People typically associate games with play or fun and learning with hard work or boredom. But serious learners actually associate learning with both fun and hard work. With the digital revolution that took off in the 1990s, we are witness to a huge cultural change with the increasing use of technology in the development and use of games.

Games and Serious Games
The Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary, defies “Game” as “an activity engaged in for diversion or amusement”. David Michael, in his book1 states in summary that “…games are a voluntary activity, obviously separate from real life, creating an imaginary world that may or may not have any relation to real life and that absorbs the player’s full attention. Games are played out within a specific time and place, are played according to established rules, and create social groups out of their players”.

If we accept this as a working definition of a game and combine it with the “diversion or amusement” dictionary connotation, is serious game an oxymoron? Not quite.