In-depth exploration of the value of NetEase game education

2022 Game Enabled Education Research Report Released

On September 28, the Game Philosophy Research Center of Xiamen University, together with academic institutions such as the Center for Positive Psychology of the Academy of Social Sciences of Tsinghua University, and with the help of industry research institutions such as NetEase HootSuite Learning Development, jointly released the "2022 Game for Education Research Report" (hereinafter referred to as "the report").

Games have been helping education for a long time

The educational game market shows exponential changes

The report believes that games have played an important educational role since ancient times, such as China's ancient projection game "six bo" Go, and the famous European traditional game Tafel, all have a certain educational function. In the electronic game more and more popular, the game players continue to increase the current, and the game's educational function will certainly get more show and attention.

With the development and prosperity of games, educational games nowadays have shown exponential changes: the number of educational games continues to increase and the market scale of educational games keeps expanding. The report cites data from the "educational game database" of the Game Philosophy Research Center, which shows that 192 educational games were released from 2005 to 2022, with an average of 2.25 games released from 2005 to 2016, 16.8 from 2016 to 2020, and 29.5 from 2021, showing a a clear upward trend. Market research platform Markets and Markets also reports that the global educational games market size will be USD 450 million in 2019 and will reach USD 1.8 billion in 2023.

In addition, the report also mentions that the current forms of educational games are diversified, the related research has been paid attention to by scholars from various disciplines, and the research topics have started to approach empirical research.

Compared to traditional forms of education, educational games can significantly help educated people to master certain skills or knowledge and cultural concepts. Barry Fishman, a professor in the School of Information and Education at the University of Michigan, conducted a study of K-12 teachers' use of educational game tools across the United States. The results of the study showed that 80% of teachers across the United States were satisfied and comfortable with the use of educational games to supplement their teaching.

Under the guidance of the State Council's "China Education Modernization 2035", universities and other educational institutions have started to vigorously promote the reform of classroom teaching mode and realize the informationization of curriculum teaching. For example, NetEase Games has developed the functional game "NetEase Card Ride" for training children's programming in response to the future development trend of artificial intelligence, hoping to let young people master programming knowledge and experience the fun of creation through the form of education and fun.

Releasing the positive value of games

NetEase Games actively explores the boundary of educational games

The report suggests that game makers at home and abroad are accelerating the layout of educational games, and the development of educational games will become an important trend in the industry in the future.

To help readers understand the specific details of the game to help education, the report invites the development and operation team of Netease Game's "Live Soccer" hand game to discuss and explore the game's project motivation, final impact, design method, development process and operation status.

For the past two to three years, Live Soccer has been working with a pilot youth soccer league directed by the State General Administration of Sports. The league's participants are young soccer players between the ages of 6 and 12, including a large number of general primary and secondary school soccer teams, as well as more professional soccer schools, gymnasiums, and professional club echelons. The coaches will use Live Soccer, as a tool for explaining soccer techniques and tactics, and arrange entertainment activities for young players on the Live Soccer mobile game to keep the teenagers' love for the game in a fun and educational way. Live Soccer national producer Li Leiming said that this educational program has covered over 10,000 young players in more than 30 cities nationwide in two years. In the future, the "Live Soccer" project team may also consider adding knowledge about real soccer in some specific scenarios in the game, such as adding some knowledge about sports protection and emergency aid when players are injured in the game.

In recent years, NetEase Games has been exploring the boundaries of educational games by integrating with different fields to realize the breadth and depth expansion of the educational functions of the game.

In addition to the "Live Soccer" project, NetEase Games joined hands with the Palace Museum to create the game "Eizhen - Myriad Brushstrokes of a Thousand Hills" based on the "Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains", one of the ten most famous heirloom paintings in China, and incorporating elements of classic myths and legends such as "Shan Hai Jing" and "Mirror Flower Edge". In the form of digital innovation to lead players into the world of traditional Chinese culture, appreciate the charm of traditional culture, and promote the heritage of traditional culture in the new era.

In the national defense science and technology education, NetEase game to China's "two bombs and one star" "manned space" and other major scientific and technological struggle to create the background of the sandbox construction game "the ninth place", so that the contemporary youth "to go again The Ninth Institute" is a sandbox construction game created by NetEase Games with the background of China's "two bombs and one star", "manned space" and other major scientific and technological struggles.

The educational game market has a broad prospect

Academic research needs to be expanded

As games become one of the most important information exchange media in society, the number of players is expanding and games become an inaccessible part of people's lives, and their potential educational functions are highly valued. With the breakthrough of artificial intelligence (Al) and virtual reality (VR) technology, the concept of the metaverse has also provided an important opportunity for the development of educational games.

The report also suggests that although the development trend of educational games is good, the current research on educational games is far from enough, and game education needs more practical cases to prove its specialness and importance, extensive research on more educational game categories is needed, and more time is needed to verify its teaching results. The exploration of this road requires not only the active exploration of the industry and the systematic research of the academia, but also the active interaction and cooperation of the three aspects of "industry, academia, and research".

As NetEase Games and other manufacturers continue to explore the expression and content depth of educational games, and actively interact and cooperate with the academia, more high-quality and diversified educational games will be launched, which is expected to provide the academia with newer, more comprehensive, and more representative research samples and reference bases.