Serious Games Economic Assessment
Part I
Prepared for the
Serious Games Design Institute
Santa Barbara City College
By
Stephen Wright
Market Strategist
steve.wright@burntmail.com
11/15/2007
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Contents:
Abstract………………………………………………..3
Introduction…………………………………………..4
Scope …………………………………………….........4
SWOT Findings
Serious Games Strengths……………………………6
Inherent Game Strengths
and emerging capabilities
Best Use Applications
Cost Advantages
Serious Games Weaknesses…………………………9
Boredom
Inappropriateness
Lack of Profitability
Market Opportunities……………………………….11
Gamer Generation
The business training market
Emerging Trends
Workplace independence
Technology
Aging & Global Healthcare
Global systems
Market Threats……………………………………..14
Resistance
Competition
SWOT Analysis……………………………………. 16
Preliminary Business Model………………………17
PART II (Next steps)………………………………17
Bibliography………………………………………..18
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Abstract
The scope of this review regards the emerging business use of games which would
include Business to Business — B2B — as well as business to consumer indirect use of
games for marketing, product training or other uses not to be confused with the retail sale
of entertainment games. The SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats),
model is used to identify the probable business model.
Serious Game strengths include inherent game strengths and emerging capabilities, best
use applications and essential cost competitive advantages. Serious Games weaknesses
include boredom, inappropriateness and lack of profitability.
Market Opportunities for Serious Games include the gamer generation, the business
training market and emerging trends in the workplace. Market threats are characterized
by resistance in many forms such as ignorance, lack of validation, new costs and standard
bureaucratic obstructionism
Successful Serious Games companies will extensively product test, validate results and
achieve relevant certification as well as guarantee performance results. Economy and
marketing would be achieved by low cost Internet functionality (distribution and
advertising) directed to the students and workplace learners who could expense or deduct
their expenditures.
The successful companies in the Serious Games market industry will focus on a
particular ‘serious’ industry (such as healthcare, finance, retail…) and will establish share
with low capitalized mini or casual games targeted at the user. These will lead to selected
larger scale projects, customer loyalty and mainstream institutional acceptance.
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Introduction
Serious Games — or digital learning games — are the names given to the type of
computer based game technology used as either a training or production tool.
Characteristics of games allow for more participative, in depth and interactive learning of
complex and significant situations.
Interactive Serious Games can potentially improve the quality, speed and costs of training
and production once the development and acceptance phase of this new technology are
past. However, the long-term cost-value-benefit and/or cost justification of the Serious
Games solution can be estimated.
Many questions emerge after only a short contemplation of the Serious Games
possibilities. What business niche will support the initial development of the technology?
In what industries would the training modules become the production module? What
national security, disaster preparedness situations would result in human life being saved
by the development of these tools?
The proposed work here will be to create a preliminary business model, part 1, to use as a
basis for estimated economic assessment, part 2, of the impact of the use of Serious
Games as training and production tools. This will in turn help drive the further design
scope and testing of the Serious Games initiative at SBCC.
The Serious Games Design Institute at SBCC is a specially funded grant project to
provide statewide leadership on this topic for the community colleges and the Office of
Economic and Workforce Development at the Chancellor's Office.
Scope
For the purpose of this review, ‘Serious Games’ are defined as a form of computer based
digital learning programs that may contain digital computer-based simulations and/or
game elements and are designed to enhance, make more efficient and effective training
for ‘serious’ endeavors such as healthcare, finance and other business sectors. The
‘learning’ may involve prospective employees, new hires, middle and upper
management, practicing professionals, business vendors or business customers.
The scope of this review is exclusively on the business use of games which would
include Business to Business — B2B — as well as business to consumer indirect use of
games for marketing, product training or other uses not to be confused with the retail sale
of entertainment games.
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Because the scope is on the emerging business market need for serious games, the scope
excludes military, grant funded or taxpayer supported (educational system) use of games.
Serious Games differ from the more familiar video games in several ways.
