Cologne Game Lab

Serious Games for Education and Training in the Humanitarian Sector: State of the Art

This study by Mukherjee and Guardiola surveys the state of serious games for education and training in the humanitarian sector, a field where adoption has lagged despite the demonstrated value of game-based learning in other domains.

• Of 89 non-commercial serious games on humanitarian topics released between 1990 and 2023, 49 targeted awareness, 9 classroom education, and 31 professional training of humanitarian workers, policymakers, and stakeholders.
• Accessibility is a serious problem: 11 of the 31 professional training games are no longer available and 10 require direct contact with developers or a workshop to access, unlike commercial titles on related themes, which remained almost entirely accessible via archives, resellers, or abandonware sites.
• Analog, multiplayer games dominated professional training, while digital titles were mostly single-player and used largely for awareness and education.