A paradigm for the development of serious games for health as benefit delivery systems

摘要

Serious games are developed with the purpose of bestowing a benefit on the user. That benefit could be related to the user's health, education, safety or efficiency. We propose that the mechanism that the game employs to achieve such a benefit should be identified as the key to the development of a successful serious game. We introduce a paradigm for the design and development of serious games as benefit delivery systems. We suggest that the paradigm can apply to all applications and genres of serious game. Three serious games for health are employed as case studies of developing a serious game as a benefit delivery system. Recommendations are then made for the adoption of the paradigm for serious gaming in general.