Serious Games vs Entertaining Games: What's the Difference?

With new technology coming out and increasing rates the past few years, new ways to use said technology has begun to be utilized. A really big example of this is the up-and-coming simulation games popping up all over. Can these simulations really be called games? Serious simulation games versus games meant for entertainment, before we can go into what the difference between the two, we have to determine what a simulation game is and what an entertaining game is.

The definition of simulation is "the representation of the behavior or characteristics of one system through the use of another system"1. In simpler English this simply means to portray a certain "thing" by testing it through a system such as a computer or set of actions. Simply it is a form of imitation. Using this definition would mean a simulation game would be a game that portrays a certain event, action, or instance through an intractable means. Some examples of simulations can include older games such as Chess and Mancala to newer computerized simulations such as driving and flight simulators used in schools, training, and military.

Entertaining games can be much easier to understand. Entertainment can simply be classified as activities that amuse and/or divert the mind and is often pleasant to experience. An entertaining game is technically subjective, meaning something one can find entertaining differs depending on opinion apart from another person. However most games labelled as "Entertainment" tend to be geared to a majority that would find said game fun. Countless examples of games that fall under this category exist as most games strive to be entertaining and make that their main goal for the player.

The difference between these genres really isn't a difference at all since in actuality a simulation game can in fact be entertaining. While many simulations exist that have no "fun" or "entertaining" qualities to them such as driving simulators commonly found in many high schools, some actually have some form of entertainment hidden inside. I will actually do a really quick overview of a few really good entertaining games that are actually simulation games in disguise.

An entertaining game that I rarely hear about yet can still be considered a simulation based game is Sid Meier's Civilization series. Although its not a simulation in a classic "Replicating an event or action exactly in a game" it still has many simulation qualities. In the game you are tasked with being world leader, each leader based on real life leaders of history. In the game you have to make important decisions such as where to found important cities, what to build and fund in said cities, and important decisions and trading involving other world leaders. Although the simulation isn't completely accurate to real life, it does show a well crafted simplified simulation of being a world leader. The goal of the game is to either become the most advanced country in a short amount of time, build a space ship and win the space race, become the only country in the world through conquest and war, or simply be a well-developed country in the eyes of the game compared to the other surrounding countries.

Official picture for The Sims 4

A popular game most people consider a social and life simulation game is The Sims series. Although very unrealistic many consider this to be a full-fledged simulation game, possibly influenced by the name "Sims". Although the main series' games are generally unrealistic the same company works on other simulation games such as SimCity which is arguably a bit more realistic. Recently some of the more recent installments have been less realistic than its predecessors to keep it more entertaining for people to play and increase sales. The Sims' games only real objective is to have your characters survive without going broke. Essentially you are trying to have your characters live a healthy and successful lives. In SimCity the basic goal is to simply build up a city and not have everyone die in it.As the player you can choose to do any numberof things in the game, including deciding not to follow any of the rules and goals. This makes the game even less realistic especially if you decide to trap a character in a room without an exit or decide to send a massive tornado through your city.

Plague Inc. is probably the best entertainment simulation example I can currently think of. The game is very simple in design but genius as a simulation. In the game you create a disease and release it into a simulation of current Earth. Depending on some of the options you choose such as how contagious said disease is or what it does to infected and even where the disease starts. Ideally you want your disease to eradicate the entirety of Earth's population. It is actually really interesting and fairly realistic as Earth's inhabitants will try to fight and cure the disease, the disease may mutate, and even takes into account the hygiene of some places on Earth. Of all the entertainment simulators, Plague Inc. is probably one of the closest to a stereotypical classic simulator.

A popular shot from the game Oregon Trail

A common simulator many Americans have probably heard of and possibly played before is Oregon Trail. Its an older game that simulates the historic movement down the real life Oregon Trail when American settlers moved west to find cheap land. The movement itself was a very dangerous voyage and the game loves to make it apparent. The game is actually very difficult to complete, much like the actual movement to the west. This game still stands as an amazing simulation despite its age. If you haven't heard of it I definitely recommend checking it out and what it great is you can find it from multiple sources for absolutely free!2

Two entertainment "simulators" really aren't simulators in the classic sense. Although they try to use the simulator logic and formula, it doesn't quite make a simulation. The two games I'm referring to are Goat Simulator and Surgeon Simulator. Both are infamous for being downright weird in some cases. Goat Simulator actually started as an actual simulation game but the developers thought the buggy and glitchy game they had created was actually entertaining to most and they decided to make the finished product what it is today, a very strange game about being a very destructive and glitchy goat. The point of their new game was to find the weirdest and "coolest" bugs in the program. Surgeon Simulator is a good example of an unrealistic simulator using the simulation formula. It is very unrealistic simulator about performing various surgeries. Although fun there is nothing realistic about it at all. If actual surgeons were training with this game I would be very concerned. Both of these games are common games given the "simulator"genredue to their names but once played, they are not actually simulators.

Well hopefully this helped spread some information about simulation games. I'll be focusing on these a bit more the next few months so be sure to check back. I also have a few reviews planned for posting in the near future.



1 The definition of "Simulation" from Dictionary.com found at the following link: http://www.dictionary.com/browse/simulation
2 Oregon Trail can be played without download at http://playdosgamesonline.com/oregon-trail.html