Bulgaria became a major center for computer games

No matter whether you win or lose – it’s how you play, the manner in which a person „tick“ games on your computer may become clear whether he has the perspective to become a good doctor, fireman, policeman, businessman …. This is no joke . We are talking about so-called „serious games“ (paradoxical as it may sound!) – computer games that are designed not to entertain and amuse but to teach us different skills. This may have skills to manage the business skills to detect crimes skills to save lives. Through serious games can train people skills, which is too expensive or too risky to train in a real environment. For example, simulations are an excellent way for medics to carry into execution of complex operations, or civil protection schemes played to respond to a very large explosion destroyed a large number wounded. At the end of this week at a conference dedicated to serious games and their place in business and government. The conference was organized by the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce as part of info-scale initiatives European Project for development of serious games.

Project LUDUS (ludus – in Latin – a game) is a European network for exchange and dissemination of knowledge and technological innovation in the field of training based on serious games. In this endeavor BIA participated together with 7 partners from 6 European countries. Serious games are of interest to several groups of organizations. On one side are the human resources specialists in private enterprise and public sector, said Branimir Handjiev, Senior Director International organizations and programs in the BIA. HR professionals have traditionally been involved with the trainings and trainings for employees, why serious games are one of the „weapons“ in their arsenal.

Serious games are the subject of interest to software developers. In our country there are already companies that developed such applications for commercial purposes, said Handjiev. Universities and students are also among the target users of serious games, because young people are studying are those in the foreseeable future will take different jobs and need to be prepared for them. „Serious games are very important. To them we say that this is a“ flash industry, particularly in the U.S. – said Branimir Handjiev. – It currently has more revenue than the film industry. In 2012 the largest 500 companies in the world will apply serious games company in its management and training. Serious games allow for training of business cases, conducting training, establishing criteria for the workplace. The project LUDUS, which started in May this year and will last for three years, the BIA is the sole representative of Bulgaria. The task of the organization is to draw attention to the serious business of games.

In addition to Bulgarian companies, the Chamber is preparing for the intrigued and enterprises in Europe through participation in a European business network. BIA will also set up a specialized center for serious games. The first information day on the project LUDUS, held on Friday, showed that our interest in serious games have mainly human resources specialists from large private companies and game developers. Over 120 people came to hear presentations by the project participants, especially David Worth, director of the Institute for serious games at Coventry University (founded 2007). Within the first year of LUDUS team is expected to make significant library of games to be enjoyed by all who need and interest to introduce or develop serious games, highlighted Handjiev. Mr. Worth, as for games are serious games?

Serious games are electronic games and other technologies for non-entertainment purposes – things like training and training. This concept is quite new in most countries around the world and people it is an oxymoron – „serious games“! After all games are something that the idea is for entertainment? But we talk about games that are enjoyable and fun, but their primary purpose is not to entertain but to train people and help people learn new things. These games are designed for serious purposes – teaching, simulations. The fact is that games are the easiest way a person can learn something. So their primary purpose is educational. What use and in what areas have the administration serious games?

Are applicable in almost any field that you can not remember, but the main areas in which serious games are used are those in which it is too expensive or too risky to train people. As healthcare. If you want to get the doctors to be trained to perform complex manipulations ioperatsii, you can not afford it to test its capabilities on live people. However, if you can do with this game, which allows them to train without putting at risk the patient, this is an excellent opportunity. A good example is security. If you want to train civil protection officials and firefighters in how to deal with fire on oil rig, it would be very risky and very expensive in reality, almost impossible. So one of the most popular games is «Triage Trainer“ (Triage – the process of prioritizing patients based on severity of their condition). In this game paramedics and emergency teams arrived at the big event with many casualties and try to save lives – they must have prepared the correct process in each situation to identify the bodies – whether they should be picked and taken to ambulances for treatment or it is better to leave them. Well, obviously you can not do the explosion of a large building in the city center to train people on it. But if you develop a game which simulate simulate explosion and injury, people can be trained in this virtual environment very effectively and cheaply than the traditional way. These games you replace or complement traditional learning? No, in no case the games are not a substitute for real training. They only supplement to other various forms of training. In some cases games are the best way of training, but you always need a teacher or moderator, you can get the best from the game. I will give you an example game, developed by our partner – this is a game in which you do business. You choose the price of the product, decide how much to spend on marketing, what distribution channels you use, what are your production capacity, how much overtime to allow the factory. You take all the decision and see the effect on the profitability of the business. Naturally, since not doing real business, you can not go bankrupt. But you can see the mistakes you can make. Well, while playing the game, if you yourself may not understand why your decisions have an effect that is happening. So you need someone to explain – a teacher or moderator – but also well be other people playing the game, to share ideas with them. What is the role of the Institute for serious games at the University of Coventry? We at the Institute for serious games have this role to help companies that have an interest in developing games, and customers who want to develop games for them. We’re kind of broker between the two countries. We help companies develop games using the best techniques and technologies and help customers so that games can boost their training in the best way – to choose the right partner and to extract the best from the game.

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