•
•
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The goal is an entertaining or visually immersive and interactive way to learn
specific real-life capabilities vs. an entertainment only game
The topic and target audience are industry specific
The buying customer may be a corporation or an institution
Because Serious Games are designed for a purpose, the potential for economic impact
includes how well they serve that purpose. For example, if nurses could be trained fifty
percent faster and more economically with digital game-or simulation-based
programming, the impact would include training cost efficiencies, increased nursing
payroll and taxes as well as societal gains as a result of alleviating the nursing shortage.
In addition, we would include the employment opportunities and new revenue of the
game development companies.
More speculative impact but no less real would include the efficiencies in post-training
performance among employees, which could be measured in percentage of turnover, rate
of productivity ramp up or, in the case of emergency first responders, numbers of lives
saved.
While the market for, and economic impact of, commercial entertainment games have a
history and momentum, the market and economic impact of Serious Games is less
observable and more complex.
Part I, of the Economic Assessment of Serious Games for the Serious Games Design
Institute — SGDI — at Santa Barbara City College is intended to cover the following
topics:
1) Strengths and weaknesses of serious games;
Capture assumptions, expert experiences and research regarding the characteristic
strengths and weaknesses of Serious Games in a training or in a production environment.
2) Matching opportunities in the workplace;
Identify the matching opportunities in the workplace for the unique game training and
production characteristics.
3) Various alternatives;
Identify the various alternatives in use or in development; i.e. various games, simulation,
or hands-on training solutions for those situations and their approximate cost.
The three topics above relate to the four quadrants of a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses,
Opportunities, and Treats) analysis. The point of view of this SWOT analysis is that of
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‘Serious Games as a business product.’ Consequently, only strengths and weaknesses of
Serious Games as a product will be reviewed. Also, opportunities and threats will
include business or market environmental trends, issues and forces of magnitude in which
Serious Games as a product would need to serve or compete to establish market value for
use and acceptance.
Typically the SWOT model is used to determine a strategy for a company to follow in a
changing business environment in order to be successful. In this application, we are
using the SWOT model to help identify the business model that will emerge to propel the
economic growth of Serious Games. With those players and that model identified, a
more logical quantitative economic assessment can be developed as well as a forecast of
appropriate curriculum for students that wish to participate in that emerging industry.
Part I of the Economic Assessment is a qualitative review of the cause and effect terrain
that will serve as a model for the more quantitative economic assessment to follow in Part
II. Part I will also serve as a point of discussion and collaboration with the SGDI team.
SWOT Findings
Serious Games Strengths
Borrowing from their cousins the popular Video Games, Serious Games would combine
the capabilities of video games to engage the participant in an interactive mental exercise
with the essential training goals of a serious endeavor (healthcare, finance, retail….any
business). Relevant market strengths of Serious Games include: inherent game strengths
and emerging capabilities, best use applications and essential cost competitive
advantages.
Inherent Game Strengths and emerging capabilities:
‘The secret of video game teaching is that each level dances around the outer limits of a
persons abilities seeking to be hard enough but just do-able, …a scenario avoided by
schools’. Game companies don’t make $6.8 billion a year by dumbing down material.
The harder, more complex games take 50 to 100 hours to complete…schools are in the
dark ages of cognitive science’ (Gee).
In education, an off the shelf game, Civilization III, engagingly exposes students to
historical concepts and terminology that then makes the learning in class of the actual
history much more accessible and familiar (Wright, N)
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Games trigger powerful emotions; their key pleasure is in the cognitive solving of
problems (Dillon). Game elements drive engagement and may include fantasy, whimsy,
competition, beauty and a great story (Aldrich).
Describing the engagement power of games to someone who has never lost a weekend to
their spell has been a linguistic challenge to many of the writers sited above. Most
trainers now recognize the power of games as tools instead of toys.
Games have attracted a global audience. In corporate or business training the potential
for young employees to be motivated for training, to provide better metrics, faster
learning, more knowledgeable people with better retention will have obvious benefits.
Long since America’s Army heralded the military’s success with game based learning,
simulations of varying fidelity have entranced those that would want to experience
something virtually and safely, rather than in reality where life is vulnerable. The cost
effectiveness in human life terms is not calculable; however, in the business world the
cost benefit of a simulation must be a pragmatic one.
