T h e I n n o v aT I v e e x p e r I e n c e

c U B I F I c aT I o n Cubification is a game that makes your innovation challenge tangible and customizable. Are you trying to think up new ideas of products or services? Just imagine your situation taking the form of a cube with each face representing a specific lever of innovation

(users, resources, disrupters, income models). Once your cube is customized, you may manipulate it to create combinations and generate new business models. This method, which was developed by Hélène Michel, is regularly put to the test during innovation seminars and in incubators. www.cubification.com

T e c h I T !The objective of the role play Tech it! Is to make technological innovation accessible. With Tech It!, players must embody a character among a pool

of 20 while facing real life issues. In order to meet the challenge, using one of the 75 available technologies, they imagine products, services and applications. This game was created by experts from Grenoble Business School, CEA-LETI, MIT and ARIES, with the support of IRT Nanoelec. You may be within an ace of becoming tomorrow’s greatest inventor. www.gemingame.com

F o L D I TGamers co-writing a very serious article for the prestigious scientific magazine Nature? Surprising, but true! Foldit set the standard for serious games. While for 15 years, researchers

attempted to find a solution to an enigma about HIV, video game aficionados managed to find one in less than 2 weeks, contributing to the research in this domain. On this collaborative platform, the objective is to fold proteins in a 3D space to earn the most points! As an initiative from Washington University biologists, Foldit is a pioneer in this field. Numerous games about scientific discovery have since appeared.www.fold.it

Inventing tomorrow’s home with a game: are you serious?Have you heard about serious games? These are games which initial objective goes beyond simple enjoyment. Often presented in numerical format in which the player uses an avatar to interact, these devices are now commonly used for training, marketing or recruitment in large companies. However, a question arises: why not use these games to make complex issues, such as climate, scientific research and geopolitics, more accessible? Non-experts could thus contribute to the debate and make proposals while playing a game. Could gaming then become a lever for innovation? This is what we would like to find out in this issue. A specific topic is relatable to everyone: tomorrow’s home. How will we live, eat, work, share sometime in the future? We identified ten challenges to take up, some of which are very realistic, while others are more unusual. Because we think something more profound can be done while keeping it simple, we chose to raise this real economic and social issue on a… sheet of paper. The purpose is for everyone, young and old, innovation expert or not, to imagine in 10 minutes new products or services for the habitat.

Your turn now!

Hélène MICHEL, Serge DARRIEUMERLOU & Mathias SALANON

CAN WORK BE GAMIFIED?

"What makes games exciting to people is the accomplishment."Scot Osterweil (Game Lab/Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

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n e w s p a p e rS I L E X I D : M a g a z I n E S , n E w S pa p E r S , C o n f E r E n C E S , a C o M M u n I t y, a w E b - p L at f o r M …

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B r I n G I T T o T h e G a m e !

Silex ID Newspaper is the result of co-creation workshops aiming to explore and find out about

tomorrow’s world and what innovation will be like.

S I L e x G r a p h Y

DISCOVER OUR SERIOUS GAME ABOUT THE HOUSE OF TOMORROW.

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he very essence of a "game", based on the definition found in the Larousse dictionary, is to be fun, but useless: a physical or mental activity, not imposed,

without utilitarian purpose, and which we undertake to extract entertainment from it. However, we all know that, when playing, our brain functions more or less the same as when we work, if not better: a game entertains us, relaxes us, removes inhibition, frees our mind and allows emergence of creative ideas. It is no accident that Cédric Villani, who was awarded the Fields Medal, recently said (i.e. Silex ID Mag #5) that, from his point of view, in order to send a message, “there are only two things that work for all audiences, young and old: games and stories”. We fully addressed the issue with Hélène Michel, innovation teacher and director of Serious

G a m I F I c aT I o n & S e r I o U S G a m e S

READY, STEADY, PLAY!Text by Daniel Geiselhart

TGame strategy development at GEM, and Serge Darrieumerlou, General Manager of Innovation at Somfy France, a supporter of the concept which he experiments every day with his teams.

