Choosing a video game isn't easy. There is no official nomenclature that covers the full range of video game genres. It's easy to get lost if you don't have the vocabulary, especially since many games fit into multiple categories. Here's a little helping hand to help you find your way.
A video game's belonging to a particular type is essentially based on its gameplay, that is, its rules, its controls, the universe in which it unfolds, the experience the player has, etc. We will finish with a distinct style:
This term Serious Game is still widely used, but it has basically fallen out of favor since under this label are grouped game types that ultimately have little in common.
Cognitive science is formal: a passive organism does not learn. In Serious Games, the more interactivity given to the player, the more their active engagement is solicited. The act of living the situations and applying the right behaviors within the framework of a Serious Game is therefore favorable to the success of awareness-raising or learning.
Serious games are adapted according to their objective (learning, simulation, information, etc.) and to their target audience. They come in several forms (educational video games, platform games, etc). They can also be used to raise public awareness about issues related to health, safety or the environment, for example.
Some serious games include clear rules and objectives; others give more emphasis to creativity and cooperation.
You can find them, in no particular order:
Educational video games whose aim is to teach certain notions (logic, knowledge, various intellectual abilities, school revision, etc.) to the user, through games.
The term learning-game is increasingly used for them...
Initially aimed at children like the series of Incollables.
There are now learning games for everyone, from ages 7 to 99, for all who want to learn while having fun, and even for students of grande écoles, as in the wonderful games from Ikigai including a fantastic game to learn to detect fake news, which we mentioned at the time of its release.
We also loved this remarkable game that tells life during World War I and is used by many teachers.
Awareness-raising communication games
Like the one from [City Hall of Paris] which launched an educational contest to inform and raise Parisians awareness about the journey of drinking water...
Or the one from [UFC-Que Choisir] to raise consumers awareness of good practices in protecting personal data.
Advertising games
Companies have long recognized the value of developing online games, most often for marketing or commercial purposes. Often short (a few minutes of play), these games were used to promote a brand or a product.
They are also called Advergame (from advertising in English, and game).
The product or brand is staged in the game and thus benefits from high-quality advertising exposure generated in a relaxed setting. The game can also be scripted to highlight the product’s or brand’s features or advantages.
As with [Chocapic] which offers a game that is both fun and educational at release.
Most advergames or advertising games are distributed free on the Internet, as mobile apps or integrated into social networks. This is a classic marketing method.
Here are two more examples:
Recruitment games
Which we have already talked about here and here.
Internal corporate communication games
They are increasingly used to raise awareness among employees within the same organization about numerous transversal topics: digital transformation, innovation, security... A playful, action-based learning that involves employees by making them participants.
Like the ADA game for BNP Paribas, or [the game] which helps prepare the arrival of new managers at Total.
There you go! You should now master the different types of video games.