the video game, and at the left a specific case of Laia's room in which we can see the situation introduced and the part of the text boxes in which we can choose the different options. This video game is being tested in teenagers between 13 and 16 years to help in their learning on equality-inequality situations. Medgame is a video game in the university field in medical school at the University of Girona in which students are expected to learn to understand radiographic images from the radiology department. The concept is a simulation video game where the student takes the emergency responsibility in an emergency service and he faces different concrete situations based on real cases and based on this casuistry he has to follow certain steps. Each of those steps shows a quiz with multiple choice options about which is the situation and which is the choice the player must take. It's similar to Laia.Cat, each option has a score based on the cause or the answer's importance. We can see different challenges set out to the players at the image on the left, such as cervical trauma, appendicitis, etc. and at the image at the right a specific case in which the person in charge is talking with a coworker on the concrete case and a specific question and the answer the player must give to this coworker during the suggested situation. As we said, this video game is being used at the medical school in the University of Girona in the training field based on problems and it has been a great success between the students during the last two years . CIPOActivity is a video game which wants to potentate the physical and emotional welfare of people with intellectual disabilities. Due to interaction issues it uses a Kinect© device which makes the game more accessible and it tries to work on concentration, memory, balance, flexibility and sensory stimulation using different games divided in three specific fields: a ludic field through aerobic and games, a stretching field based on rehabilitating physical activity, and another field based on relaxation and sensory stimulation. At the left we can see the main menu used to pick games, there's the aerobic part at the left; the middle one, which is the orientation part, which has games which stimulate the jumping and balance motor part; the third icon corresponds to the memory game based on colors and color sequences; and the last icon corresponds to the relaxing part where the player relaxes through music and relaxing images. In the image at the middle we can see an example of the aerobics part, where we have a virtual instructor which makes the right movements. Those movements are marked on the screens at the right, and the player has to repeat them. The score: the main part of the game is the score. The closer the player's movement is to the one on the screen, the higher the score will be. The image at the right corresponds to the motor activity game. It consists on running through a path with obstacles. You can even collect flowers and you go through the different paths there are. The idea here is encouraging the motor activity either by jumping or bending down to get objectives, dangerous zones, to avoid obstacles or to collect points and get rewards. This video game is being used in a cooperative in Sabadell called Cipo, with a notorious success among its players, as the scores, the music and the memory parts are topics and games in which they are very interested and they have stimulated a lot both their cognitive and motor abilities. And last we will talk about the gamification. This idea is a strategy based on the use of game mechanics in non-ludic environment and uses to try to potentate motivation, concentration, effort, loyalty, as well as other positive values. In this case we are not using video games in a ludic field, instead we are using techniques based on video games. An example of it can be seen in this Youtube video which you should watch. You can see how they try to stimulate people leaving a subway stop to use the normal stairs instead of the escalator to make them walk more or use more often the normal stairs and not the escalator. This example is, clearly, a way to foment this use and it is really worth to watch the video because people tend to give in when they see that something is playable. This idea that we people are, as I said at the beginning, a bit sensitive to the chance of playing. Gamification's objectives are mainly influencing and motivating people to acquire the habits of reaching objectives and go from the connectivity to the compromise. This means, not only having a group of people, not having a group of people connected and transmitting information to each other, but having another grade of compromise and collaboration between teams. The high video games acceptance between people of all ages, different age ranges, has waken up the professionals' interest to know those secrets, those game mechanics, and to apply them in other fields. And which are those gamification keys? Basically, two aspects: Mechanics and dynamics. Mechanics are the actions and techniques suggested to the users so that they get the objectives, what they know about those objectives and which tools are they given in aim to get them. And about dynamics, they are the aptitudes and abilities which the user should get, so it is, they are rewards, status changes, victories or altruism, which is what we want to achieve. Where is gamification used? It is used in different activities such as group works, projects that can be strategics in group works. I would dare to say that, in some reality shows broadcast on the TV, those gamification techniques are applied as well. As mechanics, we can say, the idea of assigning, giving scores, giving points for each achieved goal, encourages this competitive will, either between players or between groups. Every objective or group of objectives that can be reached, allows some difficulty levels to be beat, so that this level definition changes and much more complex objectives can be defined. We can give points or we can pay prizes, as long as they are certifications, given to a group when they reach those objectives. Virtual objects can also be defined, as long as they can somehow customize the user, as long as they can identify the group with those objects obtained as a prize. Establishing rankings based on this punctuation, on those prizes, setting up rankings between different teams. Defining challenges between couples of groups, particularly between contestant couples, so that they do competitions more individualized between groups or persons. Facing missions or concrete roles to achieve those goals. Or establishing a gifting mechanism in which the game provides those gifts, or players can gift things to the rest. As game and gamification dynamics we can speak about a reward or benefit given in exchange for an action, the fact of getting points or a certain status, which is a prestige, a prize for a certain action or for any other provided objective. The fact of completing missions or challenges. The building of a very own identity regarding the rest, being able to build with elements or own objects a very own identity for a player or a group. Setting up competition dynamics between different players, so if the competition is in groups, those groups will be more cohesioned to get those objectives. And also in certain altruism dynamics, which allow to help other players to get objectives, which also gives points or capacities to the group that led them there. Let's say these are the dynamics, and after that, in every test or plan given, it must be clear that each of those dynamics is shown in the exercise. So, to sum up all we've said in this unit, games are a very attractive ludic activity for people. Since we are child until we are old, video games are something that attracts people. In a technological level video games have allowed games to evolve and develop. And the video game provides an alternative scenario, audiovisual, with a story waiting to be told, that during the last years has evolved and had a very important social and economical impact. More recently, this ludic video games success has made that enterprises or research groups use the video game as an educative tool, either for formation in different levels of school and university education or in different areas, taking advantage of the fact that young people are born in the Digital Age and so their adaptation ability to video games is really high. Also, using this success video games have had as a ludic element, those video games techniques in other fields, in other non-ludic purposes, to improve the capacities and attitudes of different collectives. What we call gamification, in group works in an enterprise, in certain collectives, is defining certain exercises, certain plans, which help them improve their capacities and group attitudes. I insist i believe that in some reality shows seen on TV, they also use those gamification techniques, in this case to entertain or give audience to their channel. And this is all on this first introduction to video games. Here we define some of the references we have used, and some of the images we have used in the different slides. We've obtained the information from the Spanish Video Games Association, and the images from Laia Cat and MedGame, the games we have developed along with the Catalan Activity Center and Kaneda Games. You can also find a link with more information on CIPOActivity, the classic gamification example I recommend you to see in the video, and the web www.gamification.com, which is a web in which you can find some of the information we have exposed, and has a lot of interesting information as well. [NO_AUDIO]