You both occupy key positions in French innovation, Hélène as a teacher and researcher, and Serge as the head of innovation at Somfy. In what way are serious games particularly interesting as an innovation approach?

Hélène Michel : From my point of view, the main challenge for serious games is to recommit people, be they students or teachers, to re-engage them in subjects that they don’t necessarily want to invest themselves in because they’re too complex, too formative or so obvious that they aren’t worth it. Actually, we want these people to focus for a time, not just to become a recipient, but also to act and to be able to

change their ways or functioning afterwards. To understand the spirit of innovation, to be able to understand concepts because they will produce ideas themselves. I have the feeling that today, the potential comes from gathering people around a game table, help them reach real concepts that we materialize, to make complexity accessible, to manipulate it, touch it, etc. All of this works quite well if you are a designer, engineer… But when you are versed in social sciences, finance, how do you make your ideas visible, tangible or testable? It’s not easy. Which is why we head towards a concept in the form of a game, to make it more beautiful, attractive and above all testable. I think the best potential of gamification lies in innovation.Serge Darrieumerlou : One very strong belief that I have about innovation, and about pushing a company towards an innovative approach, to put it bluntly, is that companies are central to analytical efficiency: the left brain. But as you know, there is also a right brain, which represents the worl of creativity and global thinking. Two legs for walking, two brains to work. I have a particular interest in that which allows the company to connect itself again with its right brain. In the French Judeo-Christian context, creativity is represented by the right brain, and it sometimes appears as something one should hide. Whereas Anglo-Saxons are well-balanced in this area, ever since childhood, as is shown in Anglo-Saxon schools: there are many games, lots of collective songs, as opposed to France’s focus on good grades. It is very different. I’m exploring creativity methods, which help develop global thinking. It’s almost like art too. Art and gaming come from this excessive energy that we want to channel. I think that playing is interesting because it

ORIGINATING FROM THE RENAISSANCE, THE ExPRESSION “SERIO LUDERE” (HOW TO DEAL WITH A SERIOUS SUBJECT IN A PLAYFUL WAY) SUMS UP THE CONCEPT OF SERIOUS GAMES, WHICH ARE CURRENTLY MULTIPLYING IN OUR SOCIETY AND OUR COMPANIES.

WHERE DO THESE GAMES COME FROM? HOW ARE THEY CONCEPTUALIzED? WHICH MECHANISMS DO THEY TRIGGER IN OUR BRAIN? THESE ARE SOME OF THE qUESTIONS

WE TRIED TO ANSWER.

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requires the creation of a framework that must be overcome.Hélène Michel : To pick up on what Serge said: through playing, you will rely on emotions, not the capacity itself. To do so, there are several ingame catalysts, such as competition, curiosity, collaboration, individual challenge, social recognition, chance, role play… and we aim to use those catalysts to induce participation. At the beginning, saying “with this game, you can create something easily” proved to be a mistake, since our students did not appreciate the fact that we were denying their abilities. Which is why, today, we don’t make video games to make things easier but to reveal what we can’t reveal otherwise. The goal is to find the proper leverage.

Let’s go back in time for a bit. Before the expression “serious games”, there were strategic games…

Serge Darrieumerlou : It began with simulation games that emulated military strategies. Today, a new category is emerging: the serious game, which puts the game at the service of creativity. For me, it is fashionable at the moment, because I am quite convinced that the 21th century societies will allow mankind to further connect themselves to their right brain. Be they companies, partners or consumers, they all search for a meaning. The timing of Serious Games could not be better.

Hélène, you are a serious game designer. Could you please tell us about your work experience?

Hélène Michel : When I joined GEM, I was asked to become a game designer. A lot of HR and finance games already existed,

eqUIpmenT neeDeD: a pen oBjecTIve: Think up the best original idea and be the one who scores the most points!

Before you begin, each player needs to find a token with what they might have on hand (paperclip, paper ball). Players place their token in the center of the board, on one of the squares in the garden.

The player whose cellphone is biggest plays first.

He or she may move 1 to 3 spaces in whatever direction or choose to stay put.

Once positioned on a square, the other players choose the challenge he or she will have to take, among a list of challenges related to the area he or she stopped in.

