Definition
Transformational Games are games developed with the intention of changing players in a specific way that transfers outside of and persists beyond the game. These games can be digital, analog, or both.
Term Origin and Relation to Other Terms
The term “transformational game” was coined by Jesse Schell after his studio’s work on a variety of games that were designed to transform the player in a positive way but did not quite fit within the popular “educational game” category (Schell 2013). Educational games (Gredler 1996), serious games (Wilkinson 2016), game-based learning (Plass et al. 2015), games for learning (Clark et al. 2013), etc., are all popular terms used to describe games that aim to positively impact the player. Schell’s game studio, Schell Games, uses the term “transformational games” to describe their work on a wide range of projects designed to transform a variety of players in...
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References
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Morrill, B., Culyba, S. (2019). Transformational Games. In: Lee, N. (eds) Encyclopedia of Computer Graphics and Games. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08234-9_185-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08234-9_185-1
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