Types of games that cross over easily to the business environment include mini or casual
games, simple games and simulations and three-dimensional virtual worlds that also
include cost efficiencies that are more business friendly.
Best use applications:
Use of digital game technologies in business applications is increasing and evolving. As a
snapshot, here are a few business friendly applications that stand out and demonstrate the
strength of game based learning; routine business training, interactive system training
modules, customer oriented learning games and three dimensional virtual environments.
Routine Business Training: If the material is technical, complex critical and boring
where practice is important and reflection is not…and the learning population is
amenable to game based learning, then you have a classic opportunity for a variety of
structured serious game alternatives. Training for certifications and continuing education
units would be fairly practical examples. While elaborate simulations often come to
mind, mini games, simple branching stories, simple simulations, interactive spreadsheet
games or game show type games like Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune could handle most
of these types of applications.
Dr Killner, President of ITD International, Carlsbad, CA., has been producing custom
simulations to help train automobile salespeople to develop selling skills for over 30
years. Simulations are customized for types of car brands, their characteristics as well as
the dealerships approach to selling. When interviewed for this research, Dr Kilner said,
‘business is booming’. A basic custom sim with 50 simulation scenarios markets for
$150K to $200K. Provided on multiple DVDs, it can then be utilized to train an unlimited
number of salespeople at their convenience, often at 30 min intervals, for 5 hours total
training each…and with no trainer. Incentives and game elements are minimal. While
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these could be enhanced, they are not requested by the customer or seen as necessary at
this time.
Many corporate employees have probably been through similar situational sims for
standard compliance training on topics such as sexual harassment training, customer
confidentiality and safety.
Interactive System Training Modules: A simple speculation at this time, if it is not
already being done, is that the technology exists to develop training simulation learning
games as modules of existing and developing integrated systems. As more intelligent
equipment in the work area is linked together into an integrated system, as in a
manufacturing plant or an emergency room, a centralized tracking and management
system can be host to a training module. Rather than the rudimentary FAQ’s and
screenshots, a reasonable upgrade to a simulation reflecting the interactive cause and
effect relationship of the equipment or process can be used for productivity or improved
success rate. Situations such as the emergency room example could allow for doctors,
nurses and specialists to have interactive trial simulations, reverse role-play experiences
and review with equipment vendor specialists for enhancements in product or for use by
the attending staff.
Time spent in emergency room simulation gaming with the exact real time equipment
screens and readouts, and interaction with peers could improve results, minimize errors
and provide years of experience in days.
Customer oriented learning games: In medicine, innovative patient oriented Serious
Games have been initiated for the purposes of distraction, self management (diabetes,
asthma), fitness and motor skill therapy. Theoretically, any consumer- or patient-oriented
game that is provided as a customer service is a business or ‘Serious Games’ application.
This would include adver-games, the increasingly popular short free games found on the
Internet that serve some product familiarization intent. That these games are popular
enough that a player often e-mails them to friends (presumably of a similar demographic)
they have earned the distinction of ‘viral marketing.’
Mini games (casual, mini, flash, …) can be used for spot training on mobile devices or
for commercial messages (as in internet viral marketing strategies).
3D Virtual Environments: 3D virtual worlds provide a host of opportunities, as they are
an emerging clean slate onto which prospective ideas can develop.
Currently, these worlds offer an experimental place to experience business, management
and semi-structured games developed by host users. However, as these worlds migrate to
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authentic business environments, the line between experimental and real life
consequences will need to be clarified.
3D virtual worlds like Second Life or Mutiverse offer virtual business meetings and
virtual 3D tour capabilities that will become more practical as real-time voice and hand
motion graphic user interfaces (GUIs) proliferate, personal avatars become cross-world
transferable and virtual intellectual property issues attain real world standards with legal
enforceability. When the business uses become more established, the training objectives
will become clearer.
For example, while describing the 3D virtual world capabilities to a shopping mall
developer, he was enthusiastic that soon he would be able to tour 3D architectural
drawing of future projects with the architectural firms to clarify design issues and with
prospective tenants to lease undeveloped space. Training to enable these applications
would be relatively straightforward.
