One of the primary goals of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) in game design has been the close coupling of players with the digital game system and an increasingly popular approach towards this is Brain-Computer Interaction (BCI). Recent improvements made to electroencephalogram-based (EEG) BCI technology have made it more widely available to researchers, more accessible to target end-users, and more viable for gameplay. However, the research has been limited to one side of serious games-the experiential and simulated environments-there has been little research into gameplay mechanics driven serious games. In this paper, we explore potential avenues for BCI-driven game and serious games gameplay design and development, as well as examining potential issues, conflicts and shortcomings that might arise from utilising BCI. This work informs our ongoing research and development of serious games utilising BCI-driven gameplay and can generalise to the development of other BCI-based games and serious games.

This book makes the case that far too much work undertaken under the banner of 'behavioural safety' is overly person-focused. 'If you can walk on hot coals, you can do anything – so be safe' needs to be dismissed out of hand, but also more advanced techniques based on coaching and empowerment fail to reflect the fact that, as 'Just Culture' models show, the great majority of causes of unsafe behaviour are environmental. Our methodologies mustn't focus on the person with an open mind that there may be an underlying root cause; they must start from the statistically proven assumption that there is an underlying cause. This shift in mindset has a profound impact on the type of methodologies we must lead with, how they are used, how they are perceived, and last but certainly not least, their efficacy. A Definitive Guide to Behavioural Safety is a one-stop guide to all of the core theories and principles that underpin behaviour-based safety. All front-line behaviours that lead to incidents and injury are covered by the term behavioural safety, and getting to grips with the behaviours that might lead people to engage in unsafe or risky behaviour is crucial to prevention. In this book, internationally acclaimed behavioural safety expert Tim Marsh leads the reader through the three main strands: The awareness approach. The walk-and-talk approach. The Six Sigma safety or the Deming-inspired 'full' approach. Going through the very latest innovations in the field, the book covers the systemic approach to safety observation, measurement, intervention and analysis, but also incorporates emotional intelligence training aimed at enhancing supervisor–worker trust and communication more generally. A Definite Guide to Behavioural Safety is a perfect guide for any professional, whether you're aiming to set up an ambitious and wide-ranging behavioural safety programme from scratch or you're looking to refresh or extend an existing approach.

While gamification represents one of the largest technology trends of the last decade, only a limited selection of literature exists that explores the negative outcomes of contemporary gamified services, applications, and systems. This chapter explores the consequences of gamified systems and services, investigating contemporary implementations of gamification and acknowledging the ethical concerns raised by researchers towards contemporary gamified services. This chapter further explores these ethical concerns through a critical instance case study of China's Social Credit System and arrives at informed observations on the potential for gamified cycles of reward and punishment to encourage unethical activity within organisations as well as legitimise ideological objectives that violate fundamental human rights. Recommendations are then made for researchers to explore this potential further, while recognising how gamification may justify the authority and practices of organisations, particularly those engaged in unethical and dehumanising behaviour.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 7th Joint International Conference on Serious Games, JCSG 2021, held in Stoke-on-Trent, UK, in October 2021.

Mental health disorders present a global challenge being the largest contributor to non-fatal burden of disease. In fact, those who are experiencing symptoms of mental illness often wait ten years before seeking help. This is frequently due to help-seeking barriers such as stigma and cost. One way to combat help-seeking barriers is through increasing the mental health literacy of the public. This has been achieved successfully through digital delivery of mental health information and services, including serious games. Early research suggests that serious games are an effective tool for improving mental health literacy. However, factors such as poor-quality game design and research studies mean that developers face challenges when designing, developing, and analyzing serious games. To address these challenges this paper will provide an analysis of indie games that feature topics of mental health, trauma, and grief. Indie games share similarities to research environments, often being created by small teams on a limited budget. Even with these limitations they can tell impactful and emotional stories, making them a valuable source of inspiration for developers of serious mental health games.

This paper outlines the latest work of an on-going long-term sustained research effort to extend and operationalise Leontiev’s original hierarchical activity theory framework to model and support the design, development and analysis of games, virtual environments and virtual reality for purpose. While previous work extended Leontiev’s activity theory to incorporate both task-based and experiential-based activities and actions performed within a sphere of engagement - corresponding to Huizinga’s “play-grounds”, “arenas” and “magic circle”, and mechanism to analyse and assess the success of purpose, the focus of this earlier work was largely on narrative, scenario and story-based activities, and didn’t capture or extend well to gameplay mechanics. The framework described herein describes initial work that builds on and extends earlier work to provide a tool, notation, grammar and building blocks that informs both HCI and practice-based approaches to represent gameplay mechanics and narrative, scenario, story-based activities; from game design concepts and ideas, through modelling and analysis, to informing implementation, development and creative practice. The framework is intended to support all delivery platforms and extend to all purposes/sectors (education, health, esports, business, documentary, tourism, social impact, culture, etc.) across the serious games continuum: from games for purpose to experiential environments for purpose. To highlight the versatility of the initial work to extend the activity theory framework, described herein are several examples of serious games, interactive storytelling and immersive VR for purpose developed in research projects, and in the professional immersive storytelling content creation Singapore-based studio Warrior9 VR.