In order to meet the challenge, the player chooses one item from the set linked to this area. He or she may also use every item found in the room his or her token stopped in (i.e. a fork in the kitchen).

After giving it some thought, the player presents his or her idea to the others and writes it down on the ID card provided on page 2 and 3.

The other players may react to this idea and provide improvements or an alternative to it. The player chooses a maximum of two reactions among those he heard and writes them down on the ID card. A successful reaction written on an ID card adds 1 point to the total score of its author.

Once the ID card is filled, the player on the left is next.

enD oF The Game:

Once everyone has played and proposed an idea, the game stops.The players proceed to the voting.4 players: each player has 3 votes with a value of 2, 3 and 4 points each. The player must grant these points to the other players. You may not vote for your own idea.

3 players: each player has 2 votes with a value of 2 and 3 points each.

2 players: the scoring system is not taken into account. The objective is to find the best original idea related to a given challenge.Received votes are written down on the players’ ID cards, and those are added up in the “Total” space. Don’t forget your reactions!The player with the highest score wins.

At the end of the game, players can write down the idea they found to be the best or the one they have developed in common during the play thanks to the reactions, in order to create the “Golden ID”. You can participate to the ID contest by scanning the qR code on the last page.

Q & A w i t h … S c o t O s t e r w e i l

by Daniel Geiselhart

Scot osterweil is the Creative Director of the Education arcade and a research director in MIt (Massachusetts Institute of technology) Comparative Media Studies/writing program. He is a designer of award-winning educational games, working in both academic and commercial environments, and his work has focused on what is authentically playful in challenging academic subjects.

Can you tell us a little bit about MIt's game Lab you're working at?

we do a variety of different research projects around games. two research groups work side by side: the Game Lab and the education arcade. the education arcade looks at how learning can occur through games. and that includes not just games that are designed

for learning, it's not limited to serious games. the Game Lab looks at games in general, the work we do is design research, we learn by making stuff, and we also work with other people’s designs. Mit is been seriously studying games since 2000. it's worth mentioning that Spacewar!, which was probably the first video game ever, was invented at the Mit in 1962.

Do you think "gamification" can change the world?

what makes games exciting to people is the ratification, the accomplishment. When you're playing a video game and it gives you a 100 000 points, those are total meaningless, artificial constructions. you can't really do anything with those points. the only reason you feel good about them, is that you know that they signify that you play well, and what you really feel good about is playing well. therefore, in other domains, just giving you points won't make you

do the best thing and feel good about it! On the other hand, it's very healthy for all of us to try to make games out of a lot of things we do. if my interests ally with yours, "gamification" will work, but you can't trick me into doing it if i don't enjoy it!

It seems that more and more of the younger people have an attention deficit. In this way, could serious games be especially interesting for generation y?

i think that as a culture in general our attention span is short. we're all being distracted by the overloaded data an information. i don't think the younger generation is different from their parents. i'd say that the younger generation has a healthy skepticism of authority. we have always played games. the oldest known playing pieces are twice as old as the oldest known writing. with digital technologies, we're playing games more than ever!

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but there were none for management of innovation. At least none that conformed to our way of apprehending, teaching and transmitting it. Thus, we thought we should get to the task. We started with one, then a second, then a third… in French, in English… with a physical board, a numerical support… step by step, the pace picked up as we were planning to create a whole collection. We wanted to create a specific approach for the games. Not just to make them, but teach people how to use them. Teach them about how to make their own game. Thus, we held serious game creation seminaries for students, which now also exist for professionals. Then we thought that our students submitted reports that few people actually read. Which is why we allowed them to submit their papers in the form of a game.

There is a "research" feeling that must be exciting…

Hélène Michel : What we really wish is for these games to be used in seminaries, by business developers, in incubators, etc. There is a real wish to go beyond classrooms and towards innovation itself. When we have to operationalize it with a game, made of scoring and specific mechanisms, beyond simple theories, we put it into perspective with a test in real condition, to see if the game is attractive enough to make people participate, insisting enough to encourage people to propose ideas, so that the actual results may be original.