Cost Advantages:
A single day of traditional corporate classroom training for 60 individuals including
transportation costs about $40,000 (Baylis). Furthermore, the strain on schedules, family
life and more often the irrelevance of the training combine to make it a high-cost/lowvalue proposition.
In contrast, e-learning or Internet based learning costs 50% less. E-learning, like Serious
Games…which may cost more to develop than many of the unpopular e-learning tools
currently on the market, share the advantage of flexibility and cost savings due to
scheduling, transportation and targeted timely learning.
Reasonably economical simple games already exist such as branching story, interactive
spreadsheets, mini games, virtual product and practice ware simulations (Aldrich). Mini
games can be developed for as little as $10K for a 5-minute mini game and can be easily
updated. Successful mini games can replace an hour of classroom with 15 minutes of
self-paced time (Yaman).
Serious Game Weaknesses
Serious Games have three potential weaknesses: boredom, inappropriateness and lack of
profitability.
Boredom: Customers of entertainment games are familiar with retail games that are
designed solely for their pleasure (Prensky). The gamer world is an ‘all about me’
customer-oriented experience (Beck). In the retail game industry the strongest predictor
of market failure is lack of customer focus (Law).
“People hate training. On-line completion rates are less than 50%” (Prensky)
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Serious Games have a tough act to follow. If retail games are candy, serious games hope
to be candy with medicine mixed in. While potentially distasteful, we have to assume
that the customer has some acceptance that it would be wise if they took the medicine.
“Serious Games are games you ‘have to’ play” (Jim Dunnigan, David).
“ A [serious] games success is directly related to the learners motivation to play the
game.” (Andrew Kimball, CEO QBinternational, David)
But how do you keep your Serious Games from tasting like medicine?...or being boring?
‘You need an expert educator, a subject matter expert and a game developer…unless you
have all three, you risk having a game that can teach but won’t be much fun, or vice
versa.” (Harris)
Inappropriateness: What is engaging as a gaming experience to one person (a virtual
patient dying in virtual surgery) may seem inappropriate to another. It seems the more
one cares about the content [the learning], the less tolerant they are of the game elements
(Aldrich). Furthermore, unless accompanied by instructor-led debriefing, games do not
foster reflection on the learned material. Real sensitivity is needed in developing
appropriate content in a diverse workforce or multicultural setting, and the need for nongame alternative training will continue to exist.
There is an indulgence in games that can be carried to an extreme. 3D virtual world
Second Life has had its share of initial business fanfare and eventual criticism for the
sometimes unsavory and addictive quality that the virtual world holds for some players
(WSJ, Is This Man Cheating?) The psychological variances among individuals, like
addictive disorders, are not easily known in advance. Companies, in a litigiously risk
averse corporate business environment, would avoid questionable game environment and
game element choices.
Lack Of Profitability: The early producers of games, retail or serious, have been heavily
involved in design, pedagogy, and technology but sparing in the business development
models (Alhadeff). The business model appears to be the biggest challenge at this time.
The predominate business model for Serious Games has been work-for-hire which does
not lead to economies of scale. Although there are signs of a maturing industry, the video
game industry still has been slow to adopt external tools and middleware to say nothing
of open standards (virtualworld.news).
Game creation tools are still complex limiting who can develop games (Prensky) and it
can take 750 hours of development time to make one hour of high fidelity simulation
(Adlrich). While a request for game based learning from an uninformed corporate
executive will bring about sticker shock (Harris), games also bring in other costs like
maintenance, requests for variations, distribution, assessment, internal marketing and IT
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support (Yaman). Additionally, to the extent Serious Games are based upon real world
processes, if those processes change or they were gathered inaccurately in the first place,
the game would be obsolete until updated.
To bypass the corporate channel and go directly to the learner with sophisticated Serious
Games is equally challenging. In prior efforts to go retail, market positioning has been a
historic problem partially to blame for the failure of edutainment software. For instance,
both Mattel and Lucas Entertainment have lost money or spun off their edutainment
efforts. Despite a positive outlook for medical Serious Games, there is no appropriate
area to put them on the software shelf. Do they belong with fitness DVD’s, or office
productivity software? And the fitness games without a console — do they go on a PC or
in the exercise room?
