Dr. Hariklia Tsalapatas
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of
Thessaly, 38333 Volos, Greece

Prof. Dr. Ricardo Baptista
INESC TEC – Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores,
Tecnologia e Ciência, ISCE Douro – Instituto Superior de Ciências da
Educação do Douro, Universidade Aberta, 1269-001 Lisboa, Portugal

Website:
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/computers/special_issues/0731GC5T5P

Dear Colleagues,

Video games are highly immersive applications that keep the players in a
state of focused motivation as they are always looking to overcome
challenges and reach goals. Video games have a huge impact on many
social, cultural, and economic aspects of our society, far beyond their
intrinsic entertainment value—new forms of interaction and communication
in online multiplayer games, the millions of viewers of professional
e-sport competitions, the huge following of gaming streamers on social
channels such as Twitch, the communities of players that are formed
around a specific title, and the size of the industry itself are just
some examples of the impact of games in modern life.

Serious games explore the impact of games and the inherent motivation
and immersion of players for other “serious” objectives, such as
education, marketing, social awareness, health and care, research, etc.
Education and training are the areas with more (successful) examples of
the use of serious games (designated more commonly as educational
games). The term game-based learning refers precisely to pedagogical
processes based on the design, development, and use of games created to
accomplish specific learning objectives. Gamification, understood as the
application of game principles, elements and mechanics in other non-game
contexts has also been extensively used in education to reinforce the
motivation of learners.

This Special Issue aims to present and discuss new advances in
game-based learning, gamification in education and serious games in
general that can enhance the effectiveness and outreach of education,
advertising, social awareness, health, policies, etc. We invite
publications referring to new scientific approaches, results from
experiments, and real-life applications. Topics of interest include but
are not limited to the following:

Serious games;
Game-based learning;
Gamification in education;
Advergames;
Exergames;
Pervasive games;
Awareness-raising games;
Models and practices with serious games;
New technologies for serious games:
Assessment and evaluation of serious games;
The psychology of serious games;
Social and collaborative games;
Security and confidentiality in serious games;
Case studies in serious games.

Dr. Carlos Vaz de Carvalho
Dr. Hariklia Tsalapatas
Prof. Dr. Ricardo Baptista
Guest Editors