Is Serious Games the same concept as Gamification?

“Gamification is an application of typically game-like elements to other areas of activity, say, marketing or training that can help increase engagement and effectiveness from participants. Whereas, serious gaming is designed to follow the typical gaming structure, despite having some sort of training value.

1. What is the difference between serious games and gamification?
2. What is considered a serious game?
3. Is gaming and gamification the same?
4. What's the difference between gamification serious games educational games and game-based learning?

What is the difference between serious games and gamification?

Serious games are activities that directly incorporate educational content into games; gamification integrates characteristics of games into nongame activities. They both promote learning by increasing students' motivation and engagement.

What is considered a serious game?

A serious game is an “educational application, whose initial intention is to combine, coherently and at the same time, serious aspects, in a non-exhaustive and non-exclusive way, teaching, learning, communication, or even information with the fun aspects of video games” [ALV 07].

Is gaming and gamification the same?

Gaming is a play-based element in a course. Some examples are puzzles and bingo games that are embedded into a lesson. Gamification is about the application of game-like attributes to motivate and encourage the learners to achieve the desired learning outcome.

What's the difference between gamification serious games educational games and game-based learning?

All three are very effective to motivate players. The difference between gamification and game-based learning is that in gamification you apply (some) game elements in an existing (non-gaming) context and in game-based learning you use existing games or specially developed serious games to learn.