Profitable retail marketing of Serious Games would require a portfolio risk approach
similar to movie studios, software developers and retail entertainment game developers.
A single computer game project on average will take 18-24 months to complete,
requiring a specialized project team and a multi-million dollar investment to sell in the
marketplace for $20-$50 per game at an unpredictable success rate (Smith). Most game
publishers consider themselves lucky if 20% of their game titles are profitable…and if
3% are a hit (Law).
If global sales are critical for breakeven profitability, the complexity of the technology
interface, the language, business culture and practices will be significant for real — not
pretend — subject matter. Finally, with the constant advancing technology of games as
well as the advances in the serious subject discipline, the likelihood of early obsolesce is
high.
Market Opportunities
An assessment of the opportunities for Serious Games will focus on the gamer
generation, the business training market, emerging trends in the workplace, technology,
aging Americans and global healthcare.
Gamer Generation:
The game generation, with a population of 90 million and climbing, will surpass the Baby
Boom generation — some 77 million — in size and influence. Each day, average
teenagers watch three hours of television, surf the internet 10 minutes to an hour, play 1.5
hours of video games (Prensky, 37). Currently, the average gamer is 33 years old, has
played games for the last 12 years…and 38% are women (Alhadef). The game
generation is approaching a critical mass in business… soon to be dominant… which
represents a cultural divide with older Americans many of whom run companies, training
departments and schools.
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In contrast to the relatively reflective and traditional baby boom, gamer generation
learning styles are aggressively informal, more trial and error, they learn more from peers
not authority figures, they learn in small bits…and only when needed (Beck, 159). The
gamer generation and our culture at large now exhibit changing behaviors due to the
ubiquitousness of multimedia such as; a) written language is less dominant, b) linear
organization is supplemented by random access of information, c) passive media is
replaced by active, and d) learning has less time for reflection (Prensky,76).
The gamer generation is here to stay. Ignoring the enormous opportunity they represent
is not a valid strategic option.
The business training market:
The potential Serious Games market would likely win some increased portion of the
employee learning and development market and may share some growth characteristics
with popular games and mobile games.
The American Society of Training and Development, ASTD, identifies $109 billion spent
annually on employee learning and development — 75% internally and 25% externally
—and increasing at a rate of 4% per year.
E-learning technology is used 36.5% of the time yet represents only 10% of the total
spending. Over 5,000 companies are in the on-line education business.
By contrast, the video game industry is growing 9% per year and is estimated at $45
billion worldwide (12.5 billion in the USA). Casual Game revenue is growing at twice
the console game rate although it is pegged and only 380M. Figures on mobile gaming
(thru cell phones and PDAs) indicate a 20% growth rate, with hotbeds of activity in Asia
Pacific and Europe.
The Serious Games market is valued between $150 million and $200 million per year.
However, healthcare applications reportedly have the potential to dramatically increase
that annual revenue by another $400 million (Alhadeff). Ben Sawyer, recognized expert
in the Serious Games industry, estimates the market potential at $20 billion. At these
levels, appropriate economies of scale and competition should exist to provide customer
value and product diversification.
Emerging trends:
Emerging trends include changes in the workplace, technology, aging Americans and
global healthcare.
Workplace Independence: While almost all corporate training departments respond
favorably to the learning-by-game concept, higher-level corporate employee ‘churn’
attributable to downsizing and outsourcing has diminished the relevance of training once
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guaranteed to the long-term employee. It is increasingly up to the employee to train him
or herself for the next opportunity or to seek outside training to preserve skill sets outside
of the corporation (Pink, 92).
Interestingly, two out of three workers in California do not hold traditional jobs, i.e.,
permanent year round, outside the home employment. The free agent population in the
USA is about $33 million and the largest private employer in the US is Manpower, Inc., a
temporary agency. With the proliferation of independent computers, wireless handheld
devices and ubiquitous low cost connections, workers can now ‘own the means of
production’ for work or for training (Pink,55).