Tell us about the serious game experience that can be found in this newspaper…

Serge Darrieumerlou : The project originated from a discussion. The idea was to make a game around the habitat, the house of the future. This topic is well known at Somfy, given that our business focuses on connected equipment for a domicile (not to be confused with connected objects), which are physically installed around the house and meet the essential needs of the habitat, the security and the temperature management. This is called “domotic”, a word which is a bit outdated now. Almost feels like Star Trek (laughs).Hélène Michel : The goal here is to test a serious game using the most accessible format available. What if we could put it on paper? What could we do then? Put it in a newspaper and distribute it! Games are never distributed but always brought to you by an expert. Supplying games at an affordable price for anyone who wants to buy them and play alone… The game would be so easy that people could play it alone, but deep enough to mirror the complexity of a specific theme or notion. We found this really stimulating, because we noticed that many things that we put in our games are unnecessary or may be questioned; certain things are not sufficiently put forward. All of it is forcing us to be smarter. We are also very interested in a specific Grenoble ecosystem or one that would gather business schools worldwide… The challenge is to

n e w s p a p e r f e b r u a r y 2 0 1 6 s e r i O u s G a M e

Q & A w i t h … … D o r i a n , M a x i m e a n d R o b i n

by the Silex ID team

Dorian, Maxime and robin designed the game you can find in this newspaper. We asked for their opinion about serious games as tools for companies, and about their overall feelings of being the source of such a challenge.

Had you heard of serious games applied to business before tackling this challenge?

Robin Planus : indeed we had! anglo-saxon companies often use this concept for internal training or security issues and the concept is currently growing exponentially in europe, so

much so that it became a significant part of the game industry.

what have you learned from this experience? what information did you learn?

Dorian Thobois : it has been a very rewarding experience. it made me work with several customers and i learned valuable knowledge about serious games and their target, which is not the same one as traditional video games.

Maxime Teppe : for this project, i had to learn how to make uncommon items comprehensible. it’s not t that easy to make a 3D printer instantly recognizable!

Do you think this category of games will develop?

Robin Planus :undoubtedly! future generations will have grown up with video games, more so than generations already represented in today’s corporate world. this knowledge, or at least the habit of interacting with games, makes it easier for future generations to implement them in a professional context.Maxime Teppe : it makes sense to me. Learning is trying, and games provide a safe environment to study and experiment.

know whether or not we can overstep our boundaries and see if it can work.

In your opinion, can serious games and gamification completely revolutionize our society, both in terms of learning, human relationships and in companies?Hélène Michel : Indeed, concrete applications are already multiplying. For instance, games about identification of potentials. Let’s take the case of L’Oréal, a company that doesn’t need to improve its image and which probably already receives a huge number of applications, often from specialized candidates. If this company wanted to attract different profiles, it could find them via custom-made games such as With In (in L’Oréal’s case) or with a challenge, such as Virtua Regata, made by Safran, the virtual Vendée Globe game. When you take part in the Vendée Globe, you go out to sea, travelling for 2 months around the world. With the virtual game, directly on your smartphone, you play with the same wind conditions as real sailors, thanks to a real-time weather forecast. Several times a day, for about 2 months, you have to discipline yourself. It’s not always fun and it takes time. However, in the end, you do travel around the world. Safran’s goal is not to find sailors or sailing aficionados, but rather persevering people who can discipline themselves during 2 months. This is where the mechanic of the game becomes more powerful than the game itself. Today, you can’t escape this sort of games, they’re

everywhere. One of the blockbusters, made for the BNP, a game about preparing the annual report, is one of the first few to have appeared in France. It has since been sold in the form of a license that everyone can use. There are many more categories, such as internal and external communication games. And this is just the beginning.

A last word?

Serge Darrieumerlou : The aim of this project is to prove that creativity and enjoyment are actually linked. In this case, we chose to focus on the habitat but it works with all sorts of problems in the company. Unfortunately, our education systems don’t take these things into account, except in design schools or some very specific fields of study. I am convinced that everyone should be aware of them. Creativity must be promoted, and serious games can help moving forward in that direction.

