Educational gaming: Improved integration using standard gaming genres

Abstract

A common problem seen in educational games is a lack of tight integration of educational content within the ‘fun’ portion of the game. We propose and test an educational game using the Shoot’em Up genre as a template for gameplay in which the educational content within the game is constantly presented to the user with the goal of ensuring that this content feels integral to the game. The goal is to enhance the appeal and fun factor of the game in the hope of increasing a learner’s motivation to play the game, thus increasing their exposure to the contained educational content.