Games and geography

Abstract

Anyone who designs interactive spatial environments may learn from game-style interaction. Games are challenging, rewarding, and sometimes 'personalisable'. They also offer cues on how to help people navigate through virtual environments. Although digital game environments do have issues: authenticity, relevant meaningfulness, and how one evaluates their success or failure when used for educational purposes. However, games do offer some form of social context, embodiment, and challenge. They are also simulations. When designing learning environments, we all too often forget the point of the simulation is to challenge and reward the learning process rather than to depict a product. To stimulate that process we need to further investigate what the user experience is for, and how the interaction methods and metaphors can best present content, engage, and coax the learner to develop either transferable skills or factual knowledge. © 2007 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.