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S o m F YSOMFY, a French company present in over 60 countries, is the world leader of automated openings inside the house with more than 100 million systems already installed around the world. As a pioneer of a global and interconnectable offer, SOMFY offers creative domotic solutions for the connected habitat and federate professionals of housing equipment. These solutions contribute to the improvement of living conditions by meeting comfort, security and energy saving needs. www.somfy.fr

S e r I o U S G a m e c h a L L e n G e

CREATE THE HOME OF THE FUTURE!TAKE UP THE CHALLENGE AND SHARE WITH US YOUR BEST IDEA...

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Silex ID Newspaper is published by silex iD – Publishing Director: Matthieu vetter – content Director: Daniel Geiselhart – Design: yann taeger – art Director: charlotte cosmao – Journalist : anaïs bozino – Partnership Manager & head of Silex ID Network : ygal sabbah – community Manager : Olivia chevallier – contributors: serge Darrieumerlou, hélène Michel, robin Planus, Mathias salanon, Maxime teppe, Dorian thobois – translation: ferdinand Pasquet – Printed by imprimerie Léonce Deprez, france – MLP Distribution – texts, illustrations and photos copyright silex iD, 16, rue saulnier, 75009 Paris – sas with capital of €10 157 – founders: Léonce Deprez & Matthieu vetter – contact : 06 81 83 55 07 matthieu@silex-id.com – leonce@silex-id.com – daniel@silex-id.com – Legal deposit at parution – Joint commission: in progress – subscription : www.silex-id.com

N o s p a r t e n a i r e s

Have you played the serious game? Liked it? Found new groundbreaking ideas? Want to share them with our community? All you have to do is fill the ID card below, take a picture of it and send a sweet email to Thomas, our challenges manager, at this adress: thomas@silex-id.com. We will gather with the SOMFY and GEM teams at the end of february to choose the most original, interesting and

ambitious idea of the lot. Prizes to win : subscriptions to the magazine, silex iD issues, mini-drones, mini-robots, card boards... you know what to do!

G r e n o B L e S c h o o L o F B U S I n e S SSince 2012, Grenoble School of Business creates its own serious games in connection with its DNA: technology and innovation management. These games, branded GEMinGame, are used for initial and ongoing training, in incubators and innovation workshops. Along with this activity, GEM conceptualized a Playground, space dedicated to innovation games and training of instructors. To learn more, please visit : www.gemingame.com

a r I e SThe ARIES group consists of 5 private institutions of higher learning, in Aix-en-Provence, Annecy, Grenoble, Lyon and Toulouse. Since it was created in 1998, Aries trains its students to 3D synthetic imaging and digital special effects, graphic design, video games, web development and mobile apps. Since 2012, Aries managed to register two titles to the French National Directory of Professional Certification (RNCP): Webmaster (3rd level) and 3D-VFx Designer (2nd level). Our institutions were also given an accreditation from the Ministry of Employment allowing Multimedia Digital Artist professional certifications (3rd level).

T h a n k STo all students involved in project : Emmanuel Blanc,Yoann Coutisson, Marin Da Silva Devignot, Adrien Denzer, Rémy Diaz, Benoit Dugay, Anaïs Faure, Syam Kridan, Dorinne Laplanche, Cloé Molinari, Elodie Mondolini, Lory Oliveira, Cloé Parratte, Guillaume Perrier, Pierre Plaziat, Ophélia Rintz, Julien Saliot, Maximilien Schregle, Pierric Sorel, Hugo Willems, Sylvain Barbaza, Martin Besnard, Michaël Boegli, Farah Boutin Albrand, Pierre Crepin, Valentine Ferrandin, Thomas Freund, Arthur Gevaux, Christophe Gigot, Rayanne Guendouz, Vincent Kara, Alexandre Lattavo, Corentin Logh Guillon, Georges Maniere, Joël Maubrey, Valentin Mehu, Samuel Morin, Laura Peitavi, Emeric Plassard, Mathieu Reynaud, Jérôme Roccoplan, Iannis Rosset