Backgammon is 5000 years old. Chess was invented around 600 AC. And as early as year 3000 BC, the Egyptians played the board game Mehen. Throughout history, people of all cultures have always played games. For a researcher, the obvious question is: why?, and the answer might be that man uses games to practise abilities, evolve as a human being and learn new skills.

This goes for computer games as well. The It University is home to Denmark’s only scientific centre for computer games research. The researchers at the centre are some of the world’s leading experts on the subject, and they take computer games very seriously. Like the ancient board games, today’s computer games can strengthen our social, cognitive and motor skills. Even so, computer games are not always respected as much as media like literature, arts or music, and computer games often suffer from a bad reputation due to violent games such as “Grand Theft Auto”.

There are, however, numerous good reasons to take computer games seriously. There are many examples of games with serious potential. The interactive computer game Facesay can teach autistic children to read faces and recognize other people’s emotions. Burn victims can ease their pains by playing the virtual reality game Snow World.  And the computer game Brain-Age is used to counteract dementia and Alzheimer’s among the elderly.

”Serious Games” is a major research topic among the game researchers. Together with other universities and industrial partners, the IT University is involved in ”Serious Games on a Global Market Place”: A big research and development project that deals with computer games for educational purposes. Games for language teaching and ”exertainment” are among the research subjects.

The research in serious games has also given birth to a successful Danish company.  Serious Games Interactive was founded in 2006 by Simon Egenfeldt-Nielsen, Ph.D. in computer games and learning and assistant professor at the IT University. Most of the employees are graduates from the IT University’s different tracks of the game program: Game design, game technology and game analysis. The company is best known for its game series ”Global Conflicts”, that is used for teaching students about international conflicts. The game ”Palestine”, that deals with the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, has won the ”Oscar” of educational games – a BETT-Award – and has received international attention through CNN.

The story of Serious Games Interactive is symptomatic for the IT University. The research on serious games does not only benefit the academic community. It also generates value. By combining high quality research and entrepreneurship, the company has made business out of research.  School students as well as shareholders benefit from this. And so does Denmark, since the Danish game industry now employs more than 500 people and turns over nearly 400 million kroner each year.

Read more on Serious Games on a Global Market Place here
Read more Serious Games Interactive here