Building a Comprehensive R&D Community on Serious Games

There is a wide consensus in the scientific community about the educational potential of Serious Games (SGs). However, most authors highlight that more extensive tests need to be performed in order to provide valid and reliable evidence for effectiveness of SGs as educational tools. An effective application of SGs for education and training demands appropriate metrics, analytics, tools, and techniques for in-game user assessment, in order to allow meeting the educational goals, provide proper user feedback and support adaptivity. These are the major requirements that have inspired our approach in organizing the VS-Games 2012 conference. This short paper describes the aims and scope of the conference and provides an explanation of its program and future plans.