While corporate training represents a huge training market, these trends indicate the
growing need and opportunity for independent training outside a corporation that may be
more receptive to innovative training techniques.
Technology (smaller, faster, cheaper, mobile): Society has become more accustomed to
seeing 3D representations in courts, medical facilities and museums, and the migration
and acceptance of computer technology seems to be going mobile, personal and
incidental.
Home computers by 2015 will likely feature 1000 GHZ processors, 2000 GB RAM, 2
million G hard drive and a video card to simulate human vision (Garland, 157). While
costs decrease, so will size. Futurists predict that computers will disappear into the
clothing and accessories to provide a wearable augmented reality complete with ‘alwayson’ wireless connectivity.
Interestingly, personal computer sales are declining in Japan while other devices such as
mobile phones and big screen televisions increase ((tabuchi). Internet traffic is also 50%
less than forecast and slowing worldwide (while television over internet may reverse that
trend). Once again, the opportunity for independent training is not technologically
dependent on a corporation. Nor on a PC.
Aging and Global Healthcare: The aging population of the USA has several impacts —
some domestic, some global. Domestically, as experienced older workers leave the
workplace, there is a recognized need and a recognized gap in transferring their
knowledge to fewer ‘high churn’ younger workers (IBM). John Chambers, Cisco CEO,
points out ‘the thing that’s slowing down our momentum in any market right now is our
ability to educate our employees quickly’ (Prensky). Meanwhile, the continued
emergence of China and India fueled by a large population of intelligent, driven young
people reaches out to fill employment needs worldwide (futurist).
The training of young people in the US to capture the vanishing expertise as well as the
wider availability of young people in China and India and other emerging economies, to
in the global economy, including healthcare, creates a worldwide opportunity.
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The aging American population is also fueling a historic growth in the healthcare
industry requiring more skilled doctors, nurses and administrators worldwide.
Healthcare, with its many technologies, skills, vocabulary, certifications, support
occupations and interactive systems urgently need efficient training solutions.
Additionally, the ‘broken’ American healthcare system will increasingly rely on patients
themselves to manage their records and detect health optimization strategies amid a
growing sea of personal data (Gates, WSJ). The requirements for training include health
practitioners, support industry professionals and the patients themselves.
Global health care integrated service systems are inevitable and like many growth
industries today, mitigation of energy costs, accommodation of foreign labor laws,
conversion to currencies, conformance with recycling mandates and avoidance of
security risks add further complexity to business endeavors. Simulations to optimize
efforts, secure assets, and train the diversified and distributed workers of the world —
many of whom are independent — will be needed in an increasingly sophisticated global
economy.
If games are the killer application for training…there is ample opportunity.
Market Threats
Resistance takes many forms: ignorance, lack of validation, new costs, and standard
bureaucratic obstructionism. While the product concept of Serious Games faces no real
competition from other types of learning, it is possible that domestic development of
Serious Games could lag compared to other countries.
Resistance:
A majority of corporate employees [executives and workers alike] view corporate
training as not relevant and a waste of time (IBM). Instituting Serious Games within an
organization to change their mind is an uphill climb.
People are not used to seeing digital learning games in a corporate training class, and
many executives think that learning games are un-businesslike. Still many corporate
training departments would use games more if they only knew how (White).
Resistance may stem from lack of validation from the educational community. On a
national level, large-scale statistical success of games would be necessary before the
National Office of Management and Budget would consider budget appropriations.
Serious Games gets weak support from traditional educational lobbyists who remember
the recent unmet promises by Serious Games developers (Dillon).
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Educators are still battling administrators over the legitimacy of game studies programs;
an ironic consideration when one contemplates the powerful role of games like Chess and
Monopoly as learning and socialization tools. Still, there are very few PhD’s in Game
Studies. With legitimacy lacking from educational institutions, there is not much support
for corporate training departments to make bold claims.
Resistance also comes from cost considerations. Games cost more than e-learning
(Prensky) and corporate training departments have been on an efficiency binge in recent
years that has led to centralization and standardization to centralized e-learning, platforms
(Rivera). Corporate Training departments are most likely to do a ‘one size fits all’ style of
training — not suitable for today’s younger employees (IBM).