Mental health literacy (MHL) is an important 21st Century skill. Good MHL can help to reduce barriers to help-seeking by equipping the public with the knowledge needed to help themselves or someone experiencing a mental illness. One Australian-based organization that does this through a training course is Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) Australia. There are many digital interventions that aim to achieve this goal and serious games are no exception. Serious games have been identified as ideal for developing 21st Century skills, meaning MHL literacy is a promising candidate for serious games development. In fact, evidence suggest that serious games are effective as a tool for improving MHL. However, they often suffer from poor-quality game design, poor study design, high dropout rates, variability in studies and loss of motivation and engagement of players. This means that there are many challenges to consider when developing serious games. Here we describe our experiences in the development of a serious game prototype that utilizes the principles of MHFA. The aim of this development is to improve the confidence of players in delivering MHFA. Additionally, it aims to address the challenge of serious games quality by taking an artistic approach that combines narrative, aesthetics and mechanics using indie games for inspiration. There are many well-designed indie games that tell emotional and character driven stories of mental illness. They provide inspiration on the development of honest and relatable characters, which offer a positive representation of those experiencing a mental illness.

Partnered with UN Environment, an interactive and immersive virtual reality (VR) experience was produced that takes participants on a journey through the human stomach to raise awareness of microplastics that are unknowingly consumed in our daily lives. The creative practice and research addresses UN Sustainable Development Goal #12: Responsible Consumption and Production. Through novel, exciting and engaging interactive narrative and gameplay mechanics, Water Bodies delivers a serious underlying message to encourage participants to question their use of plastic and to drive towards a positive environmental impact.

Oceans We Make (OWM) is a 3-minute long immersive and interactive virtual reality (VR) experience that encourages participants to question their use of plastic. The experience blends beautiful cinematic graphics, engaging game mechanics and an emotional narrative as a novel form of VR storytelling to drive positive environmental impact.

The JCSG 2018 proceedings book is dealing with the interdisciplinary field of serious games. It is focusing on serious games studies and development, covering the game design and the use of particular emerging technologies for serious games, such as educational games and games for health.

Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality technologies are embraced by designers, scholars and charities alike, some primarily for their entertaining properties, others also for the opportunities in education, motivation or persuasion. Applications with the latter objective, that of persuasion, are designed not only to be entertaining, but are also designed (or framed) to shape how players think and feel about issues in reality. However, despite the growing interest in the persuasive opportunities of these immersive technologies, we still lack the design strategies and best-practices that could support in the design of these 'immersive persuasive games'. To address this still-unexplored and fragmented design space, we organize a design-oriented workshop that brings together academia and industry. The workshop is informed by a Research through Design approach in which the primary focus is to generate knowledge through designing. Participants design and evaluate ideas on-the-spot in an iterative manner using low-fidelity, life-size, prototyping and role-playing techniques, thereby mimicking an embodied interactive immersive environment. By reflecting on design practices and player experiences, we construct a body of knowledge, built exemplar work and distil best-practices to formulate design strategies for the design of immersive persuasive games.

This paper describes on-going research to explore design strategies, grammars and languages to articulate, manipulate and drive narrative in digital media - games, simulations, virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality. One of the main objectives of this work is to create synergy and to reconcile designed narrative with interactive narrative. In previous work we focused on tablet and touch screen devices and immersive virtual reality experiences, and in particular on the exploration of pace and slow interaction and gameplay to create opportunities for contemplation on the purpose. Continuing the purpose and theme, to raise awareness on issues and human activities disrupting and effecting the Great Barrier Reef, current work described herein focuses on augmented reality dioramas (miniature 3D digital model) and explores participant-driven narrative, to manipulate short form narrative, and encourage deeper involvement and contemplation with the serious purpose. To provide creative inspiration for our novel approaches, described herein is a framework to inform and guide design of experimental games and experimental serious games.

This book presents new developments, focusing on merging technologies to provide cutting-edge solutions to improve the application of serious games.

Building on previous work, we extend Leontiev’s (1959/1981) original activity theory to bridge conceptual gaps and lay the foundations towards operationalizing a framework for activity-based narrative in serious games. In particular, in this paper we propose that the relationship between the concepts objective and motive and the degree to which they coincide or merge provides an approach: (i) to frame activity (ii) for design and crafting of narrative, scenarios, interaction and gameplay in serious games (iii) for the assessment of task-based as well as experience-based purposes in serious games and (iv) framework and tool to support iterative serious games development cycle from conveying an idea through narrative, implementation, playtesting and assessment. In addition, we propose a link and connection for activity to the environment through “play-grounds”.

In this lecture we will address a changing perspective on design, one in which users are defined as social and economical actors who co-create products and services. We will see that the role of play in its contemporary and digital form for instance through games, apps, interactive toys is essential in this process. This lecture consists of two parts. The first part focuses on our research in play and civic interaction design. We will define play in its digital form and its intrinsic qualities, such as fun, experience, creation, collaboration, and competition. We will then show that through these qualities a new digital culture has emerged in which, instead of a top-down, one-tomany vertical cascade, we find bottom-up, many-to-many, horizontal, peer-to-peer communications (Jenkins 2009). In the second part, I will sketch the research and game designs in relation to research and education at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, including further collaboration with partners in industry and research. The main focus in this lecture is on the challenge of how to design for these collective opportunities, e.g. in health care, education and city planning.

In this ever-advancing world, technologies that are slow are considered inferior, of the past and redundant, passé or obsolete. But there is an increasing belief that faster technologies creating faster work, faster lifestyles and leisure pursuits is having a detrimental effect on, and eroding our values, traditions, cultures, practices and experiences. Counter movements that promote a slower pace of life are for example slow technology, slow food, slow families and slow fixes. Following this trend, our work explores some of the latest, fastest virtual reality technology as platform for slow serious gameplay, stories and experiences. This immersive VR experience is a continuation of our work on slow interactions, slow serious gameplay and slow interactive movies to create a sense of calm and peacefulness and so open opportunities for reflection and contemplation. Specifically, this work allows participants to explore, learn about and experience the beauty and wonder of corals, marine life and ecosystems in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef and create awareness of human activity that is harmful, disruptive and is ultimately destroying the reef.