Are Serious Games Engaging? A Case of Motivating Sustainable Household Practices

Serious games aim to capitalize on game qualities, such as engagement and entertainment, to achieve a serious purpose. Through interviews from two evaluations of a serious game about environmentally sustainable household practices, this study investigates whether the 28 participants experienced the game as engaging and entertaining. We find (a) that the participants merely tended toward being positively engaged by the game, (b) that it was experienced as more engaging than entertaining, and (c) that the participants were not positively entertained by it. In addition, several participants appeared more engaged in the underlying topic of sustainability than in the gameplay, that is, they favored relatability and relevance over entertainment. On that basis, we conclude that serious games may not need to be entertaining to fulfil their serious purpose.