Nevertheless, when corporate training departments are inspired to lead with digital gamebased learning, they must be ready for the corporate approval gauntlet.
Those experienced in running this gauntlet advise that early on an executive ‘champion’
be identified (think VP or President), who, as with any bold corporate initiative, will help
cut the red tape from the executive suite. This is necessary, because as the project
becomes bigger and more visible, there will be more various constituencies with
legitimate needs that must be satisfied. Undoubtedly some group will always disagree
with the agenda or the appropriateness of the game elements.
Competition:
While the best validation of a concept may be that your competitors are doing it, it is a
tough wake up call. China’s government is nurturing a program to develop a domestic
game industry to rival India and South Korea (Wallace). It is unclear how much Serious
Games will be featured in the Chinese government subsidized and directed effort;
however, it is an advantage that will not be duplicated in our Western free enterprise
economy.
To the extent that mobile users may be the predominate market for Serious Games, the
advancements in mobile infrastructure technology in Japan and Europe excels over that in
the USA. The indirect result would be that innovation, funding and implementation of
mobile Serious Games would be more synergistic in those countries.
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SWOT Analysis
STRENGTHS
OPPORTUNITIES
Engagement
Retention
Efficiency
Integrated potential
Customer oriented
3D virtual business env.
Game Generation
Lg training market
Independent workplace
Small, fast, mobile tech
Aging Americans
Global healthcare
Global business systems
WEAKNESSES
THREATS
Boredom
Inappropriateness
Immature industry
Poor
profitability
Resistance
Ignorance
Lack of validation
Cost challenges
Bureaucratic process
China
Three Strategic Steps:
1) Use Strengths to attack Opportunities:
Strategy: Use Serious Games to target Gamer Generation employees with
emphasis on independent technology (i.e. personal discretionary expense or
‘expense-able’ to corporate accounts), with initial global industry target as in
global healthcare medical training.
2) Bolster Weaknesses:
Strategy: Assure expert development team and ‘focus group’ product testing
before release. Do not use questionable game elements or environments. Sell
virtual only, minimize capital needs.
3) Avoid Threats
Strategy: Bypass corporate direct sales. Seek market test validation with
institutional approval. Hurry.
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Preliminary Business Model
Utilizing the three strategic steps to define a business profile, successful companies in the
Serious Games market will need to focus on a particular industry. The critical customer
need is for correct, experienced, nuanced and timely information woven into a game or
series of games. The game skill and technology is essential, but worthless if the
information is second rate. Emphasis on expert development process and proven industry
expertise will be essential.
Successful companies may establish initial success with low capitalized mini or casual
games. These will lead to larger scale projects. However, the continued value of mini
games in marketing, developing new niches within the industry and repurposing company
expertise will be an ongoing critical part of the life-cycle business model. Caution will
need to be exercised to avoid drifting into exclusively work-for-hire projects.
In parallel, a product testing and PR effort in conjunction with a recognized institution
(ASTD, Medical School, or College system) needs to establish learner retention rates,
and use validation for certification and credentials normally acquired thru classroom or
testing.
The marketing strategy would be direct to the students (heavy emphasis) and professional
learners themselves with a clear migration strategy of earning trust, then loyalty over a
lifetime. The product would be web-based, available in mobile and PC modules. Initial
pricing would be individual, or discounted for group or institutional purchase with
guarantees of performance.
As essentially a guerrilla or viral marketing strategy, the games are sold to the institutions
indirectly through the gamer generation who will eventually validate their worth and
convince institutions and corporations to reluctantly embrace them as virtual curriculum.
Part II
Based on team review of Phase I and further inquiry, a quantitative economic assessment
will be provided in Part II. Specific emphasis will be on the economic impact on various
industry segments and existing training providers
As this project is funded by The Serious Game Design Institute at SBCC as part of a
specially funded grant project to provide statewide leadership on this topic for the
community colleges and the Office of Economic and Workforce Development at the
Chancellor's Office, the economic assessment will be focused in California.
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