PlayMancer: Games for Health with Accessibility in Mind

The term Serious Games has been used to describe computer and videogames used as educational technology or as a vehicle for presenting or promoting a pointof view. Serious games can be of any genre and many of them can be considered a kindof edutainment. Serious games are intended to provide an engaging, self-reinforcingcontext in which to motivate and educate the players towards knowledgeable processes,including business operations, training, marketing and advertisement. Serious games canbe compelling, educative, provocative, disruptive and inspirational. The potential of gamesfor entertainment and learning has been demonstrated thoroughly from both research andmarket. Unfortunately, the investments committed to entertainment dwarf what iscommitted for more serious purposes. In this feature, we will argue that the motives,incentives and expectations of the computer game industry differ from one cultural andeconomic environment to another. As the game industry is dominated by US companies,computer game products are targeting user groups mostly informed by the marketingdepartments of those companies. This process creates marginalised user groups andgame types that are not addressed effectively by the computer game market. Accessiblegames and games for health comprise this underdeveloped niche. Research projectPlayMancer is a multi-partner effort to tackle both of those issues in a coherent way.